Most parents of kids under age 8 don't worry about how much time they spend watching TV or using other media, from computers to smart phones to tablets PCs, according to a new survey that found a child's use of media often reflects how much time parents spend in the similar way．
¨We generally found that media use is not a source of conflict in the home" for families with young children, Ellen Wartella, a researcher from Northwestem University, told USA Today． She led a survey of 2,326 parents who have children 8 and younger．It found that in 80 percent of families, children's media use was not a problem, with 55 percent “not too" or“ not at all" concerned about it． It also showed parents have more positive than negative feelings about how media consumption affects a child's learning and the development of creativity．The exception is video games, which are viewed more negatively than TV, computers or mobile devices．“Parents rated video games as more likely to have a negative effect on children's school performance, attention time, creativity, social skills, behavior and sleep than any other medium," the researchers said in a news conference about the survey．
¨The findings exposes a generational shift （转移） in parental attitudes about technology's role in young children's lives," said Wartella．“Today's parents grew up with technology as a central pact of their lives, so they think about it differently than earlier generations of parents, instead of a battle with kids on one side and parents on the other, the use of media and technology has become a family affair． "
The researchers identified three media environments created by parents: media-centric （39 percent of families） , media-moderate （45%）and media-light （16%）． Children in media-centric families spend at least three hours more each day watching TV or using computers, video games and tablet PCs don't make parenting easier．And 88 percent of parents say they are most likely to turn to toys or activities to keep their children occupied．Slightly fewer turn to books （79%） and TV（78%）．
The survey didn't look at how media affects children． That's a topic that the American Academy of Pediatrics has handled a number of times． The AAP says studies have found too much media use can lead to attention- problems, school difficulties, sleep and eating disorders and being fat． In addition, the Internet and cell phones can provide platforms for illegal and risky behaviors．¨By limiting screen time and offering educational media and non-electronic formats （格式）such as books, newspapers and board games, and watching television with their children, parents can help guide their children's media experience． Putting questionable content into context and teaching kids a700ut advertising contributes to their media literacy （素养） ," it says．
The pediatricians' group says parents should have “screen-free zones" and TV should be turned off during dinner． At most, it recommends children and teens engage with entertainment media for no more than two hours a day and that should be high-quality content． It is important for kids to spend time on outdoor play, reading, hobbies and using their imaginations in free play．“ Kids under 2 should not use television and other entertainment media because their brains are developing quickly and they learn best from direct human interaction," the group says．
An article on screen time by t．he Mayo Clinic also notes problems linked t．o over screen time, including being fat, irregular sleep , behavioral problems , weak school performance , violence and less time for active and creative play．Parents have more negative than positive feelings about media consumption like ．
| A．computers | B．smart phones |
| C．video games | D．tablets PCs |
Most parents don't worry about kid's media use because ．
| A．they can limit the screen time |
| B．they want their children happy |
| C．they also grew up with technology |
| D．they can teach their children themselves |
From the data of the survey, we learn ．
| A．children in media-centric families are smarter than others |
| B．children in media-light families spend one hour watching TV |
| C．more than half of the parents think children's media use was a problem |
| D．media-centric children spend more than three hours each day on media use |
To make parenting easier, most parents probably ．
| A．try to persuade their children to read books |
| B．ask their children questions while watching TV |
| C．allow their children watching TV or using computers |
| D．turn to toys or activities to keep their children occupied |
Which of the following is a suggestion by the researchers?
| A．Media use time for babies under 2 should be limited． |
| B．Entertainment media use should be high-quality content． |
| C．Schools should provide more time for active and creative play． |
| D．Home media use should provide platforms for illegal and risky behaviors． |
Can software bring dead tongues back to life? Probably yes.
A computer algorithm（计算程序）works almost as well as a trained linguist（语言学家） in reconstructing how dead "protolanguages" would have sounded, says a new study.
"Our computer system is doing a basic job right now," says Alex Bouchard-Côté, an assistant professor in the department of statistics at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the paper describing the algorithm. But the program does a good enough job that it may be able to give linguists a head start, the statistician added.
For centuries, scholars have reconstructed languages by hand: looking at the same word in two or more languages and making educated guesses about what that word's "ancestor" may have sounded like. For example, the Spanish word for man （"hombre"） and the French word for man （"homme"） developed from the Latin word "homo." The way linguists compare words from descendant（后代）languages to reconstruct the parent language is called, appropriately, the comparative method.
The early 19th-century linguist Franz Bopp was the first to compare Greek, Latin and Sanskrit using this method. Jacob Grimm, one of the Brothers Grimm of fairy tale fame, used the comparative method to show how Germanic languages developed from a common ancestor.
The difference between that and Bouchard-Côté's program, the statistician says, "is we do it on a larger scale." As a proof of concept, Bouchard-Côté fed words from 637 Austronesian languages （spoken in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and more） into the new algorithm, and the system came up with a list of what the ancestor words of all those languages would have sounded like. In more than 85 percent of cases, the automated reconstruction came within one character of the ancestor word commonly accepted as true by linguists.
The algorithm won't replace trained human linguists, but could speed up language analysis.
Using a computer to do large-scale reconstruction offers another advantage. Bouchard-Côté says, “With big data sets, you can really start finding regularities … You might find that certain sounds are more likely to change than others."
So Bouchard-Côté's team tested the "functional load hypothesis（假设）," which says that sounds that are more important for two clearly different words are less likely to change over time. A formal test of this hypothesis in 1967 looked at four languages; Bouchard-Côté's algorithm looked at 637.
"The revealed pattern would not be obvious if we had not been able to reconstruct large numbers of protolanguages," Bouchard-Côté and his coauthors write in the new study.
In addition to simply helping linguists understand how people spoke in the past, studying ancient languages can perhaps answer historical questions. For example, Bouchard-Côté says, "Say people are interested in finding out when Europe was settled. If you can figure out if the language of the settling population had a word for wheel, then you can get some idea of the order in which things occurred, because you would have some records that show you when the wheel was invented.”
The underline word “protolanguages” in the first paragraph probably refers to __________.
| A．the languages that couldn’t be reconstructed by hand |
| B．parent languages that existed in the past |
| C．languages developed from a common ancestor |
| D．languages used to explain things that occurred in the past |
We can learn from the fourth and fifth paragraphs that the reconstruction of “protolanguage” by scholars __________.
| A．is commonly accepted as false |
| B．dates back to the 19th century |
| C．focuses on European languages |
| D．is conducted using the comparative method |
According to Bouchard-Côté, reconstructing the dead "protolanguages" might _______.
| A．arouse people’s interest in when Europe was settled |
| B．allow us to find answers to some historical questions |
| C．enable us to picture the way linguists communicated |
| D．help figure out how the wheel was invented |
The author probably wants to prove the computer algorithm program led by Bouchard-Côté ___________.
| A．will bring every dead language back to life |
| B．can take the place of linguists in language analysis |
| C．is of great help to promote language analysis with big data sets |
| D．can merely reconstruct Asian-Pacific “protolanguages” |
My six-year-old came home from school this week with two envelopes. One was for a donation to help people in the Philippines. The other was to help hungry families have a Thanksgiving meal.
“I’ll put a check in each of these. Then you can add your own money from your piggy bank, okay?” I said, thinking he’d be so excited to put his own stamp on things.
“That’s okay, mom. You put money in. I don’t want to waste mine,” he sweetly sang as he colored. “I want to fill my bank all the way up.”
Ack! I guess I know what our dinnertime discussion will be about tonight, I thought.
I had figured that through watching his parents donate items, helping us take toys from time to time to needy kids and putting money in the basket at church, he would just understand why it was important to help people in need — and even want to do it himself.
But of course he doesn’t really understand yet. “There’s a big disconnect between the people ‘over there’ and my piggy bank,” said parenting educator Vicki Hoefle.
“There’s nothing wrong with the child. There’s just no connection.”
As for having that conversation immediately, or forcing my son to put money into the envelopes: “Try not to do it now,” Hoefle said. Teaching a child about donating their own money or toys or time to people in need “should be a gentle introduction into what we hope will be a way of life for our kids.”
She suggested these things to help children understand the importance of giving:
* Just talk about it. Then explore the issue from a perspective he can understand.
* Use the course of a year to introduce kids to opportunities. That way, they won’t be shocked when you ask them to stuff their own money into an envelope （like this writer just did）.
* Pick a family charity for the year and have a conversation about how you all can help throughout the year.
* Think of this not as something you must teach, but as something to expose them to.
At her house, Hoefle said, “When you got something new, you gave something up.” Each birthday, her children would pick what toys they had outgrown and give them away. “There was a comfort in it. It just became a natural part of the kids’ lives.”
So I will fill those envelopes alone this time. But I’ll make sure he understands why they should be filled—gradually.When the writer asked her son to give money to help the poor, he __________.
| A．declined to donate |
| B．sang a sweet song |
| C．put all his money in a bank |
| D．seemed very surprised |
Hoefle’s attitude towards children’s unwillingness to donate money can be best described as “_______”.
| A．critical | B．tolerant | C．positive | D．worried |
Which of the following is Hoefle’s approach to educating kids about charity?
| A．Giving courses about charity. |
| B．Setting a rule for children to give. |
| C．Inviting a lot of poor people home. |
| D．Giving children enough real life chances. |
What can we learn about the writer from the passage?
| A．She often makes donations for people in need. |
| B．She taught her son a lesson over dinner that evening. |
| C．She is at a loss as for what she should do next. |
| D．She invited a parenting educator home for advice. |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Kids, please help those in need. |
| B．Why are kids unwilling to donate? |
| C．Kindness is lost in the young generation. |
| D．How can we help kids learn generosity? |
Interactive Home-security Systems
Tarik Celebi, who lives in San Francisco suburb, takes his home-security system with him to work, to dinner, just about anywhere．By his cell phone, he "arms" his home-security alarm from his car before he leaves for work．During his workday, he gets e-mail alerts every time his front door opens, even though he's miles away．If the door opens at an unusual time -say midday when no one should be coming or going - he can order a 30-second video clip（片段） from the camera that watches the door．If it's just his mother-in-law getting a package delivery, no worries．
Celebi is one of the first users of the latest interactive home-security systems．In addition to sounding alarms when the house is broken into and notifying homeowners or police, as traditional systems do, the interactive systems give users new ways to remotely control their systems and their home environment．Different from traditional home-security alarms, which homeowners typically have to press buttons on a keypad to turn on before they leave their homes, the interactive systems enable consumers to arm and disarm systems from smart phones, iPads and PCs, no matter where they are．
Most traditional systems are set up to sound an alarm if doors or windows are opened． The interactive systems give homeowners more options．For example, users can elect when they want to be notified．They might want an e-mail or a text every time a door is opened, or only during the hours of 3 to 4 p．m．, when kids come home from school．Like Celebi, they can add cameras and get video clips when doors open．That could be helpful in making sure kids aren't bringing friends home when they're not supposed to．
Nationwide, about 20% of homes have．traditional home-security systems．About half stop using them because they tire of the trouble．Being able to arm systems even while dashing to the subway or while at work will increase their usage of the new interactive systems．Although the new functions add costs to home security, the interactive-systems are believed to push home-security systems' usage rates closer to 30%, which would be a big movement for an industry that's been largely stuck at 20% for the past decade．"We all know it's going to get bigger, though we don't know how long it's going to take," Eric Taylor, an officer from San Francisco Security Department says．What may Celebi first do if his front door opens at a wrong time when he is away?
| A．Inform the police． | B．Call his mother-in-law． |
| C．Arm the security alarm． | D．Observe through video． |
The interactive systems enable the user to ______．
| A．improve his home environment remotely |
| B．lock his house's door while he is miles away |
| C．operate the home-security systems at any place |
| D．sound the alarm and inform the police at the same time |
What's the advantage of the interactive systems over the traditional ones?
| A．They are cheaper． |
| B．They are easier to set up． |
| C．They can give quicker reaction． |
| D．They have more ways to inform the users． |
What is the last paragraph mainly about?
| A．The importance of security industry． |
| B．The functions of the interactive alarms． |
| C．The popularity of home-security systems． |
| D．The market potential of the interactive systems． |
Dogs already guide blind and disabled people and now they are to be trained to help people with dementia．The idea developed by some university students will now be put into practice by Scotland Medical Center．The research is meaningful, for there are 670, 000 people in Britain who have dementia and by 2021 this is expected to rise to one million．
Dementia can make people confuse night and day or forget basic things such as washing or drinking enough water．The dogs would be trained to help to guide them through the day．
Joyce Gray from Scotland Medical Center said, "People in the early stages of dementia are still able to live a relatively normal life, and dogs help them to maintain routine．M For example, people with memory loss will tend to forget to take medicine, "but if a dog presents them with a bag with pills in it, there's a greater chance of them taking it．"
Ms．Gray also said dogs were perfectly suited to remind their owners to eat．"Dogs have an ability to say 'it's my feeding time^, so there would be a note in the cupboard next to the dog's food reminding the dog's owner to eat too．"
The dog would also encourage the owner to take them out for walks．"It gives a reason for the owner to go out into the community," Ms．Gray said, "We did a test with an elderly person walking down the high street on his own．Then we gave him a dog on a lead and he did the exact same walk．That time people would come up to him, chatting or smiling and making eye contact．We hope we'd see this with people with dementia too．"
There is one more advantage of using the pets as companions．Since conversation can be increasingly confusing for people with dementia, dogs can give them a sense of silent support and companionship．Ms．Gray said, "We have found that people may forget familiar faces but not pets．People light up when they see animals．There is a speechless bond between the dog and its owner．wWhat's the common symptom of dementia?
| A．Going hungry． | B．Feeling lonely． |
| C．Forgetting things． | D．Waking up at night． |
According to Ms．Gray, after feeding the pet, the owner may ______．
| A．do some washing | B．take his medicine |
| C．have something to eat | D．go out to walk the dog |
For people with dementia, pets can ______．
| A．give them wordless help |
| B．contribute to their recovery |
| C．help them to recognize people's faces |
| D．ensure them to gain support from other people |
What's the best title for the passage?
| A．Guide Dogs for the Mind |
| B．Pets, Faithful Companions |
| C．Mental Support for the Disabled |
| D．Dementia, a Curable Disease |
Gift Idea
The other day I was shopping for Grandma when I realized I had no gift ideas at all．It was not a birthday gift or anything like that．It was simply sort of a hello gift．That is how we do things in my family．We don't really give gifts for special occasions．Instead, we occasionally just give presents to each other to tell other people that we are thinking about them．
That was why I wanted a gift for Grandma．But it was like my imagination had dried up． I have gone through all of the gift ideas in previous years, fruits, wines, cheeses, little handmade crafts, and anything else that you can give to a grandmother．I had even given her gift watches, and CDs．What else was there?
I have always found gift ideas for men a little bit easier than for women, because for men, you can always get the usual things, such as video games, power tools and things like that．With a woman's gift idea, however, you have to know more about her．You cannot just get someone a book or a CD．You have to know all about her taste in movies, music, and literature．
My grandmother likes to read a lot, but what she likes is always pretty popular．I didn't want to get her a book that she might not like, but I was running out of time．I needed a gift idea for this weekend and went to visit her．After all, I hadn't seen her for a long time．I wanted to give her a gift so she would not feel ignored．
Finally, I came up with the perfect gift idea．I made a collection of all the stories I had written in the past year．It wasn't a typical gift idea like a bunch of flowers, but it really worked in the situation．You see, I am a writer and my grandma has always been my fan．
Anyway, I had been learning about bookbinding recently, and had pretty much mastered the art．I figured that I would add a little bit of handmade artwork to the stories, bind it altogether, and give it to her．It took hours to complete, but it was well worth the effort．She absolutely loved it．The writer chose a gift for Grandma to _____．
| A．celebrate a special family occasion |
| B．please her during a weekend visit |
| C．congratulate her on her birthday |
| D．beg her pardon for ignoring her |
What gift did the writer finally decide to give his grandma?
| A．Gift watches． |
| B．A bunch of flowers． |
| C．Artwork made by hand． |
| D．Stories written by himself． |
How does the writer feel about giving gifts to women?
| A．Interesting． | B．Challenging． |
| C．Time-wasting． | D．Popular． |
We can learn from the passage that ______．
| A．the writer is a successful novelist |
| B．most people are particular about gifts |
| C．the writer's grandma has a good taste in art |
| D．the writer's family will give gifts on regular days |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号