Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been making changes to my brain. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Involving myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. That’s rarely the case anymore.
I think I know what’s going on. For over a decade, I’ve been spending lots of time online. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes by a few Google searches. Even when I’m not working, I’m scanning headlines or just tripping from link to link.
The Net is becoming a universal medium where information flows through my eyes and ears and into mind. The perfect recall of silicon memory (硅制存储器) can be a blessing to thinking. But that comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall Mcluhan pointed out, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is weakening my ability for concentration. Once I was a driver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a flying swallow.
I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to acquaintances, Bruce Friedman, a blogger, also has described how the Internet has changed his mental habits. His thinking has taken on a “staccato (破碎)” quality. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore”, he admitted, “I’ve lost the ability to do that.”
A recently published study suggests that when reading online, we tend to become “more decoders (解码器) of information”. We are not only what we read; we are how we read.
1.According to the passage, the author thinks_______
A. the Net is merely a headache.
B. he can no longer die but swim shallowly.
C. the once naturally deep reading has become a struggle.
D. other people around rarely have similar feelings like him.
2.What is the author’s attitude towards the Internet?
A. Thoroughly passive.
B. Totally puzzled.
C. Gladly approving.
D. Evidently worried.
3.From the passage, the more people use the Web, _________
A. the more mental habits can be improved.
B. the more they have to fight to stay focused.
C. the more they are influenced in shape.
D. the more online activities they can enjoy.
4.Which of the following can best summarize the text?
A. Is the Net gradually changing us?
B. Long articles are hard to read nowadays.
C. Do people lack concentration to cover Web pages?
D. More Web involvement results from attention distraction(分心).
The clock is ticking. David Brunelli has just swallowed a huge burger. The crowd cheers excitedly as he downs fistfuls of fries.
Welcome to the world of competitive eating.
Brunelli is part of a select group who compete to eat massive quantities of food as quickly as possible. Eating contests may seem like harmless fun, but they have a dark side and some critics are saying it’s time for them to stop.
Pouring crazy amounts of food down our throats is nothing new. Gorging banquets (狼吞虎咽）was a regular part of ancient Roman culture. In the 1800s, some New York City politicians settled bets through eating challenges. Pie-eating contests have been a Fourth of July tradition for more than a century.
For supporters like Brunelli, though, eating contests are more than a custom. They are a path to fortune.
But prize money does nothing to reduce the health risks of competitive eating. Competitive eating can even be life-threatening. In 1991, a man in Virginia suffered a stroke (中风) after eating 38 eggs in 29 seconds; In Florida, in 2012, a man died shortly after winning an eating contest leading a group of doctors to call for a ban on eating contests.
In any event, the risk to competitors is only part of the story. Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and competitive eating sets a terrible example by encouraging overeating. And in a world where 805 million people go hungry every day, downing ridiculous quantities of food for entertainment seems not just wasteful but also cruel.
For now, though, it seems eating contests are here to stay. Last year, more than three million viewers watched Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on TV. This year, Matt Stonie ate 182 pieces of bacon in 5 minutes, breaking the world record.
What record will be broken next? Do you really want to find out?
1.What does the author try to express in Paragraph 4?
A. Competitive eating is a tradition.
B. It’s great to learn from ancient people.
C. Competitive eating should be accepted.
D. It’s exciting to challenge others to eat.
2.Why does Brunelli take part in the eating contest?
A. For food. B. For fun.
C. For honor. D. For money.
3.The examples given in Paragraph 6 are used to show eating contests .
A. use unhealthy food.
B. waste too much food.
C. put competitors at risk.
D. set a bad example to kids.
4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. The author hopes to break the record.
B. The author is eager to know the result.
C. The author wants readers to find out the result.
D. The author disapproves of competitive eating.
(CNN) — A 12 -year-old girl who had a feeling that she might be quite clever has taken a test and proved she was absolutely right.
Lydia Sebastian achieved the top score of 162 on Mensa’s Cattell III B paper, showing she has a higher IQ than well-known geniuses Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The comparison doesn't sit well with the British student, who’s currently in Year 8 at a selective girl’s grammar school in Essex, England.
“I don't think I can be compared to such great intellectuals as Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. They’ve achieved so much. I don’t think it’s right”, Lydia told CNN.
To explain Lydia’s mark’s level, the top adult score in the Cattell III B test, which mainly tests verbal(语言) reasoning, is 161. A top 2% score —which allows entry to Mensa, the club for those with high IQs —would be 148 or over. Lydia scored 162, placing her in the top 1% of the population.
Lydia’s not quite sure what she wants to do when she leaves school, although she’s leaning toward something based on Maths, because it’s one of her favorite subjects. “All I’m going to do is work as hard as I can, and see where that gets me,” she said.
1.The reason why Lydia wanted to have an IQ test was that _______,
A. her parents strongly wanted her to do so.
B. she felt that she might have a high EQ.
C. all people around thought that she was smart.
D. the grammar school advised her to do so.
2.Which of the following can best take the place of the underlined words in the second paragraph?
A. be connected with.
B. be accepted by.
C. be satisfied with.
D. be refused by.
3.What is Lydia’s plan about the future ?
A. She has the possibility of doing something on Maths in the future.
B. She doesn’t have to work hard with her high IQ.
C. She is quite sure about what to do in the future.
D. She will drop out of the grammar school.
4.It can be implied from the passage that ______.
A. No one has achieved a higher IQ than Lydia.
B. Only adults with high IQs can enter Mensa.
C. Whoever has a high IQ can enter Mensa.
D. Mary whose IQ score is 150 can enter Mensa.
Donna Strickland was awarded the 2018 Nobel prize for physics jointly with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou. It’s the first time in 55 years that a woman has won this famous prize, but why has it taken so long? We look at five other pioneering female physicists — past and present — who actually deserve the prize.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Perhaps the most famous snub(冷落): then-student Bell discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967, when she was a PhD student at Cambridge. The Nobel prize that recognized this landmark discovery in 1974, however, went to her male supervisor, Antony Hewish. Recently awarded a £2.3m Breakthrough Prize, which she gave away to help under-represented students, she joked to the Guardian，“I feel I’ve done very well out of not getting a Nobel prize.”
Lene Hau
Hau is best known for leading the research team at Harvard University in 1999 that managed to slow a beam of light, before managing to stop it completely in 2001. Often topping Nobel prize prediction lists, could 2019 be Hau’s year?
Vera Rubin
Rubin discovered dark matter in the 1980s, opening up a new field of astronomy. She died in 2016, without recognition from the committee.
Chien-Shiung Wu
Wu’s “Wu experiment” helped disprove the “law of conservation of parity”. Her experimental work was helpful but never honoured, and instead, her male colleagues won the 1957 Nobel prize for their theoretical work behind the study.
Lise Meitner
Meitner led groundbreaking work on the discovery of nuclear fission. However, the discovery was acknowledged by the 1944 Nobel prize for chemistry, which was won by her male co-lead, Otto Hahn.
1.When was the discovery of radio pulsars recognized by the Nobel?
A. In 1944 B. In 1967.
C. In 1974. D. In 1980.
2.Which woman is most likely to win a Nobel prize later according to the text?
A. Donna Strickland
B. Jocelyn Bell Burnell
C. Lene Hau
D. Vera Rubin
3.What do we know about the five females?
A. The five female scientists did greatly in chemistry.
B. Vera Rubin had opened up a new field in geometry.
C. Lise Meitner’s teacher won a Noble prize for her work.
D. All their findings haven’t been recognized by the Nobel.
______ makes mistakes must correct them.
A. Who B. Anyone
C. Whoever D. Anybody
______ surprised me most was ______ such a little boy of seven could play the violin so well.
A. That...what B. What...that
C. That...which D. What...which
