Being bored, lazy and disconnected from physical work leaves lots of time and space for your body and mind to fill with negative substitutes. Just as an old saying goes, idle hands are the devil’s playground.
Neuroscience (神经科学) actually supports this theory. Or at least, research shows that the opposite is true − active hands stimulate your brain to produce chemicals that balance emotions and lower anxiety.
In the 19th century anxious women were often given the prescription to knit (编织) because doctors sensed that it kind of calmed them down. That is not to say that anxiety can be cured by knitting. But it does highlight how repetitive hand movements involved in the craft combine with the satisfaction of casting off a finished product to wear or give. It carries mental health benefits at a deep, biochemical level.
Other research has focused on knitting’s emotional benefits. One study showed that knitting lowers the heart rate by 11 beats per minute. Another linked knitting with a decreased chance of developing cognitive impairment (认知障碍) and memory loss.
And still others point to positive benefits in managing chronic (慢性的) pain and depression. Of course, knitting is not the only way to take your emotional well-being into your own hands. Woodworking, gardening, pottery and painting will also benefit your mental health. And they all involve putting your two hands to work.
What do you do with your hands to keep them busy and keep yourself calm and happy?
1.What does the underlined word “idle” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Inactive. B.Occupied. C.Flexible. D.Awkward.
2.Why did doctors in the 19th century advise anxious women to knit?
A.To satisfy their need. B.To reduce their anxiety.
C.To help them make money. D.To equip them with a new skill.
3.Which of the following best expresses the key point of the text?
A.The advantages of active hands.
B.The effects of repetitive knitting.
C.The reliability of the scientific research.
D.The benefits of keeping positive.
I.M. Pei, the Chinese-American, who was regarded as one of the last great modernist architects, has died at the age of 102.
Although he worked mostly in the United States, Pei will always be remembered for a European project: His redevelopment of the Louvre Museum in Paris in the 1980s. He gave us the glass and metal pyramid in the main courtyard, along with three smaller pyramids and a vast subterranean (地下的) addition to the museum entrance.
Pei was the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre in its long history, and initially his designs were fiercely opposed. But in the end, the French — and everyone else — were won over.
Winning the fifth Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983, he was thought as giving the 20th century “some of its most beautiful inside spaces and outside forms. His talent and skill in the use of materials approach the level of poetry.”
After studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Pei set up his own architectural practice in New York in 1955.
Designing the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in 1964 established him as a name. His East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1978 changed people’s ideas of a museum. The site was an odd trapezoid (梯形) shape. Pei’s solution was to cut it in two. The resulting building was dramatic, light and elegant — one of the first crowd-pleasing cathedrals of modern art.
Though known as a modernist, and notable for his forms based on arrangements of simple geometric (几何的) shapes, he once urged Chinese architects to look more to their architectural tradition rather than designing in a western style.
In person, I.M. Pei was good-humored, charming and unusually modest. His working process was evolutionary, but innovation (创新) was never an intended goal.
“Stylistic originality is not my purpose,” he said. “I want to find the originality in the time, the place and the problem.”
1.What can we learn about the result of redevelopment of the Louvre Museum?
A.It was criticized by the French.
B.It turned out to be a success.
C.It made the Louvre Museum look strange.
D.It changed the function of the Louvre Museum.
2.What can we learn from the underlined sentence in paragraph 4?
A.He is a master in applying materials.
B.He is skilled in writing poems.
C.He often combines poetry and construction.
D.He gets inspiration from poetry in designing.
3.What’s the correct order of the following events?
a. Design the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.
b. Study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard.
c. Design the National Gallery of Art.
d. Win the fifth Pritzker Architecture Prize.
A.abcd B.bacd C.bcad D.dacd
On June 10, at 8 pm, more than a hundred people were gathered in a tent in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were there to play video games. But they wouldn’t be playing on any ordinary gaming system. Instead, they were prepared to play games that would be displayed on a glass skyscraper called the Cira Center.
“There was really a great energy in the tent that night,” Ainsley Soulchin, 13, said. She participated in Skyscraper Video Games for Kids. It is a programme that teaches middle school students to code (编程) video games.
In the programme, Ainsley coded a game. She calls the game Dot Man. In Dot Man, a player has to pass through a maze (迷宫) without getting caught by a dot. On June 10, the public got to play Dot Man and other student-made video games on the outside of the Cira Centre. Ainsley was proud of her accomplishment. “When you see your game on the building,” she said, “you’re like ‘Wow, I made this.’”
Frank Lee founded Skyscraper Video Games for Kids. He’s a professor of digital media at Drexel University, in Philadelphia. He wanted to involve others in the joy of playing video games. So he found a way to make that happen.
“Years ago, I was driving past the Cira Centre,” Lee said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to make a game out of that building?’” He noticed there were LED lights fixed between the skyscraper’s floors. Lee knew if he could access the building’s computer system, he could control the LED lights. This would allow him to display video games on the skyscraper. People could play these games using a joystick (游戏杆). The joystick would be connected to a computer outside the building. And the computer would send wireless commands to the skyscraper’s internal system.
Now Lee shares his passion for game design with kids. With funding from Intel, he trains educators to create video games. The educators then teach their students those same skills.
1.What was special about the video games?
A.They would be played in a tent. B.They would be played by over 100 people.
C.They would be played by children. D.They would be displayed on a skyscraper.
2.Which of the following best describes the participants in the tent?
A.Enthusiastic. B.Exhausted. C.Relaxed. D.Stressed.
3.What inspired Frank Lee to found Skyscraper Video Games for Kids?
A.The skyscraper’s floors. B.The ads on the skyscraper.
C.The LED lights on the skyscraper. D.The skyscraper’s computer system.
4.Where is the text most likely from?
A.A guidebook. B.A website. C.A fiction. D.A diary.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.Who will hold a birthday party?
A.Jack. B.Betty. C.Lucy.
2.Where is the party held?
A.At Lucy’s home. B.In a country hotel. C.At a swimming club.
3.What is the relationship between Betty and Lucy?
A.Workmates. B.Friends. C.Cousins.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What is the man’s plan for the weekend?
A.To climb mountains.
B.To do snowboarding.
C.To go dirtboarding.
2.What is the woman going to Paris for?
A.Sightseeing. B.Taking photos. C.Learning art.
3.How long will the woman stay in Paris?
A.One weekend. B.Four days. C.One week.
4.What is the woman’s big interest?
A.Art. B.Sports. C.Photography.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.How did the boy do in his economics exam?
A.He passed it. B.He failed it. C.He missed it.
2.What does the woman think of the boy?
A.He didn’t work hard enough.
B.He should have relaxed more.
C.He already tried his best.
3.What do we know about the family?
A.Unkind. B.Unwealthy. C.Unhealthy.
