While every dog owner knows their dogs can read their moods perfectly, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.
For this study, biologist Corson Miller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half were given their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.
Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That’s because the scientists believe humans show their eruptions on their entire face.
After some training on how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face, the researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.
They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to back away quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer “game” that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.
The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touched screen models were all females, this confirmed what had been observed in previous studies—dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.
1.How did the scientists conduct the experiment?
A.By mixing the selected dogs together.
B.By rewarding only half of the dogs touching the screen.
C.By leaving dogs to women who are either happy or angry.
D.By showing digital pictures of women’s happy or angry faces.
2.What is the meaning of the underlined word “trepidation” in Paragraph 5?
A.fear and hesitation B.doubt and uncertainty
C.curiosity and eagerness D.excitement and happiness
3.According to the last paragraph, dogs with female owners ________.
A.are scared away at the male faces
B.can only read the expressions on partial faces
C.are uninterested in telling facial expressions
D.have difficulty telling the moods on the faces of males
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A.Dogs and Their Owners B.Dogs’ Mood Research
C.Dogs Identify the Moods D.Mood Changes Influence Dogs
I’m learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now, because I have plenty of free time and I have earned a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the “wrong” side isn’t a problem.
However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!
When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at my blind spot when I’m in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago,but he couldn’t remember ever having to check three mirrors!
Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don’t know the countryside roads very well and don’t know what’s coming up round the corner or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind when trying to drive through a dangerous place. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!
I’m not a very practical person, so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don’t have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn’t come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I’ve tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully I will pass the test!
1.What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A.It isn’t a proper time for the author to take driving lessons now.
B.Driving on the “wrong” side doesn’t influence the author.
C.The author is too poor to pay for driving lessons in Switzerland.
D.It is easy for the author to get confused about the driving rules in Switzerland.
2.Why does the author often counts “one, two, three” aloud when driving round a round about?
A.to remind himself to check the mirrors B.to speed up
C.to drive through a dangerous place D.to make driving more interesting
3.What does the underlined word “demotivating” in the last paragraph mean?
A.Encouraging. B.Amazing.
C.Exciting. D.Discouraging.
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。 上周，你和同学们参加了朝阳区组织的“三大战疫 有我有你”海报设计活动。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，写一篇英文周记，记述整个过程。
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。你的英国朋友Jim在给你的邮件中提到他想看一个关于中国文化方面的展览，并请你推荐。请给他回信，内容包括：
1. 介绍展览的相关内容（例如：时间、地点、主题等）；
2. 说明你推荐该展览的原因；
3. 询问对方的意向。
注意：1. 词数不少于50；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Anxiety Disorders
Everybody worries or feels nervous from time to time. 1. But for people with anxiety disorders, those fears and worries aren’t temporary. Their anxiety persists, and can even get worse over time.
Anxiety disorders can severely impair a person’s ability to function at work, school and in social situations. 2. Fortunately, though, there are effective treatments for anxiety.
In some cases, medications have a role in treating anxiety disorders. Yet research shows behavioral treatment, alone or in combination with medication, is a highly effective treatment for most people with an anxiety disorder.
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are common in both adults and children. About 18 percent of U.S. adults and 25 percent of adolescents age 13 to 18 will experience anxiety, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. 3.
There are several major types of anxiety disorders: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc.
Seeing a Psychologist About Anxiety Disorders
Though many types of anxiety disorders exist, research suggests that most are driven by similar underlying processes. People with anxiety disorders tend to become easily overwhelmed by their emotions, and they tend to have particularly negative reactions to those unpleasant feelings and situations.
4. Unfortunately, avoidance can backfire and actually feed the anxiety.
Psychologists are trained in diagnosing anxiety disorders and teaching patients healthier, more effective ways to cope. A form of psychotherapy known as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is highly effective at treating anxiety disorders. Through CBT, psychologists help patients learn to identify and manage the factors that contribute to their anxiety.
Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders: What to Expect
Psychotherapy is a collaborative process, where psychologists and patients work together to identify specific concerns and develop concrete skills and techniques for coping with anxiety.5. However, psychologists won't push patients into such scenarios until they’re sure they have the skills they need to effectively confront their fears. Psychologists sometimes use other approaches to treat anxiety disorders in addition to CBT, among which group psychotherapy and family therapy are two effective ways.
A.Anxiety disorders are very treatable.
B.Anxiety is a normal human reaction to stressful situations.
C.Anxiety can also interfere with a person’s relationships with family members and friends.
D.About 4 percent of adults, and nearly 6 percent of teens, have anxiety disorders classified as severe.
E.Often, people try to cope with those negative reactions by avoiding situations or experiences that make them anxious.
F.Patients can expect to practice their new skills outside of sessions to manage anxiety in situations that might make them uncomfortable.
G.People with anxiety worry about a number of concerns, such as health problems or finances, and may have a general sense that something bad is going to happen.
Learning a second language is tricky at any age and it only gets tougher the longer you wait to open that dusty French book. Now, in a new study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.
The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it’s “nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second tongue after 10. But that doesn’t seem to be because language skills go downhill. “It turns out you’re still learning fast. It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,” says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.
Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they’re better able to adapt and respond to new information. “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says, “and children’s brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing.”
Kids may also be more willing to try new things (and to potentially look foolish in the process) than adults are. Their comparatively new grasp on their native tongue may also be advantageous. Unlike adults, who tend to default (默认) to the rules and patterns of their first language, kids may be able to approach a new one with a blank slate (石板).
These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 — when language learning ability starts to drop off — seems relatively old.
“People fared better when they learned by immersion (沉浸), rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that’s not an option, you can mimic an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities,” Hartshorne says. By doing so, it’s possible to become conversationally proficient — even without the advantage of a child’s brain.
1.The underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “__________”.
A.decrease B.rise
C.end D.vary
2.What can be inferred from Joshua Hartshorne’s words?
A.Children are too young to grasp a second language.
B.Age 10-18 is the best time to learn a second language.
C.Adults go beyond the critical period for learning a second language.
D.Communicating with native speakers enables you to master all the language skills.
3.Why adults can’t reach native-level fluency in a second language?
A.Adults are less influenced by their mother tongues.
B.Adults spend more time responding to new information.
C.Adults are only too willing to experience something awkward in the process.
D.Adults prefer an immersive environment to a classroom in learning a second language.
4.The passage is mainly about __________.
A.the best age to learn a second language
B.the approaches to learning a second language
C.why kids learn a second language more easily than adults
D.whether adults can learn a second language like their younger selves
