Curiosity is what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward. But how does one generate (产生) curiosity, in oneself or others? George Loewenstein, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, offered an answer in the classic1994 paper, “The Psychology of Curiosity.”
Curiosity arises, Loewenstein wrote, “when attention becomes focused on a gap in one's knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation (匮乏) labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce the feeling of deprivation.” Loewenstein's theory helps explain why curiosity is such a force: it's not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that drives us forward.
Scientist Daniel Willingham notes that teachers are often “so eager to get to the answer that we do not devote enough time to developing the question.” Yet it's the question that stimulates (刺激) curiosity; being told an answer stops curiosity before it can even get going.
In his 1994 paper, George Loewenstein noted that curiosity requires some basic knowledge. We're not curious about something we know absolutely nothing about. But as soon as we know even a little bit, our curiosity is aroused and we want to learn more. In fact, research shows that curiosity increases with knowledge: the more we know, the more we want to know. To get this process started, Loewenstein suggests, take steps with some interesting but incomplete information.
Language teachers have long used communication in exercises that open an information gap and then require learners to communicate with each other in order to fill it. For example, one student might be given a series of pictures for the beginning of the story, while the student's partner is given a series of pictures showing how that same story ends. Only by speaking with each other (in the foreign language they are learning, of course) can the students fill in each others' information gaps.
1.When one notices a gap in his knowledge, he .
A.desires to fill it
B.tends to be afraid
C.might get tired and sad
D.will become focused on his learning
2.What does Daniel Willingham imply in the article?
A.Answers are more important than questions.
B.Teachers should be eager to get to the answer.
C.Teachers know how to stimulate students’ curiosity.
D.Teachers are partly to blame for students’ hating school.
3.According to George Loewenstein’s paper, curiosity about something occurs only when you .
A.have read a lot of books B.know little about something
C.have some related information D.are given incomplete information
4.What is the article mainly about?
A.Why students hate school.
B.Why curiosity is important.
C.How to stimulate curiosity.
D.What makes people hungry for knowledge.
First aid means what it says the aid, or help that can be given to an injured person first which is before any other help. Usually the first thing we should do if a serious accident happens is to telephone for an ambulance, but sometimes quick actions by us may save someone's life.
Shock: people often suffer from shock after receiving an injury. The face turns grey and the skin becomes damp and cold. They breathe quickly. They should be kept warm. Cover them with a blanket and give them a warm drink.
Broken Bones: Don't move the person. Send for an ambulance at once.
Poison: A person who has swallowed poison should be taken to hospital at once. With some poisons, sleeping pills, for example, it is a good thing to make the person sick by pushing your fingers down his throat. But if he has swallowed some kind of acid, or anything that burns, it would be a bad thing to make the person sick by pushing your fingers down his throat. The poison would burn his throat as it came up. It is, therefore, best to find out what the person has taken so that you can call to tell the doctor.
Suffocation: This means not being able to breathe. For example, a drowning person will have his lungs full of water. Lay him down with his head lower than the rest of his body so that the water will drain out. If a person has something stuck in his throat, try to remove it with your fingers, or by hitting him on the back. When a person has stopped breathing because of drowning, electric shock, breathing in a poisonous gas etc. you can help him to begin breathing again.
Remember: When an accident happens, send someone to telephone for an ambulance at once. Keep the injured person warm and quiet. Give him plenty of air. Do not let other people crowd around him. If you see an injured person who is being looked after, keep away.
1.The underlined words "drain out" in Paragraph 5 probably mean __________.
A.leave out B.squeeze out
C.flow away D.let out
2.When someone is injured, what should we do first?
A.Keep him warm with a blanket.
B.Send for an ambulance at once.
C.Make him sick by pushing your fingers down his throat.
D.Lay him down with his head lower.
3.The passage is mainly about __________.
A.the importance of first aid B.the symptoms of shocks
C.the types of injuries D.how to offer first aid
4.Where would this article probably appear?
A.In a safety booklet . B.In an advertisement.
C.In a newspaper. D.In a popular magazine.
I remember clearly the last time I cried. I was twelve years old, in the seventh grade, and I had tried out for the junior high school basketball team. I walked into the gym. There was a piece of paper on the wall.
It was a cut list. The boys whose names were on the list were welcome to keep on practicing. The boys whose names were not on the list had been cut. Their presence was no longer desired.
I had not known the cut was coming that day. I stood and stared at the list. The list had not been made with a great deal of consideration. The names of the best players were at the top, and the other members of the team were listed in what appeared to be a descending (下降的) order of basketball skills. I kept looking at the bottom of the list, hoping that my name would appear if I looked hard enough.
I held myself together as I walked out, bat when I got home I began to cry. For the first time in my life, I had been told officially that I wasn't good enough. Sports meant everything to boys of that age. If you were on the team, it put you in the desirable group. If you were not, you might as well not be alive.
All these years later, I remember it as if 1 were still standing right there in the gym. I don't know how the mind works in matters like this. I don't know what went on in my head following that day of cut. But I know that my determination has been so strong ever since then. I have known that for all my life since that day. I have done more work than I had to be doing and pat in more hours than I had to be spending, I don't know if all of that came from a determination never to allow myself to be cut again—never to allow someone to tell me that I'm not good enough again—but I know it is there. And clearly it's there in a lot of other successful men too.
1.From the text we learn that the cut list had names of pupils __________.
A.who were cut out B.who were still on the team
C.who were the old players D.who were not good enough
2.Why did the author react so strongly to the cut?
A.It hurt his pride deeply. B.It was open to the public.
C.It listed his name at the bottom. D.It forced him to change the team.
3.We can infer from the text that the author __________.
A.has made friends with many other men
B.has never learned the truth of the cut
C.has become quite successful in life
D.has learned to play basketball very well
I'm Robin Woods. I'm always the first to make a good joke and _______ my work away at the end of the day. But somehow, I'm _______ the first to be picked for teams and plays. I have always been the outcast,_______ and alone.
“This year our play will be the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men,” our teacher, Miss Goody, ___________ the whole class. “Who would like to be Robin Hood?” I ___________ my hand up into the air. Of course, everybody wanted the biggest and best part, especially bossy Bradley.
“_________ for a part and I’ll test you on Monday and decide who will be best for each part,” said Miss Goody, handing out pages of the script. “… And of course, we’ll need lots of trees to be the forest.”
“You’ll be a little baby bush…,” Bradley_______ me. “Or a teeny-tiny leaf.”
I_______ him and took a copy of the Robin Hood words and began my practicing on the way home.
On Monday I did some brilliant acting and I remembered all my _________. I got the part. Bradley got the part of Little John. Becky was one of the ladies-in-waiting. Jordan was the minstrel(吟游艺人), who told the________ in song with a little strum of the guitar every now and then.
We had three weeks to learn our parts. Becky offered to________ with me. She played Little John's part and gave me ________ on fighting. Bradley, who still really wanted to be Robin Hood, often came over to watch. He seemed to be waiting for me to make mistakes. I felt________, with knocking knees and cold feet. But I was determined to be the best Robin Hood ever. I had got the part of a hero and a hero I shall be.
At home, Granddad came to help me. He could play the guitar and even made up a minstrel dance. He was really getting into the minstrel’s________, which cheered me up and made learning my part much easier and funny.
In the final dress rehearsal that afternoon, Bradley was really getting carried away in that fighting-to-get-across-the-river________. He was shouting louder and louder and pushing harder and harder until he lost his ________ and fell off the bridge. He had hurt his ankle! Worse still, Jordan had got a flu. Probably we had to ________ that night’s performance for it was just impossible to find two new actors who could learn the parts before________ and, most importantly, could play the guitar. Girls wailed and sobbed. Boys sighed and shuffled their feet.
It was I that put forward a________：Granddad could play the part of the minstrel; Becky did the part of Little John and Carly could have her part as lady-in-waiting. Miss Goody sighed with relief. Everybody burst into tears of joy.
The performance that night was a great success. I felt like a________.
1.A.tidy B.throw C.push D.drag
2.A.sometimes B.frequently C.always D.never
3.A.unattended B.unassisted C.unwanted D.unmoved
4.A.taught B.gathered C.dismissed D.lectured
5.A.seized B.trembled C.shot D.shook
6.A.Look out B.Try out C.Stand out D.Speak out
7.A.blamed B.threatened C.teased D.cheated
8.A.admired B.abused C.respected D.ignored
9.A.stories B.texts C.passages D.lines
10.A.tale B.truth C.result D.difference
11.A.dance B.sing C.perform D.practice
12.A.knives B.tips C.guns D.signals
13.A.nervous B.disappointed C.important D.honored
14.A.part B.team C.band D.house
15.A.accident B.incident C.scene D.event
16.A.sword B.stick C.position D.balance
17.A.cancel B.give C.improve D.evaluate
18.A.dawn B.dusk C.midday D.midnight
19.A.theory B.solution C.budget D.principle
20.A.director B.composer C.hero D.teacher
阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写一个适当的词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。
The shadow puppet play Monkey King and Coronavirus (冠状病毒), 1. (create) by the Beijing Longzaitian Shadow Puppet Theater, has been broadcast (broadcast) online since February 14 with nearly 5 million hits on the internet. In the show, the Monkey King hears about the novel coronavirus outbreak, so 2.(him) goes to Wuhan, the capital city of Central China's Hubei province 3. (fight) the disease.
阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写一个适当的词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。
Then I began to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled. It smelled like...sunshine. Like sunshine and wild grass and pomegranates and rain! I couldn’t stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the1.(sweet) smell I’d ever known.
Bryce called up, “Are you stuck?” 2.brought me down to earth. Carefully I backed up, prized strips in hand, and as I worked my way down, I could see Bryce circling the tree, 3.(watch)me to make sure I was okay.
