Research shows that humans switch from selfish to unselfish behaviors when they are watched. Do you?
A picture of a set of eyes on a computer screen can cause a change in the way people act. Even images of eyes on a charity donation, collection box encourage people to be unselfish, because people put more money in a collection box that has a picture of eyes on it than they do when a flower symbol is on the box.
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Biology in Germany and Bettina Rockenbach of the University of Berlin,
the authors of a new study, found that people act better when they are being
watched because they feel they will be rewarded for good behaviour.
Their report also referred to other research showing that this response of
behaving well when watched is somehow coded into humans and
people respond this way unconsciously, or without realising it.
It is not just humans that act unselfishly when they are being watched.
A fish called the grooming fish cleans other fish. When other fish are
around, it is gentler. When no other fish are around, however, the grooming fish bites chunks from the fish it is supposed to be cleaning.
The researchers suggest that the best way to get people to behave in the correct way is to make them feel watched. This could be the reason for the success of a famous American army poster. On it was a picture of an elderly man staring fiercely and pointing, it appeared, to the person who was looking at the poster. Under the picture was the caption ‘I Want You’. It encouraged hundreds of thousands of young American men to join the army during the Second World War to fight the Germans and Japanese.
1. According to the report, why does a person behave better when he feels he is being watched?
A. He does not want to be shamed by others.
B. He needs to show he is a good person.
C. He desires others to like him more.
D. He feels he will receive some social reward.
2. The underlined word ‘coded’ (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to______.
A. hidden B. programmed C. forgotten D. leaned
3. What is the text mainly about?
A. It describes changed behaviour when observed.
B. It details ways to control people's behaviour.
C. It tells how to make people work harder.
D. It discusses different advertising methods.
4. According to the text, which of the following statements is True?
A. People pretend to behave better when they are watched.
B. Fish bite other fish in a fish tank when they are alone.
C. People donate more money when they feel they are watched.
D. Soldiers fought better during World War II because of a poster.
5. Where would the study described in the text most likely be found?
A. In a newspaper. B. In a scientific journal.
C. In an advertising magazine. D. In a science textbook.
In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We’re pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve created various justifications（辩解）that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-developed panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. What causes the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite（精英）degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All seems right but mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures—professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance（提高） their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, surprisingly, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life’s only competition. In the next competition—the job market and graduate school—the results may change. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of famous universities didn’t.
So, parents, take it easy（lighten up）. The stakes (利害关系) have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
1. Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A. They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B. They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C. They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D. They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
2. Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A. They want to increase their children’s chances of entering a prestigious college.
B. They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C. Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D. Elite universities now enroll fewer student than they used to.
3. What does the author mean by “kids count more than their colleges” Line1, para.4?
A. Continuing education is more important to a person’s success.
B. A person’s happiness should be valued more than their education.
C. Kids’ actual abilities are more important than their college background.
D. What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
4. What does Krueger’s study tell us?
A. Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B. Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C. Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D. Connections built in prestigious universities may be kept long after graduation.
5. One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A. they earn less than their peers from other institutions
B. they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C. they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D. they overemphasize their qualifications in job application
Taiwan police cannot decide whether to treat it as an extremely clever act of stealing or an even cleverer cheat. Either way, it could be the perfect crime, because the criminals are birds—horning pigeons!
The crime begins with a telephone message to the owner of a stolen car: if you want the car back, pay up then, the car owner is directed to a park, told where to find a bird cage and how to attach money to the neck of the pigeon inside. Carrying the money in a tiny bag, the pigeon flies off.
There have been at least four such pigeon pick-ups in Changwa. What at first seemed like the work of a clever stay-at-home car thief, however, may in fact be the work of an even lazier and more inventive criminal mind—one that avoid not only collecting money but going out to steal the car in the first place . Police officer Chen says that the criminal probably has pulled a double trick: he gets money for things he cannot possibly return. Instead of stealing cars, he lets someone else do it and then waits for the car-owner to place an ad in the newspaper asking for help.
The theory is supported by the fact that, so far, none of the stolen cars have been returned. Also, the amount of money demanded-under 3,000 Taiwanese dollars –seems too little for a car worth many times more.
Demands for pigeon-delivered money stopped as soon as the press reported the story. And even if they start again, Chen holds little hope of catching the criminal. “We have more important things to do,” he said.
1. After the car owner received a phone call. He ______.
A. went to a certain pigeon and put some money in the bag it carried
B. gave the money to the thief and had his car back in a park
C. sent some money to the thief by mail
D. told the press about it
2. The “lazier and more inventive” criminal refers to ______.
A. the car thief who stays at home
B. one of those who put the ads in the paper
C. one of the policemen in Changwa
D. the owner of the pigeons
3. The writer mentions the fact that “none of the stolen cars have been returned” to show_____.
A. how easily people get fooled by criminals
B. what Chen thinks might be correct
C. the thief is extremely clever
D. the money paid is too little
4. The underlined word “they” in the last paragraph refers to ______.
A. criminals B. pigeons
C. the stolen cars D. demands for money
5. We may infer from the text that the criminal knows how to reach the car owners because______.
A. he reads the ads in the newspaper
B. he lives in the same neighborhood
C. he has seen the car owners in the park
D. he has trained the pigeons to follow them
第二部分：阅读理解（共20小题;每小题2.5分，满分50分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Proper arrangement of classroom space is important to encouraging interaction. Most of us have noticed how important physical setting is to efficiency and comfort in our work. College classroom space should be designed to encourage the activity of critical thinking.
We have entered the 21st century, but step into almost any college classroom and you step back in time at least a hundred years. Desks are normally in straight rows, so students can clearly see the teacher but not all their classmates. The message behind such an arrangement is obvious. Everything of importance comes from the teacher.
With a little imagination and effort, unless desks are fixed to the floor, the teacher can correct this situation and create space that encourage interchange among students. In small or standard-size classes, chairs, desks, and tables can be arranged in a variety of ways. The primary goal should be for everyone to be able to see everyone else. Large classes, particularly those held in lecture halls, unfortunately, allow much less flexibility.
Arrangement of the classroom should also make it easy to divide students into small groups for discussion or problem-solving exercises. Small classes with movable desks and tables present no problem. Even in large lecture halls, it is possible for students to turn around and form groups of four to six. Breaking a class into small groups provides more opportunities for students to interact with each other, think out loud, and see how other students’ thinking processes operate all essential elements in developing new modes of critical thinking.
In courses that regularly use a small group format, students might be asked to stay in the same small groups throughout the course. A colleague of mine, John, allows students to move around during the first two weeks, until they find a group they are comfortable with. John then asks them to stay in the same seat, with the same group, from that time on. This not only creates a comfortable setting for interaction but helps him learn students’ names and faces.
1. The primary purpose of desk rearrangement is _______.
A. for the teacher to divide students into small groups.
B. to make it possible for students to interact with each other.
C. for the teacher to find out how students think.
D. to give students more opportunities to practice speaking.
2. The expression “step back in time at least a hundred years” in Paragraph 2 is intended to convey the idea that _______.
A. there is not much change in educational idea over the past hundred years
B. critical thinking was encouraged even a century ago
C. college classrooms often remind people of their college life
D. a hundred years ago, desk arrangement in a classroom was quite different
3. The greatest advantage in allowing each student to find his own group might be that________
A. learning is made comfortable in this way
B. the teacher can easily remember students’ names and faces
C. the teacher saves the trouble in doing that
D. brighter students can help slower ones.
4. It is implied in the passage that ______.
A. students are allowed to changed groups throughout the course in John’s class
B. classroom interaction between students is essential to the teachers
C. a comfortable environment leads to higher working efficiency
D. new kinds of desks and chairs should be made
5. The author mentioned John in the last paragraph in order to ________
A. create a comfortable setting for interaction
B. introduce an approach of learning students’ names and faces easily
C. give an example that students stay in the same seat throughout the course.
D. describe a good seat-arrangement mode in courses with small group format.
第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
阅读下面短文，掌握大意，然后从16-35各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
The history of modern water pollution goes 16 to February 28, 1931, when Mrs. Murphy 17 over her backyard fence and said to Mrs. Holbrook, “You 18 those shirts white?” Mrs. Holbroak was 19 to admit they were as white as she could get them 20 that ordinary soap.
“What you should use is this Formula Cake Soap which 21 against the dull grey look that the family wash 22 had. ”
Doubtful 23 adventurous, Mrs. Holbrook tried the Formula soap, 24 did take the grey out of her husband’s shirts. But what she didn’t know was that the water eventually was 25 into the Blue Sky River, killing two fish.
Three years later Mrs. Murphy was 26 her shirts and Mrs. Holbrook said, “How did you ever get your collars so 27 , surely not with Formula?”
“Not ordinary Formula. But I did with Super Fortified Formula. You see, it attacks dirt and destroys it. Here, try some 28 your shirts.”
Mrs. Holbrook 29 and discovered her husband’s shirt collars turned pure white. What she could not possibly know was that it turned the river water pure white as 30 .
Six months later, the Blue Sky River was 31 a health hazard. One day as Mr. Holbrook was walking home from work.，he accidentally 32 the Blue Sky River, swallowed a 33 of water and died immediately. At the funeral service the minister said, “You can say anything you want 34 Holbrook, but no one can deny he had the 35 shirts in town.”
16. A. straight B. down C. off D. back
17. A. 1eaned B. 1eapt C. stretched D. sloped
18. A. name B. make C. get D. call
19. A. shamed B. ashamed C. shameful D. shameless
20. A. without B. with C. from D. by
21. A. protects B. promises C. guarantees D. ensures
22. A. seldom B. never C. possibly D. always
23. A. but B. and C. or D. though
24. A. it B. she C. which D. that
25. A. left B. emptied C. reached D. rushed
26. A. hanging up B. hanging on C. putting up D. putting on
27. A. dirty B. soapy C. grey D. white
28. A. for B. to C. on D. at
29. A. refused B. did C. hesitated D. understood
30. A. snow B. expected C. usual D. well
31. A. stated B. published C. recognized D. declared
32. A. fell into B. swam C. crossed over D. drowned
33. A. mouthful B. drop C. glass D. drink
34. A. to B. about C. as to D. as for
35. A. best B. oldest C. cleanest D. dirtiest
. James said that he'd like to work with some of the leading directors, first ______, and then hopefully ______ his own film.
A. learning; do B. learning; to do C. to learn; doing D. to learn; to do
