I went to a group activity, “Sensitivity Sunday”, which was to make us more aware of the problems were faced by disabled people. We were asked to “adopt ﹀disability” for several hours on one Sunday. Some members, as me, chose the wheelchair. Other wore sound-blocking earplugs or blindfolds. Just sitting in the wheelchair is a learning experience. I had never considered before how awkwardly it would be to use one. As soon as I sat down, my weight made the chair begin to roll with its wheels were not locked. Then I wondered how to put my feet. It took me quite a while to get the metal footrest into place. My wheelchair experiment was soon finished. It made a deep expression on me.
Hollywood movies are regularly filled with sex and violence. They can be exciting films but sometimes all you want is a little light-hearted entertainment.
Have you heard of Bollywood? All singing, all dancing and unrealistic, it is the perfect alternative to normal Hollywood movies. Bollywood is the Indian film industry, based in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. 1. Yet Bollywood is the largest producer of films in the world. This year the Indian Filmgare Awards, Bollywood's Oscars, turn 50 years old.
The typical Bollywood movie usually has the following ingredients: a cup of romance, a tea-spoon of comedy, a dash of international sight-seeing, served with a huge slice of singing and dancing. There will also be one brave hero, one beautiful heroine and one baddie. 2.
Bollywood films are full of ideal things and free of daily worries. 3. The actors change clothes and locations within a single song. But the audience don't mind. To Indian movie lovers, especially the poor, such films are a gateway to heaven and the stars are their gods. The films take them to a magical world away from their everyday troubles. The films tell them the impossible is possible and that true love conquers all.
4. Behind the beautiful scenes, Bollywood still emphasizes traditional family values. In most films, if two lovers want to break an arranged marriage, they can't just run away. They must win over their parents.
Bollywood is a decent refreshing replacement for those over-stimulating Hollywood films. 5. They will take you to a brighter, cheerier and more colorful world, where it's still cool to dance around a tree and sing a love song.
A．Bollywood has gradually won its reputation on the world stage.
B．There is never any mention of politics, poverty or war.
C．Most Chinese school kids have probably never seen an Indian film.
D．Bollywood films are mostly comic romances with light-hearted incidental music.
E. Bollywood pays great attention to traditional values.
F．The result is a fun-filled musical.
G．So if you're tired of all that Hollywood actions, check out the following Bollywood films.
What exactly is intelligence? There aren’t any easy answers．Despite the progress that has been made in genetics and psychology, human intelligence has remained one of the most controversial areas of modern science，until now, that is, for the discovery of a gene linked to intelligence has made the experts think again．
Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London and his colleagues in the US have been looking into genetic make-up．From their research, they have discovered that a slightly different gene is more common in those with a high IQ．Plomin analyzed DNA from two groups of 51 children aged between 6 and 15．What he found was that the first group had an IQ of 136, putting them in the top 5% of the population, while the other group had an average IQ of 103．An analysis of their genes showed that 32% of children in the higher group had the gene in question, while only 16% in the second group did．However, there is a lot more research to be done, and Plomin himself is cautious at this early stage．He suggests that there are probably many genes that contribute to intelligence, rather than just one. Several studies have shown a strong link between IQ and career success, although some psychologists remain unconvinced about this．Professor Michael Rowe, who has written a book called Genius Explained, is one of these．“The people with the highest IQs are not usually the ones who do best in their careers．”
Many psychologists now believe that when it comes to intelligence, IQ isn’t everything．Many alternative views have been put forward recently．One example is the idea of multiple intelligences, which was developed in the 1980s by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner．This offers a much broader view than the IQ theory, including creativity and communication skills as relevant factors in intelligence．
Tony Buzan, brain expert and author of Master your Memory, is enthusiastic about this belief, arguing that true geniuses do indeed appear to combine high levels of each type of intelligence．He lists Alexander the Great, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein as examples．At the same time, Buzan believes that everyone can develop their intelligence, only if they take the trouble to exercise their brain．Perhaps there’s hope for us all!
1.What does the underlined word “This” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A．The development of intelligence
B．The idea of multiple intelligences
C．IQ isn’t everything for intelligence
D．Alternative views have been put forward
2.Why does the author use data in Paragraph 2?
A．To make a suggestion． B．To draw a conclusion
C．To prove an idea． D．To give an example
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A．Robert Plomin confirms genes have something in common
B．Howard Gardner thinks intelligence includes various factors
C．Michael Rowe approves of a strong link between IQ and career
D．Tony Buzan agrees geniuses exercise brain to improve intelligence
4.What might be the best title of the passage?
A．The relationship between genes and intelligence
B．IQ benefits a lot from high intelligence
C．How to develop intelligence．
D．What makes intelligence.
Decision-making under Stress
A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (负面的) consequences of a decision.
The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways. “Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”
For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress. This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.
The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different. Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.
This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.
1.We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.
A. keep rewards better in their memory
B. recall consequences more effortlessly
C. make risky decisions more frequently
D. learn a subject more effectively
2. According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.
A. ways of making choices B. preference for pleasure
C. tolerance of punishments D. responses to suggestions
3.The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.
A. women find it easier to fall into certain habits
B. men have a greater tendency to slow down
C. women focus more on outcomes
D. men are more likely to take risks
It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, but my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we live without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb comes from an adjective not a noun.
Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ ll start using it myself!
1.“I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means “____________”.
A. it was a firm arrangement
B. he prefers a pencil to a pen
C. the arrangement should be written as a diary
D. it was an uncertain arrangement
2.A website address can be easily found if it has been ____________.
A. favorited B. messaged C. emailed D. texted
3. Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?
A. message B. mobile C. email D. fax
4. The best title for this passage is____________.
A. How to use verbs
B. Development of the English language
C. Origins of verbs
D. New Verbs from Nouns
Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice: flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?
Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster’s office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!
1.What did the author’s classmates think about his report?
A. Controversial. B. Ridiculous.
C. Boring. D. Puzzling.
2.Why was the author confused about the task?
A. He was unfamiliar with American history.
B. He followed the advice and flipped a coin.
C. He forgot his teacher’s instruction.
D. He didn’t know why the teacher gave such a task.
3.The underlined word “burning” in Para. 3 probably means _______.
A. annoyed B. ashamed
C. ready D. eager
4.In the end, the author turned things around _______.
A. by redoing his task
B. through his own efforts
C. with the help of his grandfather
D. under the guidance of his headmaster
