Many of us know what it feels like to be an outside in high school. Some give in to the pressure to fit in; others remain “on the bottom of the social food chain”. However, Alexandra Robbins, the author of the book The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth believes what makes people unpopular in high school, mainly an unwillingness to obey, tends to translate into success as an adult.
Robbins has spent the past decade analyzing the behavior of high school students. She found the things that make a student different make them a target. But in adulthood and outside of the school setting, the things “that make you different make you interesting, fun, and often successful,” she told the UK’s Daily Mail.
She researched the qualities that people found most valuable in adults. The top qualities are: creativity, free-thinking, vision, authenticity, self-awareness, honesty, curiosity, love of learning, and courage. “Those are qualities that are far more likely to be found in school outsiders than in the popular kids,” she said.
According to Robbins, when people are in with a popular crowd, they are more likely to hide aspects of their identity in order to fit into the group. As she put it to Yahoo.com, “You are more likely to have goals of social dominance(强势)rather than forming actual true friendships. You are more likely to let other people pressure you into doing things. None of those things is admirable or useful as adults.”
Meanwhile, in the eyes of Robbins, the outsiders are much more self-aware and much braver than the popular students. They are brave because they are sticking to being themselves in a challenging environment.
There are many celebrity examples of progress from unpopularity to later fame. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg was laughed at for being Jewish in high school. JK Rowling, author of hugely popular Harry Potter, was teased in school as a glasses-wearing child who lived mostly in books and daydreams.
Robbins encourages students to participate in out-of-class activities. “They will automatically meet people with similar tastes,” she told Daily Mail.
1.According to Robbins, what can make a student a target in high school?
A. Difference to others
B. Pressure to fit in
C. Unwillingness to obey
D. Behavior of high school students
2.Which quality is NOT considered to be valuable in adults?
A. Being creative
B. Being authentic
C. Being different
D. Being curious
3.Why do popular kids tend to be not as successful as outsiders?
A. They may have goals of forming actual true friendships
B. They may hide aspects of their identity to fit in
C. They may force others into doing things
D. They may stick to being themselves in the society
4.Which of the following statements is true?
A. Young people who are outside are successful as adults
B. JK Rowling is one of celebrities of unpopularity
C. Unpopular students develop skills while the popular don’t
D. Robbins encourages young people to be themselves
If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery, a small reward like a sticker(贴画) for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously disliked foods, a UK study said.
Though it might seem obvious that a reward could encourage young children to eat their vegetables, the idea is actually controversial, researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. That’s because some studies have shown that rewards can backfire and cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked, said Jane Wardle, a researcher at University College London who worked on the study. Verbal praise, such as “Brilliant! You’re a great vegetable taster”, did not work as well.
The study found that when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a “tiny taste” of a disliked vegetable, it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables—either carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper, cabbage or sugar snap peas—in laboratory taste tests, the study said.
Researchers randomly assigned (分派) 173 families to one of these groups. In one, parents used stickers to reward their children each time they took a tiny sample of a disliked vegetable. A second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group, where Parents used no special vegetable-promoting methods, served as a “control”.
Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the “target” vegetable every day for 12 days. Soon after, children in the sticker group were giving higher ratings to the vegetables—and were willing to eat more in the research lab, going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10 grams after the 12-day experience. The turnaround(转机) also seemed to last, with preschoolers in the sticker group still willing to eat more of the once-disliked vegetable three months later.
Why didn’t the verbal praise work? Wardle said the parents’ words may have seemed “insincere” to their children.
1.What is the purpose of writing the passage?
A. To show the procedure of an experiment on children’s diet
B. To introduce a practical method of making children eat vegetables
C. To explain why children hate to eat vegetables
D. To present a proper way of verbal praise to parents
2.What does the underlined word “backfire” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. Shoot from behind the back
B. Make a fire in the backyard
C. Produce an unexpected result
D. Achieve what was planned
3.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Most children are born to dislike carrots or celery.
B. Children in the sticker group will never lose interest in eating vegetables.
C. Oral praise works quite well in encouraging children to eat vegetables.
D. It remains a question whether rewarding is a good way to get children to eat vegetables.
4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Children like rewards, not verbal praise.
B. Parents should give up verbal praise.
C. Children are difficult to inspire.
D. Parents should praise their children in a sincere tone.
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JOHANNESBURG—They say cats have nine lives. Now a Chinese toad(蟾蜍) has joined that club of clever survivors.
South Africans are shocked at the endurance of a toad that got trapped in a cargo shipment from China to Cape Town, after jumping into a porcelain(瓷器) candlestick（烛台） that was made there. South African officials reportedly planned to put down the creature, fearing it would cause harm as an invasive species if it were let go in the wild.
But the toad got a last-minute pardon. Mango Airlines, a South African airline, transported the toad on Friday to Johannesburg for delivery to an animal shelter, after officials decided to find a way to let the toad live. The two-hour fight was a breeze compared to the trip from China, a long way of many weeks and thousands of kilometers across the Indian Ocean.
Airline spokesman Hein Kaiser said the toad got “first-class treatment”, sitting in a transparent plastic container with escort Brett Glasby, an animal welfare inspector. There was even a ceremony, in which the toad’s boarding pass was handed to Glasby.
“He was the star of the show on the flight,” Kaiser said of the amphibious(两栖的) passenger. “I think every passenger stopped to have a look.”
On landing in Johannesburg, the toad was brought out of its container for a celebrity-style photo shoot. Observers said the brown toad seemed like a cool customer. It belongs to the Asian Toad species, which breeds during the monsoon(季风) season. It is believed to have survived the trip from China by hardening its skin to prevent it from drying out, and also by slowing its breathing and heart rate—methods that help the species survive in times of drought.
“We’ve had snakes in imported timber and scorpions(蝎子) in fruit. We were called because the toad was right inside the candlestick, and we had to break it to get it out” Glasby, the inspector, told The Star, a South African newspaper.
1.What is the passage mainly about
A. An Asian toad gets a new home in South Africa.
B. Asian toads can’t get used to the life in South Africa.
C. Workers shipped a toad to South Africa on purpose.
D. South Africa ignores the protection of animals.
2.What would/might happen if the toad were released into the wild?
A. It would make the locals feel shocked
B. It might harm the native species
C. It would lose its life in the wild
D. It might flee into another country
3.Why was the toad able to arrive in South Africa alive?
A. Because it escaped all attacks and hunts
B. Because it used to stop its breath in winter
C. Because it formed hard skin to protect itself
D. Because it was lucky to be given a chance
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. Sometimes animal are transported accidentally
B. No one has seen such a big toad in Africa
C. A candlestick is the best place for a toad
D. Droughts make toads live longer.
人们对于良好的饮食习惯有着不同的观点，请根据以下内容提示说说你的看法。
内容提
示：1.平衡膳食，规律饮食；
2.吃足够的水果和蔬菜，不吃垃圾食品；
3.水和牛奶也是强健体魄的必需品。
注意：词数100左右，短文开头已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：垃圾食品 junk food
Different people may have different ideas about good eating habits._______________________________
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文，文中共有１０处语言错误，每句中最多有两处， 每处只涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（＾），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用（＼）划掉；
修改：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均只限一词。
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从11处起）不计分。
A foreign student graduated with honors from a finely university in Germany. He expected to find a good job and have a bright future. But in his disappointment, he wasn't even giving the chance for an interview! The third time he was refused, he phoned the company to ask how. "We don't employ dishonest people in Germany" is the answer. What was wrong? Shortly before he arrived in Germany, he found easy to steal subway rides. But he often rode without a ticket and was caught up three times. Now he had to pa
y a high price for his own behavior. We should all keep in minds: honesty is the best policy.
