Stay on the brighter side of life
One very important component of optimism is gratitude or feeling grateful. In fact, there is a strong connection between a grateful attitude and a heightened sense of well-being. Appreciate all the positives in your life by starting a gratitude journal in order to remember what you’re grateful for. 1.
Feeling down? Instead of feeling sorry for yourself waiting for the universe to throw you a bone, try acting like you’re happy—even if you aren’t. A sincere smile and a forced smile will cause the same chemical reactions in your brain, so you can actually fool your mind into feeling better by making it react chemically as if things were going well. 2. Reassure yourself that everything is good—even if you don’t feel it.
“3. If you’re stuck in traffic, then everything else must be going horribly too,” says Anne Parker, a wellness counselor. By blowing negative events out of proportion, you’re setting yourself up for feeling down all day. Instead, acknowledge that you’re stuck in traffic, but also bring to mind something good, like the beautiful scenery outside the window. That way, you’ll get in the habit of forbidding negative circumstances from blanketing your whole day.
Swearing to lose 20 pounds or to run a marathon seems like goals leading to happiness, but they take time to achieve. 4.You may even end up admitting that you have been defeated. However, if you focus on the small milestones that occur along the way, you will feel positive about your progress, which will give you the strength to keep going.
5. Try making someone else’s day better. A report by United Healthcare and Volunteer Match found that volunteers are 72% more likely to characterize themselves as optimistic compared with non-volunteers. Plus, 89% of volunteers say that volunteering has improved their sense of well-being, and 92% say that it enriches their sense of purpose in life.
A. Try to help someone in need.
B. Want to give your attitude a lift?
C. People tend to think in an either-or way.
D. Act in an optimistic way—smile, laugh, tell a joke.
E. You’ll fail to appreciate more important things in your life.
F. By focusing on not having accomplished them yet, you will start to feel down on yourself.
G. By remembering the pleasant things in your life, you can actually turn a negative attitude around.
Reading may be fundamental, but how the brain gives meaning to letters on a page has been a mystery. Two new studies fill in some details on how the brains of efficient readers handle words. One of the studies, published in the April 30 Neuron, suggests that a visual-processing area of the brain recognizes common words as whole units. Another study, published online April 27 in PLOSONE, makes it known that the brain operates two fast parallel systems for reading, linking visual recognition of words to speech.
Maximilian Riesenhuber, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., wanted to know whether the brain reads words letter by letter or recognizes words as whole objects. He and his colleagues showed sets of real words or nonsense(无意义的词语)words to volunteers undergoing fMRI scans. The words differed inonly one letter, such as “farm” and “form” or “soat” and “poat”, or were completely different, such as “farm” and “coat” or “poat” and “hime”. The researchers were particularly interested in what happens in the visual word form area, or VWFA, an area on the left side of the brain just behind the ear that is involved in recognizing words.
Riesenhuber and his colleagues found that neurons(神经元)in the VWFA respond strongly to changes in real words. Changing “farm” to “form”, for example, produced as great a change in activity as changing “farm” to” coat”, the team reports in Neuron. The area responded slowly to single-letter changes in made-up words.
The data suggests that readers grasp real words as whole objects, rather than focusing on letters or letter combinations. And as a reader’s exposure to a word increases, the brain comes to recognize the shape of the word. Meaning is passed on after recognition in the brain, Riesenhuber says.
The researchers don’t yet know how longer and less familiar words are recognized, or if the brain can be trained to recognize nonsense words as a unit.
1.Riesenhuber’s research probably focuses on whether the brain ______.
A. recognizes words as a unit or reads them letter by letter.
B. operates two fast parallel systems for reading
C. takes longer to read less familiar words or not
D. handles nonsense words as a unit
2.Riesenhuber and his colleagues carried out their research by ______.
A. giving pairs of real words totally different B. arranging the words in different order
C. showing pairs of different words D. making volunteers read some longer words
3.Riesenhuber’s research is significant in that it shows how the brain ______.
A. responds to familiar words B. relates meaning to letters
C. recognizes the form of a word D. reacts to made-up words
Exactly five years ago, on New Year’s Eve, I was invited to a children’s ball by a man high up in the business world, who had his connections, his circle of acquaintances, and his close friends. So it seemed as though the children’s ball was merely an excuse for the parents to come together and discuss matters of interest to themselves, quite innocently and casually.
I was an outsider, and, as I had no special matters to air, I was able to spend the evening independently of the others. There was another gentleman present who like me had just stumbled upon (偶然发现) this affair of domestic happiness. He was the first to attract my attention. His appearance was not that of a man of noble birth. He was tall, rather thin, very serious, and well dressed. Obviously he had no heart for the family celebration. The instant he went off into a corner by himself the smile disappeared from his face, and his thick dark brows knitted into a frown(皱眉). He knew no one except the host and showed every sign of being bored to death, though bravely keeping the role of thorough enjoyment to the end. Later I learned that he was a provincial, had come to the capital on some important business, had brought a letter of recommendation to our host, and our host had taken him under his protection, not at all with love. It was merely out of politeness that he had invited him to the children’s ball.
They did not play cards with him. They did not offer him cigars. No one entered into conversation with him. Possibly they recognized the bird by its feathers from a distance. Thus, my gentleman, not knowing what to do with his hands, was compelled(迫使) to spend the evening stroking (抚摸) his whiskers(胡须). His whiskers were really fine, but he stroked them so eagerly that one got the feeling that the whiskers had come into the world first and afterwards the man in order to stroke them.
1.According to the author, the real purpose of the children ball was that ______.
A. the parents wanted to make their children happy
B. the parents had a chance to meet and socialize
C. the host hoped to make the guests happy
D. the host wanted to give a welcome to an important guest
2.The gentleman was unhappy because ______.
A. he was one of the poor relatives of the host
B. he was from the countryside
C. he was trying to do some business with the host
D. he was not really welcome in the ball
3.The gentleman touched his whiskers eagerly just because ______.
A. he liked his whiskers very much B. he had the habit of doing so
C. he was embarrassed in the ball D. he felt uneasy wearing whiskers
4.When the author was telling the story, he was ______.
A. humorous B. serious
C. joking D. doubtful
In the future we might live somewhere other than Earth, like Mars. Some people ask how this will be possible. Well, Mars is in fact a lot the same as the earth. The days are almost the same as those on the earth. However, the two planets vary in temperature.
Since there is mostly carbon dioxide on Mars, it would be quite difficult for a human to just land on it. So, special types of homes and space suits have to be designed. The space suits should be almost like the ones astronauts use now, and except that they have to be warmer so that the astronauts can survive the cold temperatures. The space suits must also be able to withstand (承受) high pressure and potentially dangerous radiation that can kill.
The houses should be similar to our homes today with a slight difference. All of the houses and other buildings should be built inside a large dome (圆顶状物) or bubble. The domes should be made out of glass, and would also be able to prevent radiation from affecting the people inside. The domes will be connected to a machine (like plants which turn carbon dioxide into oxygen).
With Mars’ population growing, how would the people on its surface get fresh food and water? Just like humans use domes, they can also use domes to grow plants. However, the domes where the plants are grown must be built to expand. Once we upgrade the domes to a larger size then we can grow more food by cultivating (种植) more plants. To get the food or come in connect with other domes, there will be long narrow tunnels like roads that connect to each dome separating them by several doors so that the pressure in each dome can remain the same.
On Mars, so many other things are available to us. As humans, we can have access to rare and fairly expensive metals that aren’t very easy to get hold of on Earth, and a colony on Mars enhances (提高) our chances of finding these metals. So when someone here on Earth says that going to Mars is impossible, please tell them that they’ll never know it until they try and they may try very soon. After all it’s our future. Why not make it on Mars?
1.It is difficult for humans to live on Mars because of all the following EXCEPT _________.
A. too much radiation B. cold temperature
C. lack of enough oxygen D. lack of houses
2.One of the reasons why we are eager to explore Mars may be that _________.
A. we can find rare and expensive metals there easily
B. we’ll get too bored to live on the earth in the future
C. our technology will become much advanced
D. we want to know more about the unknown world
3.What is the author’s attitude towards living on Mars? _________.
A. Pessimistic B. Uncertain C. Optimistic D. Opposed
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.Where did the children mostly play?
A. In the lake. B. Only in the house. C. Outside around the neighborhood.
2.What did the speaker like the most as a child?
A. Playing ball games with friends.
B. Working in the garden.
C. Going to the lake.
3.Where did the family go on a trip?
A. To a big lake. B. To New York City. C. To the Pacific Ocean.
4.What did the speaker probably do later?
A. He moved to a big city.
B. He lived in the same house.
C. He moved to a place near the ocean.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What is the woman mainly talking about?
A. Which classes she needs to take.
B. How to arrange her class schedule.
C. Which course is more important.
2.What will the woman take this semester?
A. Biology 201. B. Physics. C. Chemistry.
3.What does the man suggest the woman do?
A. Give up her job in the lab. B. Work in the lab later. C. Drop the classes on Fridays.
4.Who will the woman probably talk with after this?
A. Her biology teacher. B. Her lab professor. C. Her parents.
