Researchers have studied how birth order affects kid’s personalities in the past, but one study out of the United Kingdom has found that firstborns may have an educational advantage over their younger siblings (兄弟姐妹).
Researchers at the University of Essex’s Institute for Social and Economic Research surveyed 3,553 individuals and 1,503 groups of siblings, and discovered that firstborn children tended to have higher educational aspirations and attainment. Only children and firstborn twins were not included in the study.
For each family involved in the study, researcher Feifei Bu examined sibling birth order, the number of children in the family, age spacing, sex, health, relationships with one another and educational aspirations. She found that firstborns had a greater probability—16 percent higher—of attending further education, compared with later-born sibling.
“The advantage of firstborns in educational outcomes may be partially explained by the fact that firstborns tend to have higher aspirations which push them toward high education levels,” Bu wrote in the published study.
She further explained to The Guardian that parenting could play a role. “It could be that the parents simply devote more time and energy to them; it could be that they are actually more intelligent. For me, I tend to lean towards the theory that the amount of time, energy and involvement that parents put into caring for their children is possibly at work here,” she said.
She also found age spacing to be a contributing factor. The further apart in age the siblings—for example, a six year instead of one year difference—the more likely both kids were to be successful. The idea is that with widely spaced siblings, parents have the ability to spread out their resources. In other words, they have time to give each child more time and money.
But younger siblings shouldn’t worry. The world is full of successful middle and youngest children willing to prove this study wrong.
1.Who are more likely to complete higher levels of education according to Paragraphs 1 and 2?
A.Only children. B.Firstborn twins.
C.Younger siblings. D.Firstborn siblings.
2.What is possibly important for kids’ educational achievement according to Bu?
A.Parental investment. B.Parents’ intelligence.
C.Kids native intelligence. D.Kids’ school environment.
3.What is the influence of wider age spacing between two siblings?
A.It may cause conflicts between them.
B.It may place more pressure on parents.
C.Both of them are more likely to succeed.
D.They are likely to be different from each other.
4.How is the text mainly developed?
A.By listing examples. B.By giving descriptions.
C.By setting down general rules. D.By presenting research findings.
Have you ever wondered how many cigarettes you're passively smoking while walking through the streets of a polluted, smog-infused((烟雾笼罩的)city?No?Well, a pair of digital developers just invented an app that will definitely and accurately answer that question.
Shit, I Smoke! was created by Brazilian-born designer Marcelo Coelho and Paris-born app developer Amaury Martiny in just a week, after they read a study that analyzed air pollution and its equivalent(等量)to cigarette smoking. The article, co-written by Richard Mueller, a MacArthur fellow and physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, explains a mathematical model that compares smoking and tobacco-related deaths to levels of PM2.5, a microscopic particle(微粒)that is a dangerous, cancerous pollutant after burning.
The app shows that Parisians can effectively inhale(吸入) between three and six cigarettes per day, while a person in Delhi could be smoking up to 20 cigarettes-without even touching one--on a bad day. Other cities have worrying numbers, too (6. 5 cigarettes daily in Mexico City ).
“I was surprised to see that Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo have the best air quality in all Latin America,despite the fact that these are heavily populated cities,”said Coelho, who's originally from the latter, Brazil's largest city.
For both Coelho and Martiny, the app isn't only a useful tool to inform users about their city's air quality;it also makes this information more accessible and easier to understand. “These air-quality monitoring stations are just numbers, numbers that are very specific to professionals who work in environmental issues,” Martiny said. “So when you make this conversion(转换)to cigarettes, it makes it easier to understand what people are dealing with and the consequences air quality has in the daily lives.”
The developers' plan now is to keep working on and enriching the app's features. This will most likely include monthly average cigarette rates, and enabling users to get data from cities other than the one they're in.
1.What does the underlined part “that question” mean?
A.How severely a city's air is polluted.
B.How harmful it is to smoke in urban areas.
C.How many cigarettes one usually smokes daily.
D.How much harmful air you're taking in in urban areas.
2.According to Shit, I Smoke!, which city has the worst air quality?
A.Paris B.Delhi.
C.Mexico City. D.Sao Paulo.
3.Before Coelho used the app, he probably thought that__________.
A.Brazil might have good air
B.his hometown was a badly polluted city.
C.air pollution wasn't a problem in Latin America.
D.Buenos Aires had the best air quality in Latin America
4.In the opinion of Coelho and Martiny, what is the usage of the app?
A.Encouraging people to abandon the habit of smoking.
B.Recommending some best places for people to live in.
C.Helping people better know their everyday air quality.
D.Reminding people to do something good for the environment.
When I was nine years old, I went off to summer camp for the first time. And my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. While reading, you have the animal warmth of your family sitting right next to you, but you are also free to experience the adventure land inside your own mind. And I had this idea that camp was going to be just like this.
On the very first day, our counselor(顾问) gathered us all together and she taught us a cheer that she said we would be doing every day for the rest of the summer to instill(浸润) camp spirit. And it went like this: “R-O-W-D-I-E, that's the way we spell rowdie. Rowdie, rowdie, let's get rowdie . Yeah！”. So I couldn't figure out why we had to spell this word incorrectly. But I recited the cheer along with everybody else. I did my best. And I just waited for the time that I could go off and read my books.
But the first time that I took my book out of my suitcase, the coolest girl in the room came up to me and asked me, “Why are you being so mellow(安静的)?” Mellow, of course, is the exact opposite of R-O-W-D-I-E. And then the second time I tried it, the counselor came up to me with a concerned expression on her face and she repeated the point about camp spirit and said we should all work very hard to be outgoing.
And so I put my books away, back in their suitcase, and I put them under my bed, and there they stayed for the rest of the summer. And I felt kind of guilty about this. I felt as if the books needed me somehow, and they were calling out to me but I just gave them up.
1.According to the author, what would the coming camp be like?
A.It would be very noisy.
B.It would involve lots of reading.
C.It would be full of danger and excitement.
D.It would make a good chance to get close to nature.
2.How did the author feel about the cheer part?
A.Puzzled. B.Excited.
C.Concerned. D.Frightened.
3.How did the counselor react on seeing the author reading?
A.She got very angry.
B.She praised the author.
C.She asked the author to share the book
D.She indirectly advised the author not to read.
4.Why was the author guilty?
A.She was kind of quiet.
B.She had to leave her books unread.
C.She was unwilling to open her books.
D.She didn't follow the counselor's advice.
Charities
These days there are thousands of charities around the world and it is possible to donate money to help people, animals and places.
Mencap is a charity which is intended to fight against prejudice against those people who suffer from any kind of learning disability. Most of Mencap's work is campaigning. People with learning disabilities are disadvantaged because of prejudice and lack of funding for community care. Mencap raised awareness by working at local, national and European levels to deal with those issues that affect people with learning disabilities. It also provides services of education, housing and employment as well as support and advice for families and carers of sufferers.
EveryChild is a relatively new charity which was created in 1983. Every Child identifies the needs of a particular community and then sets up projects to make sure that children in these communities have basic rights such as healthcare. education, social services and community development. Every Child sets up the projects so that they are self running. The organization then moves on to new projects, leaving things in the hands of locals.
The RSPCA( Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is the first organization meant for the well-being of animals anywhere in the world. The SPCA was set up in London in 1824 .At that time it was considered strange that people should care about cruelty to animals. In 1840 Queen Victoria gave the organization permission to be called a royal society The RSPCA. These days there are almost two hundred branches in the UK.
The TBG(Tidy Britain Group) is an independent national charity fighting to improve the quality of the local environment. They aim to get everyone involved in doing their bit to keep Britain clean. The work of the TBG is done mainly hrough campaigning. Volunteers work closely with governments and businesses to organize educational programs designed to raise awareness of the problems. The TBG's sister organization, Going for Green,concentrates on pollution issues. The two groups have the same chief executive.
1.What's the main purpose of Mencap?
A.To improve community care. B.To provide educational services.
C.To fight against any kind of prejudice. D.To help people with learning disabilities.
2.What was Queen Victoria's attitude towards the SPCA?
A.Approving. B.Doubtful.
C.Tolerant. D.Casual.
3.Going for Green shares a similar goal with__________.
A.Mencap. B.Every Child
C.the RSPCA D.the TBG
假定你是校排球队队长李华。请写封邮件告知你的队友Chris球队近期将参加比赛，内容包括:
1. 比赛信息；
2. 赛前准备；
3. 表达期待。
注意:
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，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。每处错误仅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：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Since I was a kid, I’ve considered different job I would like to do. First, I wanted to be a fireman, whose uniform looked so coolly. Then, when I was in the five grade, I wanted to be a teacher because I liked my English teacher too much. When I studied chemistry high school, I reconsidered my goal or decided to be a doctor. They were two reasons for the decision. One was that I was amazing at the fact that a sick person could feel much more better after seeing a doctor. And the other is that I wanted to help people in need.
