The Art of Slow Reading
If you are reading this article in print, chances are that you will only get through half of what I have written. And if you are reading this online, you may not even finish a fifth. 1. They suggest that many of us no longer have the concentration to read articles through to their conclusion.
So are we getting stupider? Actually, our online habits are damaging the mental power we need to process and understand textual information. Round-the-clock news makes us read from one article to the next without necessarily engaging fully with any of the content. Our reading is frequently interrupted by the noise of the latest email and we are now absorbing short bursts of words on Twitter and Facebook more regularly than longer texts. 2. But we are gradually forgetting how to sit back, think carefully, and relate all the facts to each other.
3. A desperate bunch of academics want us to take our time while reading, and re-reading. They ask us to switch off our computers every so often and rediscover both the joy of personal engagement with printed texts, and the ability to process them fully. What's to be done then? Most slow readers realize that total rejection of the web is extremely unrealistic. They feel that getaway from technology for a while is the answer. 4. Personally, I'm not sure whether I could ever go offline for long. Even while writing this article, I am switching constantly between sites, skimming too often, absorbing too little. Internet reading has become too rooted in my daily life for me to change. I read essays and articles not in hard copy but as PDFs. I suspect that many readers are in a similar position. 5. You can download a computer application called Freedom, which allows you to read in peace by cutting off your Internet connection. Or if you want to avoid being disturbed by the Internet, you could always download offline reader Instapaper for your iPhone. If you're still reading my article, that is slow reading.
A. The Internet is probably part of the problem.
B. Now some campaigns are advocating slow reading.
C. These are the two findings from the recent research projects.
D. But if you just occasionally want to read more slowly, help is at hand.
E. Some of them have suggested turning their computers off for one day a week.
F. Slow reading can help connect a reader to neighborhood and become popular.
G. Because of the Internet, we have become very good at collecting information.
If you have ever had a cat, or have watched one of the many funny cat videos online, you’ll know that cats have a mind of their own. A lot of the things they do are hard to understand---they like to climb up tall furniture, fit themselves in small spaces and attack small objects for no reason at all.
Now scientists have managed to figure out what exactly is going on in the brains of our little friends. According to Tony Buffington, a professor at Ohio State University in the US, cats’ strange behavior largely comes from their way of life back in the wild. “Cats today still have many of the same instincts(本能)that allowed them to live in the wild for millions of years.” he said in a TED Talk. “To them, our homes are their jungles.”
In the wild, cats are hunters. Their bodies and great balancing abilities allow them to climb to high spots to better look at the environment. Even though they don’t have to hunt any more in human houses, they still keep the old habit of viewing the living room from, for example, the top of the refrigerator.
Cats’ hunting instinct is also what makes them attack small things like keys and USB drives. In the wild, they hunt whatever they can get, and most of the animals they kill are small.
However, cats can also be prey. This explains why they like to stay in small spaces like drawers or washing machines---they are hiding, or they think they are hiding, from more dangerous animals. This is also why cats prefer a clean box: a smelly one could easily show enemies where they are.
Knowing how cats’ minds work is not only useful for better understanding them. It may also help cats’ owners to better meet cats’ needs. For example, owners could try to make climbing easier for cats by moving their furniture around. They could also use “food puzzles” to make eating feel more like hunting instead of just giving food to the cats.
1.According to Tony Buffington, ________.
A.cats’ strange behavior is hard for people to understand
B.cats are more used to living in the wild than in humans’ homes
C.cats behave strangely mainly because of some instincts in the wild
D.cats’ instincts are as helpful to them today as they were millions of year ago
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?
A.Cats like to climb up high because they want to hide from dangerous animals.
B.Cats attack keys and USB drives because they have a habit of hunting small animals.
C.Cats enjoy staying in small spaces because they usually live in small caves in the wild.
D.Cats’ preference for a clean box probably has something to do with their hunting instincts.
3.The underlined word “prey” in Paragraph 5 probably means _________.
A.an animal that is too lazy
B.an animal that likes hiding games
C.an animal that keeps itself clean
D.an animal that is hunted
4.This article is mainly written to _________.
A.explore the reasons behind cats’ strange behavior
B.describe cats’ past wild experience to readers
C.tell cat owners how to make life easier for cats
D.compare cats’ behavior in human homes with that in the wild
Runners who encounter visual and auditory(听觉的) distractions may be more likely to suffer leg injuries, according to a research by the Association of Academic Physiatrists in Las Vegas. Runners often seek distractions from the task at hand. Whether it is music, texting, daydreaming, taking in the sights, or propping a book up on the treadmill(跑步机), more often than not a distraction is welcome. But, researchers from the University of Florida have recently discovered that those distractions may lead to injury.
Daniel Herman, MD, PhD, assistant professor at University of Florida, and his team conducted a research on the effect of visual and auditory distractions on 14 runners to determine what effect, if any, these distractions would have on things such as heart rate, how much a runner breathes per minute, how much oxygen is consumed by the body, the speed in which runners apply force to their bodies, and the force the ground applies to the runners’ bodies when they come in contact with it.
The runners were all injury free at the time of the study and ran 31 miles each week. Dr. Herman’s team had each participant run on a treadmill three separate times. The first time was without any distractions. The second time added a visual distraction, during which the runners concentrated on a screen displaying different letters in different colors with the runners having to note when a specific letter-color combination appeared. The third time added an auditory distraction similar to the visual distraction, with the runners having to note when a particular word was spoken by a particular voice.
When compared to running without distractions, the participants had faster application of force to their left and right legs, called loading rate, with auditory and visual distractions. They also experienced an increased amount of force from the ground on both legs, called ground reaction force, with auditory distractions. Finally, the runners tended to breathe heavier and have higher heart rates with visual and auditory distractions than without any distractions at all.
“Running in environments with different distractions may unfavorably affect running performance and injury risk,” explains Dr. Herman. “Sometimes these things cannot be avoided, but you may be able to minimize potentially cumulative(累积的) effects. For example, when running a new route in a noisy environment such as during a destination marathon, you may want to skip listening to something which may require more attention—like a new song playlist.”
Dr. Herman’s team will continue to investigate the potential relationship between distracted running and leg injuries, and any effect this relationship has on different training techniques that use auditory or visual cues(暗示).
1.Paragraph 2 tells us the research ______.
A.process B.results
C.questions D.reflection
2.Based on the research, runners with auditory distractions tended to ______.
A.breathe heavier and have lower heart rates
B.get an increased amount of ground reaction force
C.apply more force with less oxygen consumption
D.gain a faster speed with slower loading rates
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A.Running with distractions becomes uncommon nowadays.
B.Listening to a new song while running guarantees performance.
C.Runners are more likely to get injured in an environment without distractions.
D.Runners are advised to minimize distractions in a destination marathon.
4.What is probably the next task for Dr. Herman’s team?
A.What determines training techniques.
B.How distractions should be used in training.
C.Why runners use auditory and visual cues.
D.What effective ways can cure leg injuries.
Science is finally beginning to embrace animals who were, for a long time, considered second-class citizens.
As Annie Potts of Canterbury University has noted, chickens distinguish among one hundred chicken faces and recognize familiar individuals even after months of separation. When given problems to solve, they reason: hens trained to pick colored buttons sometimes choose to give up an immediate food reward for a slightly later (and better) one. Healthy hens may aid friends, and mourn when those friends die.
Pigs respond to human symbols. When a research team led by Candace Croney at Penn State University carried wooden blocks marked with X and O symbols around pigs, only the O carriers offered food to the animals. The pigs soon ignored the X carriers in favor of the O’s. Then the team switched from real-life objects to T-shirts printed with X or O symbols. Still, the pigs walked only toward the O-shirted people: they had transferred their knowledge to a two-dimensional format, a not inconsiderable feat of reasoning.
I’ve been guilty of prejudiced expectations, myself. At the start of my career almost four decades ago, I was firmly convinced that monkeys and apes out-think other animals. They’re other primates（灵长目动物）, after all, animals from our own mammalian class. Fairly soon, I came to see that along with our closest living relatives, whales too are masters of cultural learning, and that elephants express profound joy and mourning with their social companions. Long-term studies on these mammals helped to fuel a viewpoint shift in our society: the public no longer so easily accepts monkeys made to undergo painful procedure in laboratories, elephants forced to perform in circuses, and dolphins kept in small tanks at theme parks.
Over time, though, as I began to broaden out even further and explore the inner lives of fish, chickens, pigs, goats, and cows, 1 started to wonder: Will the new science of “food animals” bring an ethical (伦理的) revolution in terms of who we eat? In other words, will our ethics start to catch up with the development of our science?
1.According to Annie Potts, hens’ choice of a later and better reward indicates their ability of ______.
A.interaction B.analysis C.creation D.abstraction
2.The research into pigs shows that pigs ______.
A.learn letter quickly B.have good eyesight
C.can build up a good relationship D.can apply knowledge to new situations
3.What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?
A.The similarities between mammals and humans.
B.The necessity of long-term studies on mammals.
C.A change in people’s attitudes towards animals.
D.A discovery of how mammals express themselves.
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A.The Lifestyles of Food Animals B.Science Reports on Food Animals
C.The Inner Lives of Food Animals D.A Revolution in Food Animals
Enter for a Chance to Win a Montana Adventure
Imagine yourself hiking on the same route that Lewis and Clark once explored, fly fishing and white-water rafting in beautiful lakes and rivers, learning how to speak Blackfoot, digging for ancient dinosaur remains, and standing at the edge of a 6,000-year-old glacier in Glacier National Park. You have the chance to do all of this and much more with the National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge Expedition Team. The Hands-On Explorer Challenge is heading west in 2020 to Montana.
HIKE!
Montana is the home of many species of plants and animals. Follow in the footsteps of legendary explorers and get a close-up view of waterfalls, wildflowers, and wildlife.
DIG !
Some of the most important dinosaur discoveries have been found in Montana. You'll discover treasures yourself as you dig for ancient dinosaur remains in Montana's High Plains.
CULTURE !
Montana has eleven Native American tribes-each one filled with a unique heritage and lots of rich traditions. View the world as they see it through their dances, songs, food, games, and languages.
HOW TO ENTER
1. Write an original, personal essay in English of no more than 300 words telling us how you explore your world and what it is about exploration that inspires and excites you.
2. Take a photograph of what, where, or how you explored the subject of your essay.
3. Enter by January 7, 2020. Open to kids who will be ages 9-14 as of July l, 2020.
4. Send your entry form, essay, and photo (as described in the Official Rules) to: NG Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge, National Geographic Kids magazine/CDH, 1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D. C. 20036.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO
KIDS. NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC. COM/KIDS/CONTESTS/EXPLORER-TRIP-2020.
1.What is true about Montana?
A.Lewis and Clark used to live there.
B.Many dinosaurs have been discovered there.
C.Its Native American tribes share the same culture.
D.It is home to many species of plants and animals.
2.If you want to enter the contest you must
A.be over 14 years old
B.send a photo with your essay
C.have rich exploration experience
D.write an English article over 300 words
3.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To provide travel information.
B.To describe Montana's scenery.
C.To announce a kid competition.
D.To suggest some outdoor activities.
Directions: Write an English composition in between 100 and 120 words according to the situation given below in Chinese.
假设你是明启中学（Ming Qi Middle School）英语报通讯员李华，拟从所给的三个主题中任选其一，为该报写一篇报道。
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