How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings
Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. But now scientists are giving this feeling an empirical(经验的,实证的) basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused and lead to relaxation.
Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room's ceiling affects how people think. Her research indicates that higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.
In additions to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant's ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.
Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design & Planning Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.
Recent study on room lighting design suggests that dim(暗淡的) light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.
So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. "We have a very limited number of studies, so we're almost looking at the problem through a straw(吸管)," architect David Allison says. "How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That's what we're all struggling with."
What does Joan Meyers-Levy focus on in her research?
A. Light. B. Ceilings. C. Windows. D. Furniture.
The passage tells us that ______.
A. the shape of furniture may affect people's feelings
B. lower ceilings may help improve students' creativity
C. children in a dim classroom may improve their grades
D. students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ______.
A. the problem is not approached step by step
B. the researches so far have faults in themselves
C. the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect
D. research in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns
70. Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
CP: Central Point P: Point SP: Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion
Do you want to visit Disney World? However, will you worry about your pet if you go to Disney World? To meet the needs of these people, a pet hotel has been built near the Disney World Resort in Florida.
The new pet hotel is named Best Friends Pet Care Resort and it is mainly open to dogs and cats. It has an area of 4,645㎡. About 270 dogs and 30 cats can be kept there at the same time. Besides dogs and cats, it can also provide services for birds, pigs and rabbits. However, it can’t take care of snakes and turtles(乌龟) now.
Best Friend Pet Care Resort is a very expensive hotel. There are several types of dog rooms, such as rooms with air-conditioners(空调) and VIP rooms. There is even a “private dog park”. Owners can have a high-quality vacation with their dogs there. The cats are kept in the “Kitty City”. The “Kitty City” is very comfortable and clean. Workers there will clean it once a day.
Apart from having good equipment, Best Friends Pet Care Resort also have other plans to meet the psychological (心理上的) needs of pets. Workers play music to the pets, walk with them, play with them and even read stories to them before they go to bed.
“We aim to make sure that pets will have a fun vacation here, just like their owners at Disney World,” said the manager of the resort. How many kinds of animals can be kept in Best Friends Pet Care Resort?
| A.Three. | B.Five. | C.Six. | D.Seven. |
About Best Friends Pet Care Resort, which of the following is NOT true?
| A.It covers about 4,645 ㎡. |
| B.It can keep more than 300 pets. |
| C.Owners don’t need to pay much for keeping pets there. |
| D.There is a “private dog park” in the resort as well. |
How often do the workers clean the “Kitty City”?
| A.Once a day. | B.Twice a day. | C.Once a week. | D.Twice a week. |
Workers from the pet care resort read stories to pets in order to .
| A.provide pets with good equipment |
| B.meet the psychological needs of pets |
| C.teach pets to learn more knowledge |
| D.make pets’ owners satisfied with their service |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A.Relationship between Owners and Pets |
| B.Popular Pets All Over the World |
| C.How to Take Care of your Pets |
| D.Pet Care Resort in Florida |
When I was at University I studied very hard. But a lot of my friends did very little work. Some did just enough to pass exams. Others didn’t do quite enough. Fred Baines was one of them. He spent more time playing than working in the library.
Once at the end of the term, we had to take an important test in chemistry. The test had a hundred questions. Beside each question we had to write “True” or “False”. While I was studying in my room the night before the test, Fred was watching TV. Fred usually worried a lot the night before a test. But on that night he looked perfectly calm. Thenhe told me of his plan. “It’s very simple. There are a hundred questions and I have to get fifty correct to pass the test. I’ll just toss(掷)the coin to decide the answers. That way, I’m sure I’ll get half the questions right.”
The next day, Fred came happily into the exam room. As he sat tossing a coin for half an hour he marked down his answers. Then he left, half an hour before the rest of us.
The next day, he saw the chemistry professor in the corridor. “Oh, good,” he said to the teacher, “Have you got the result of the test?” The teacher reached into his pocket and took out a coin. He threw it into the air, caught it in his hand and looked at it.
“I’m terribly sorry, Fred,” he said, “You failed!”This story mainly wants to tell us.
| A.chemistry is really hard to learn |
| B.there are many questions for students to prepare. |
| C.good exam results really need studying hard |
| D.tossing a coin can not always decide the result |
Fred Baines was one of those who .
| A.did just enough to pass an exam |
| B.didn’t work hard enough for their studies |
| C.had more important work to do than study |
| D.were quite good at passing exams |
Fred came happily into the exam room because.
| A.he had got ready for the exam |
| B.he knew the answers already |
| C.one excellent student would help him |
| D.he had his special way to finish the exam |
Which of the following about the chemistry exam is TRUE?
| A.The chemisty exam was not very difficult at all. |
| B.It in fact took an hour to finish the chemisty exam |
| C.The chemisty exam had more than one hundred questions. |
| D.The chemisty exam needed to be done by tossing a coin. |
The professor tossed a coin to tell Baines that .
| A.he was satisfied with Baines’ way for the exam |
| B.he wanted to make friends with Baines |
| C.Baines’ way for the exam would never work |
| D.the exam result depended on the coin |
The quest for success always begins with a target. As Berra once said, “You got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.”
Too many people wander through life like sleepwalkers.Each day they follow familiar routines, never asking, “What am I doing with my life?” and they don’t know what they’re doing because they lack goals.
Goal-setting is a focusing of the will to move in a certain direction.Begin with a clear conception of what you want.Write down your goals and date them—putting them into words clarifies them.Rather than concentrating on objects to acquire and possess, focus on fulfilling your desires to do, to produce, to contribute—goal-setting that yields the true sense of satisfaction we all need.
It’s important to visualize(想象)yourself accomplishing your goal.While losers visualize the penalties(不利)of failure, winners visualize the rewards of success.I’ve seen it among athletes, statistics contrasting air and highway safety, but it made no difference.I had read too many articles describing crash scenes and imagined these scenes vividly.I had programmed myself, without realizing it, to stay off planes.
Then one summer I had the opportunity to fly on a private plane with friends to a resort;I didn’t want to miss out on a great vacation.So I spent two weeks imagining a smooth flight on a beautiful sunny day and an easy landing.
When the day arrived, I was eager to go.To everyone’s surprise, I got on the plane and I loved every minute of it, and I still use the techniques I employed that day.According to the passage, if you want to be successful, the first thing for you to do is ________.
| A.find the right methods | B.be careful about everything |
| C.know your ability | D.have a clear goal |
If you have a target, you will ________.
| A.wander like a sleepwalker |
| B.know well what you are doing |
| C.do the same work every day |
| D.put it into words |
The problem with the author before he overcame his fear of air travel is that________.
| A.he didn’t know air travel is safer than highway travel |
| B.he couldn’t imagine himself accomplishing his goal |
| C.he read too much about plane crashes and tried to avoid flying |
| D.he wanted to take a private plane instead of a public one |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A.Define Your Coal |
| B.Visualize Rewards of Success |
| C.Overcome the Fear of Air Travel |
| D.Sleepwalking Through Life |
The home of the future won’t be completely different and we will be living in houses and flats just as we do today.But people will want to shape their homes to match their dreams.No two homes will be the same.People will be able to buy “house kits” containing a basic house structure, with movable walls, doors and windows.They will put together the different parts to create the home they want.
Many jobs that we do today will disappear, others will still exist but will change and new jobs will be created. Skilled workers such as builders, gardeners and electricians won’t disappear because machines can’t replace them. Teachers will still exist because students need human contact. But they will be using modern technology in class more and students will be working more from home. The medical technology revolution and space travel will create new jobs which we can only imagine today.
Space holidays will develop in the future, but these holidays won’t be for everyone because they won’t be cheap. Short space trips will develop first, then space hotels will orbit the earth where it will be possible to have a longer vacation. By the end of the next century, there will be holiday centres on the moon with leisure facilities for families.
Paper won’t exist in the future. Instead, there will be e-paper which people will be able to use over and over again. This will develop in order to save natural resources. E-newspapers and e-magazines will replace traditional newspapers and magazines and we will download information and news articles from the Internet every day onto our reuseable paper.
The laws of physics tell us that the earth is going to disappear some time in the future.This isn’t going to happen tomorrow but scientists predict that it will happen in five billion years when our sun explodes (爆炸).We will have to explore the universe and find another home. At some point in the distant future, either we stay on the earth and die with it, or we leave and move to another planet. There won’t be any other choice.Homes of the future will ________.
| A.be completely different from those of today |
| B.be very similar to our homes |
| C.all be different from one another |
| D.be movable as you want |
Space trips and staying in space hotels will ________.
| A.become a very common way to spend a holiday |
| B.be the best holiday option for families |
| C.attract a lot of people |
| D.still only be for very rich people |
E-paper will replace traditional paper because ________.
| A.we will use it again |
| B.it won’t waste natural resource |
| C.it will be cheaper to produce |
| D.it will be convenient to carry |
We will have move to another planet ________.
| A.if we want to save the human race |
| B.when the sun explodes |
| C.when the earth disappears |
| D.when the earth is too crowded to fill people on |
As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities, others lose heart at the first sign of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between “flight or fight” and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Since we can't remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because ________.
| A.they regard working as their greatest enjoyment |
| B.they believe that work is superior to relaxation |
| C.they are traveling fast all the time |
| D.they are becoming busier with their work than ever before |
According to the author, the most important character for a good manager is his________.
| A.strong will to hold out stress |
| B.knowing the art of relaxation |
| C.high sense of responsibility |
| D.having control over performance |
Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
| A.We can find quite a few ways to avoid stress. |
| B.Stress is always harmful to people's health |
| C.It’s easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work. |
| D.Different people can bear different amount of stress. |
In the last sentence of the passage, “do so” refers to ________.
| A.“expose ourselves to stress” |
| B.“find ways to deal with stress” |
| C.“remove stress from our lives” |
| D.“establish links between diseases and stress” |