Did you ever wonder who invented products like Liquid Paper, Kevlar or paper bags? Most would think a man invented these items. Guess what? Women invented each of these. What? You don’t believe me? Well, read this:
Liquid Paper was invented by Bette Nesmith Graham in 1951 and originally called Mistake Out. Being a typist, Bette was increasingly irritated with being unable to erase her typing mistakes. The messy business left her hands black and the paper dirty. Bette was good at painting and remembered that an artist paints over mistakes. She applied that same principle to typing mistakes and Liquid Paper was born, making Bette into a self-made millionaire.
Kevlar, yes, the Kevlar of the bullet proof vest（防弹衣）—what police officers and soldiers wear, was invented by Stephanie Kwolek. Stephanie worked for the DuPont Company as a research chemist. She was asked to find a high-performance fiber. Originally, this fiber was intended to be used for car tires (轮胎). However, the fiber she developed in 1964 was amazing and is still used in products such as sailboats, skis, shoes, and yes, bullet proof vests. In 1995 Stephanie was named to the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
Margaret Knight invented a machine that revolutionized the making of paper bags. Paper bags had been made like envelopes but Margaret developed a machine that would fold and paste（粘）a flat-bottom paper bag, the very same type we still use today. Margaret’s family was poor and she started working at the age of nine. Her first invention at the age of twelve was a safety tool for a loom（织布机）. Later she worked for the Columbia Paper Bag Company. It was there that she worked on improving the making of paper bags. She was issued her patent（专利）in 1870.
So next time you use a new product or an old one, will you wonder who made it? Do some research on the web and answer a few questions like: Who invented it? How was it invented? You may be surprised at some of the stories you uncover.The underlined word “irritated” in Paragraph 2 is the closest in meaning to_________.
| A．annoyed | B．excited | C．delighted | D．nervous |
What do we know about Margaret?
| A．She was a member of the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. |
| B．Her first invention was made when she was twenty. |
| C．Her invention was designed to produce envelopes. |
| D．She began working when she was very young. |
which of the following best shows the structure of the passage? (①="paragraph" 1, ②="Paragraph" 2,… ⑤="paragraph" 5)
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．How inventions were made |
| B．Amazing inventions by women |
| C．Women and modern technology |
| D．You can also be an inventor |
While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.
These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity (笃信宗教). As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people’s lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.
“Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness or life satisfaction,” explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. “Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates (相关物), and predictors for meaning in life.”
Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” and “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”
The data revealed some unexpected trends:
“Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life,” says Oishi. “But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction.”
When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries – all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life.”
The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning to life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:
“Religion gives a system that connects daily experiences with the coherent whole (连贯的整体) and a general structure to one’s life … and plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship,” the researchers write.
Oishi and Diener hope to reproduce these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life.Which of the following questions couldn’t the participants have answered?
| A．Does your life have a purpose or meaning? |
| B．Do you have relatives living abroad? |
| C．Are you satisfied with your everyday life? |
| D．Is religion involved in your daily life? |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Those who have higher life satisfaction usually have lower sense of meaning in life. |
| B．People in wealthier nations were more educated, have fewer children and express less individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries. |
| C．Religion may provide meaning to life in that people can get strong support from it in face of hardship. |
| D．Wealthy people are more likely to commit suicide than poor people. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The poorer a country is, the more religious its people are. |
| B．Economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life. |
| C．If you want to find meaning in life, you must practice a religion. |
| D．Meaning in life doesn’t have much to do with the amount of wealth one possesses. |
The main purpose of the passage is to explain the possible reason why __________.
| A．greater life satisfaction leads to lower sense of meaning |
| B．residents of poorer nations enjoy greater meaning in life |
| C．residents of poorer nations are so religious |
| D．residents of wealthy nations have greater life satisfaction |
Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the ability to read and understand emotions in ourselves and others. It is said that emotional intelligence makes up 80 percent of one’s success.
Ever since the 1995 publication of US writer Daniel Goleman’s best-seller, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, EQ has been seen by leaders and educators as the solution to many social problems. In some Western countries such as the US, emotional intelligence is now taught widely in secondary, business and medical schools.
EQ is important. But our enthusiasm for it has hidden a dark side, says a recent article in The Atlantic.
Recent research and studies show that as people improve their emotional skills, they become better at manipulating (操控) others. When someone knows what others are feeling, they can motivate them to act against their own best interests.
Does this remind you of those “managers” at pyramid scheme (传销) companies? Hundreds of thousands of otherwise cautious and rational (理性的) people have been brainwashed by their impassioned speeches and become bankrupt as a result.
Social scientists have begun to document this dark side of emotional intelligence. A study by the University of Cambridge found that when a leader gave an inspiring speech filled with emotion, the audience was less likely to look over the message and remembered less of the content.
Researchers call this the “awestruck effect” (敬畏效应), but it may just as easily be described as the dumbstruck effect, says The Atlantic article. Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our ability to reason. If they have self-serving motives, or their values are out of step with our own, emotional intelligence becomes a weapon of manipulation and the results can be destroyed.
Another recent study from Kyoto University shows that people with high interpersonal EQ influence others’ emotions based on their own goals.
A research team led by University College London professor Martin Kilduff shed more light on this dark side of emotional intelligence. According to them, emotional intelligence helps people disguise (伪装) one set of emotions while expressing another for personal gain. Emotionally intelligent people “intentionally shape their emotions to leave favorable impressions of themselves”, Kilduff’s team writes in the journal Research in Organizational Behavior.
It seems that to better understand the dark side of EQ, we need to look no further than Shakespeare’s Macbeth or its modern adaption on TV: House of Cards.Which of the following statements about EQ is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Many westerners have a good knowledge of EQ. |
| B．EQ plays an important role in solving social problems. |
| C．EQ can help you read and understand emotions in yourself and others. |
| D．If a person has a high level of EQ, he will surely succeed in everything. |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph but one means that the research team __________.
| A．made clear the dark side of EQ |
| B．hid the positive side of EQ |
| C．understand the positive side of EQ |
| D．discovered the dark side of EQ |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Macbeth was adapted from House of Cards. |
| B．House of Cards helps us understand the dark side of EQ better. |
| C．The dark side of EQ is shown neither in Macbeth nor in House of Cards. |
| D．To understand the dark side of EQ better, we’d better not refer to House of Cards and Macbeth. |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．The dark side of EQ. |
| B．The importance of EQ to readers. |
| C．The definition of EQ. |
| D．The positive and negative aspects of EQ. |
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NEMS |
NEWRI Environmental Master of Science |
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| NEWRI: Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute |
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| Be a leader in environmental science and engineering through the NEMS programme |
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| NEWRI Environmental Master of Science(NEMS) is a primary graduate education and research programme conducted by Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU’s) NEWRI, with summer attachment at Stanford University. It aims to train engineers and scientists to meet the increasing environmental challenges for Asia and the wider region. |
NEWRI-Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute NEWRI is enabling Singapore to be a global center of environmental science and technology in providing technological solutions to the world. It is committed to environmental and water technologies through its ecosystem of education, research and developmental activities. NEWRI is trying its best to pull together NTU’s water and environment-related centers and institutes, gathering one another’s strengths for the benefit of industry and society. |
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| Master of Science Applications ● Applications open now and close on 30 May 2013 for Singapore applicants. ● Graduates having relevant engineering or science background, including final-year students, are invited to apply. ● Applicants are required to have a certificate of GRE. Further information and application materials are available at the Website: http:// www. Cee.ntu.edu.sg/Graduate/NEMS |
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| Highlights of Programme: ★ Students spend a full summer term at Stanford taking regular courses and continue with the rest of their academic programme at NTU. ★ It is a 12-month full-time course in environmental science & engineering. ★Students under NEMS will have opportunities to do research projects under NEWRI as well as to continue for the Doctor’s degree. ★ Graduating students receive the NTU degree and a certificate from Stanford for their summer attachment. |
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| Scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses at both Stanford and NTU are available |
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Enquiry contact: Ms Christian Soh Tel：(65) 6861 0507 Fax:(65) 68614606 Email: nems@ntu.edu.sg Information on other graduate programmes available at： www.ntu.edu.sg/cee/program/postgrad.asp |
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If one wants to apply for the NEMS programme, it is essential for him to __________.
| A．have passed the GRE test |
| B．make contact with Ms Soh |
| C．possess a university diploma |
| D．major in engineering or science |
Students admitted to the NEMS Programme __________.
| A．are required to obtain a Doctor’s degree |
| B．will first have regular courses at Stanford |
| C．needn’t be released from their regular jobs |
| D．can receive degrees of both NTU and Stanford |
What’s the main purpose of the NEMS programme?
| A．To offer scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses. |
| B．To strengthen the cooperation between NTU and Stanford. |
| C．To train experts on environmental science and engineering. |
| D．To introduce Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute. |
Alexis Pilkington was a popular 17-year-old and a well-liked athlete who had already won a soccer scholarship to college. But none of that stopped Alexis from becoming the target of online bullying (欺凌). Alexis began to receive hundreds of online unpleasant comments via the latest social networking site called www.formspring.com. In March 2010, Alexis committed suicide and although all agreed that the online bother was not the single factor that led to Alexis’ death, everyone did agree that it was a contributory factor.
Unfortunately, Alexis’ story is not unique. A 2010 study conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center showed that cyberbullying victims were almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to youth who had not experienced cyberbullying.
Suicide is obviously the extreme and no one can minimize the tragedy of it. However, there are other damages that occur as a result of aggressive bullying. It can damage self-esteem and lead to feelings of worthlessness, and also increase social isolation and make victims become withdrawn, depressed, anxious, and insecure. So what causes girls to be so unkind towards each other?
A term known as relational aggression may best describe the cause of girl-on-girl bullying. It starts with a clique (派系) usually led by a girl with a high level of social status and popularity. In order not to lose her position, she will control girls within the clique and take action if she feels threatened. At the leader’s directive the girls within the clique will spread rumors and lies and annoy other girls continuously. The bullying starts at school but will quickly go to cyberbullying due to anonymity (匿名). Girls will easily do so in the anonymity of the Internet. Ultimately the cause will be summarized as the insecurity and jealousy of one girl and the twisted loyalty of members within her clique. Underneath the confident exterior (外表) of a female bully lie desperate insecurities.The example of Alexis Pilkington is given to show.
| A．popular youth are not easy to become the target of bullying |
| B．cyberbullying is quite common among teenagers |
| C．today’s youth don’t like to study any more |
| D．suicide is a serious problem among youth |
The bullying will quickly go to cyberbullying mainly because .
| A．the bullies don’t have to give their names online |
| B．it’s free to post comments online |
| C．it will not attract much attention |
| D．it will not affect their real life |
Which of the following is NOT the cause of bullying?
| A．Lack of security. |
| B．Jealousy of others. |
| C．Trying to be friendly. |
| D．The twisted loyalty of members within a clique. |
We can infer from the last paragraph that a female bully .
| A．has strong self-confidence | B．has strong leadership skills |
| C．is actually weak inside | D．is usually good at study |
Do you dream of owning your own house? Canadian Kyle MacDonald, a 26-year-old from Vancouver who is a resident in Montreal, has just achieved it. MacDonald, who has spent much of his time since graduating from college backpacking round Europe and Asia and whose main income appears to come from working as a pizza-delivery man, decided last year that he wanted to settle down. However, when he checked the real estate market, he quickly realized that he had no chance of raising the depositon a home of his own.
So he came up with an inventive solution. Using the power of the Internet, he decided to try to barter(易货贸易) his way to a house. His starting offer One red paper clip (回形针). Of course, he didn’t expect someone to offer him a house for the paper clip, he simply wanted to trade it for something that was more valuable. 14 trades later, he is now the owner of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
His first trade took place when two women from his hometown offered him a pen in the shape of a fish. MacDonald then traded the fish-pen for a doorknob, then the doorknob for a stove. Further transactions brought him an electricity generator and a ski-bob, a small vehicle on tracks that people use to ride across snow and ice. After nine trades, he had a recording contract at a music studio in Toronto.
But Kyle pressed on, still convinced that he would eventually get a house. After trades which brought him the opportunity to spend a day with rock star Alice Cooper and to have a small part in a Hollywood movie, he struck gold.
When words of Kyle’s astonishing barter journey reached the people of Kipling, they decided to make their move. The population of the town is a little more than l,000, and falling fast. By offering the keys to an empty house on Main Street, Kipling hoped to bring much needed publicity—and residents—to the fading town. And they seem to have succeeded!When Kyle MacDonald started his Internet bartering, he .
| A．hoped that someone would give him a house for his paper clip |
| B．didn’t expect anyone to give him a house for a paper clip |
| C．didn’t know if anyone would exchange a house for a paper clip |
| D．expected that he would have a house after 14 trades |
The third thing that Kyle MacDonald received was .
| A．something you can write with |
| B．something you hold when you open a door |
| C．something you can cook food on |
| D．a small vehicle for riding across snow and ice |
The people of Kipling, Saskatchewan wanted to .
| A．give all the houses on Main Street away |
| B．leave town and live somewhere else |
| C．attract more people to come and live there |
| D．offer the keys to houses in the city |
What does the underlined word “transaction” refer to?
| A．deal | B．knowledge |
| C．vehicle | D．decision |