Traditional fairytales(童话) are being given up by parents because they are too scary for their young children, a study found.
Research uncovered that one in five parents has got rid of old literature such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Rapunzel in favor of more modern books.
One third of parents said their children have been left in tears after hearing the gruesome details of Little Red Riding Hood.
And nearly half of mothers and fathers refuse to read Rumplesliltshin to their kids as the themes of the story are kidnapping and killing.
Similarly, Goldilocks and the Three Bears was also a tale likely to be left on the book shelf as parents felt it forgives stealing.
The survey of 2,000 adults was completed to mark the launch of the hit US drama GRIMM ( 格林童话剧) , which starts tonight at 9pm on Watch, and sees six drama series based on traditional fairytales.
The survey found a quarter of parents questioned wouldn’t consider reading fairytales to their kids.
And 52 percent of the parents said Cinderella didn’t send a good message to their children as it describes a young woman doing housework all day.
Steve Hornsey, General Manager of Watch, said: "Bedtime stories are supposed to calm children down and send them off to sleep soundly.But as we see in GMMM, fairytales can be dark and dramatic so it’s understandable that parents worry about reading them to young children.As adults we can see the innocence in fairytales, but a five - year - old child could take them too literally.Despite the dark nature of classic fairytales as we see in GRIMM, good will defeat evil and there is always a moral to the story."
The study also found two thirds of mums and dads try to avoid stories which might give their children nightmares.The most popular book read at bedtime is now 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle.
However half of parents said traditional tales are "more likely to have a strong moral message than a lot of modern kids' books, such as The Gruffato, The Hungary Caterpillar and the Mr. Men books.Classical works for children are being avoided by parents they think .
A.they contain unmoral themes |
B.they are terrifying |
C.they encourage stealing, kidnapping and killing |
D.they are tired of answering questions |
What does the underlined word "gruesome" mean?
A.Very horrible | B.Very amusing |
C.Very disappointing | D.Very amazing |
Which stories are the popular bedtime stories that parents like to tell their children now?
A.Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella |
B.The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Little Red Riding Hood. |
C.The Very Hungry Caterpillar andMr. Men |
D.Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Cinderella |
According to Steve Hornsey , adults can see innocence in a fairy tale but a 5-year-old child might ______.
A.think it is different from the reality |
B.dislike it because it is scary |
C.believe exactly what the tale says |
D.feel there is a moral to the story |
Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother's voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning(胎教), birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Adrances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化). New-born chicks can then imitate their mom's call within a few days of entering the world.
This educational method was first z observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her colleagues. Femake Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their errs, when the errs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers-around that served as their regular "feed me!" call.
To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching. Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.
It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their errs, the more similar were the babies' begging calls. In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom's voice were rewarded with the most food.
This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn." As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need?" Kleindorfer asks." Our results suggest that they might be going for quality."
58.The underlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means" ".
A. |
be the worst |
B. |
be the best |
C. |
be the as bad |
D. |
be just as good |
59.What are Kleindorfer's findings based on?
A. |
Similarities between the calls moms and chicks. |
B. |
The observation of fairy wrens across Australia. |
C. |
The data collected from Queensland's locals. |
D. |
Controlled experiments on wrens and other birds. |
60.Embryonic learning helps mother birds to identify the baby birds which .
A. |
can receive quality signals |
B. |
are in need of training |
C. |
fit the environment better |
D. |
make the loudest call |
CHRONOLOGICA
--The Unbelievable Years that Defined History
DID YOU KNOW…
In 105AD paper was invented in China?
When Columbus discovered the New World?
The British Museum opened in 1759?
CHRONOLOGICA is a fascinating journey through time, from the foundation of Rome to the creation of the internet. Along the way are tales of kings and queens, hot air balloons…and monkeys in space.
Travel through 100 of the most unbelievable years in world history and learn why being a Roman Emperor wasn't always as good as it sounds, how the Hundred Years' War didn't actually last for 100 years and why Spencer Perceval holds a rather unfortunate record.
CHRONOLOGICA is an informative and entertaining tour into history, beautifully illustrated and full of unbelievable facts. While CHRONOLOGICA tells the stories of famous people in history such as Thomas Edison and Alexander the Great, this book also gives ab account of the lives of lesser-known individuals including the explorer Mungo Park and sculptor Gutzon Borglum.
This complete but brief historical collection is certain to entertain readers young and old,and guaranteed to present even the biggest history lover with something new!
56.What is CHRONOLOGICA according to the next?
A. |
A biography. |
B. |
A travel guide. |
C. |
A history book. |
D. |
A science fiction. |
57.How does the writer recommend CHRONOLOGICA to readers?
A. |
By giving details of its collection. |
B. |
By introducing some of its contents. |
C. |
By telling stories at the beginning. |
D. |
By comparing it with other books. |
Hollywood's theory that machines with evil(邪恶) minds will drive armies of killer robots is just silly. The real problem relates to the possibility that artificial intelligence(AI) may become extremely good at achieving something other than what we really want. In 1960 a well-known mathematician Norbert Wiener, who founded the field of cybernetics(控制论), put it this way "If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot effectively interfere(干预), we had better be quite sure that the purpose which we really desire."
A machine with a specific purpose has another quality, one that we usually associate with living things a wish to preserve its own existence. For the machine, this quality is not in-born, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine cannot achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the single instruction of fetching coffee, it will have a strong desire to secure success by disabling its own off switch or even killing anyone who might interfere with its task. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, super intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chessboard.
The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrating the minds of computer scientists. Some researchers argue that we can seal the machines inside a kind of firewall, using them to answer difficult questions but never allowing them to affect the real world. Unfortunately, that plan seems unlikely to work we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone super intelligent machines.
Solving the safety problem well enough to move forward in AI seems to be possible but not easy. There are probably decades in which to plan for the arrival of super intelligent machines. But the problem should not be dismissed out of hand, as it has been by some AI researchers. Some argue that humans and machines can coexist as long as they work in teams-yet that is not possible unless machines share the goals of humans. Others say we can just "switch them off" as if super intelligent machines are too stupid to think of that possibility. Still others think that super intelligent AI will never happen. On September 11, 1933, famous physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, with confidence, "Anyone who expects a source of power in the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine." However, on September 12, 1933, physicist Leo Szilard invented the neutron-induced(中子诱导) nuclear chain reaction.
67.Paragraph 1 mainly tells us that artificial intelligence may .
A. |
run out of human control |
B. |
satisfy human's real desires |
C. |
command armies of killer robots |
D. |
work faster than a mathematician |
68.Machines with specific purposes are associated with living things partly because they might be able to .
A. |
prevent themselves from being destroyed |
B. |
B achieve their original goals independently |
C. |
do anything successfully with given orders |
D. |
beat humans in international chess matches |
69.According to some researchers, we can use firewalls to .
A. |
help super intelligent machines work better |
B. |
be secure against evil human beings |
C. |
keep machines from being harmed |
D. |
avoid robot's affecting the world |
70.What does the author think of the safety problem of super intelligent machines?
A.It will disappear with the development of AI.
B.It will get worse with human interference.
C.It will be solved but with difficulty.
Measles(麻疹), which once killed 450 children each year and disabled even more, was nearly wiped out in the United States 14 years ago by the universal use of the MMR vaccine(疫苗). But the disease is making a comeback, caused by a growing anti-vaccine movement and misinformation that is spreading quickly. Already this year, 115 measles cases have been reported in the USA, compared with 189 for all of last year.
The numbers might sound small, but they are the leading edge of a dangerous trend. When vaccination rates are very high, as they still are in the nation as a whole, everyone is protected. This is called "herd immunity", which protects the people who get hurt easily, including those who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, babies too young to get vaccinated and people on whom the vaccine doesn't work.
But herd immunity works only when nearly the whole herd joins in. When some refuse vaccination and seek a free ride, immunity breaks down and everyone is in even bigger danger.
That's exactly what is happening in small neighborhoods around the country from Orange County, California, where 22 measles cases were reported this month, to Brooklyn, N.Y., where a 17-year-old caused an outbreak last year.
The resistance to vaccine has continued for decades, and it is driven by a real but very small risk. Those who refuse to take that risk selfishly make others suffer.
Making things worse are state laws that make it too easy to opt out(决定不参加) of what are supposed to be required vaccines for all children entering kindergarten. Seventeen states allow parents to get an exemption(豁免), sometimes just by signing a paper saying they personally object to a vaccine.
Now, several states are moving to tighten laws by adding new regulations for opting out. But no one does enough to limit exemptions.
Parents ought to be able to opt out only for limited medical or religious reasons. But personal opinions? Not good enough. Everyone enjoys the life-saving benefits vaccines provide, but they'll exist only as long as everyone shares in the risks.
63.The first two paragraphs suggest that ____________.
A. |
a small number of measles cases can start a dangerous trend |
B. |
the outbreak of measles attracts the public attention |
C. |
anti-vaccine movement has its medical reasons |
D. |
information about measles spreads quickly |
64.Herd immunity works well when ____________.
A. |
exemptions are allowed |
B. |
several vaccines are used together |
C. |
the whole neighborhood is involved in |
D. |
new regulations are added to the state laws |
65.What is the main reason for the comeback of measles?
A. |
The overuse of vaccine. |
B. |
The lack of medical care. |
C. |
The features of measles itself. |
D. |
The vaccine opt-outs of some people. |
66.What is the purpose of the passage?
A. |
To introduce the idea of exemption. |
B. |
To discuss methods to cure measles. |
C. |
To stress the importance of vaccination. |
D. |
To appeal for equal rights in medical treatment. |
Inspiring young minds!
TOKNOW Magazine is a big hit in the world of children's publishing, bringing a unique combination of challenging ideas and good fun to young fans every month.
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59. Why is TOKNOW a special magazine?
A. |
It entertains young parents. |
B. |
It provides serious sdvertisements. |
C. |
It publishes popular science fictions. |
D. |
It combines fun with complex concepts. |
60. What does TOKNOW offer its readers?
A. |
Online courses. |
B. |
Articles on new topics. |
C. |
Lectures on a balanced life. |
D. |
Reports on scientific discoveries. |
61. How much should you pay if you make a 12-mouth subscription to TOKNOW with gift pack from China?
A. |
£55. |
B. |
£60. |
C. |
£65. |
D. |
£70. |
62. Subscribers of TOKNOW would get .
A. |
free birthday presents |
B. |
full refund within 28 days |
C. |
membership of the TOKNOW club |
D. |
chances to meet the experts in person |