Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia found.
Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.
“We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn,” said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.
“No matter how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not,” Dunn said in a statement.
Dunn’s team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $3,000 and $8,000. “Employees who devoted more of their bonus to prosocial spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus, and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself,” they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.
They gave their volunteers $5 or $20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.
“These findings suggest that very minor changes in spending allocations-as little as $5 may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day,” Dunn said. What is the general idea of the passage?
| A．The more you earn, the greater happiness you will get. |
| B．Spending more money on yourself will make you happier. |
| C．Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else. |
| D．You can spend only $5 a day on someone else to get happiness. |
The underlined work “boost” in the first paragraph probably means .
| A．help to find | B．help to increase | C．help to bring | D．help to get |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Those who spend more money on others can get much more bonus. |
| B．People usually think spending money on themselves will make them happier. |
| C．Very small changes in spending your money may be enough to gain happiness. |
| D．Researchers think that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn. |
Dunn is .
| A．a reporter in a journal | B．a volunteer in the experiment |
| C．an employee in a company | D．a psychologist at a university |
It can be inferred from the 6th paragraph that .
| A．the volunteers not given $5 or $20 spent their own money on themselves |
| B．those who spent the money on someone or something else felt happier about it |
| C．the volunteers were given $5 or $20 as a reward for the experiment |
| D．half of the volunteers could spend the money as they liked |
We now think of chocolate as sweet, but once it was bitter. We think of it as a candy, but once it was a medicine. Today, chocolate can be a hot drink, a frozen dessert, or just a snack. Sometimes it’s an ingredient(配料) in the main course of a meal. Mexicans make a hot chocolate sauce called mole and pour it over chicken. The Mexicans also eat chocolate with spices(香料) like chili peppers.
Chocolate is a product of the tropical cacao tree. The beans taste so bitter that even the monkeys say “Ugh!” and run away. Workers must first dry and then roast the beans. This removes the bitter taste.
The word “chocolate” comes from a Mayan word. The Mayas were an ancient people who once lived in Mexico. They valued the cacao tree. Some used the beans for money, while others crushed them to make a drink.
When the Spaniards came to Mexico in the sixteenth century, they started drinking cacao too.Because the drink was strong and bitter, they thought it was a medicine. No one had the idea of adding sugar. The Spaniards took some beans back to Europe and opened cafes. Wealthy people drank cacao and said it was good for the digestion.
In the 1800s, the owner of a chocolate factory in England discovered that sugar removed the bitter taste of cacao. It quickly became a cheap and popular drink. Soon afterwards, a factory made the first solid block of sweetened chocolate. Later on, another factory mixed milk and chocolate together. People liked the taste of milk chocolate even better.
Besides the chocolate candy bar, one of the most popular American snacks is the chocolate chip cookie. Favorite desserts are chocolate cream pie and, of course, an ice cream sundae with hot fudge sauce.
1. It was ________that discovered sugar could remove the bitter taste of cacao.
A. The workers in the chocolate factory B. The Spaniards
C. The people in England D. The owner of a chocolate factory
2. According to the passage which of the following statements is true?
A. Nobody had the idea of adding sugar until the sixteenth century.
B. The word “chocolate” comes from a Mexican word.
C. The beans taste so bitter that even the monkeys like them.
D. Workers must dry and roast the beans to remove the bitter taste.
3. The Spaniards think that cacao was a medicine because________
A. it was strong and bitter. B. it was good for digestion.
C. it cured man’s diseases. D. it was a kind of drink for good health.
4. Which is the right time order of the events regarding chocolate?
a. Chocolate became a cheap and popular drink in England.
b. A factory made the first solid block of sweetened chocolate.
c. The Spaniards started drinking cacao.
d. It was found that sugar removed the bitter taste of cacao.
e. A factory mixed milk and chocolate together.
A. a-b-c-d-e B. c-d-e-b-a C. c-d-a-b-e D. c-d-b-e-a
5. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. chocolate can be a hot drink, a frozen dessert, or a candy bar
B. Mexicans like chocolate very much
C. chocolate is a product of the cacao tree
D. people liked the taste of chocolate mixed with milk
Fire can help people in many ways. But it can also be very harmful. Fire can heat water, warm your houses, give light, and cook food. But fire can burn things too. It can burn trees, houses, animals, or people. Sometimes big fires can burn forests.
Nobody knows for sure how people began to use fire. But there are many interesting, old stories about the first time a man or woman started a fire. One story from Australia tells about a man a very, very long time ago. He went up to the sun by a rope and brought fire down.
Today people know how to make a fire with matches. Children sometimes like to play with them. But matches can be very dangerous. One match can burn a piece of paper, and then it might burn a house. A small fire can become a big fire very fast.
Fires kill many people every year. So you must he careful with matches. You should also learn to put out fires. Fires need oxygen. Without oxygen they die. There is oxygen in the air. Cover a fire with water, sand, or in an emergency, with your coat or something else.This keeps the air away from a fire and kills it.
Be careful with fire, and it will help you. Be careless with fire, and it will burn you.
8. According to the passage which of the following is true?
A. Where there is oxygen there is fire.
B. It is an Australian who started a fire.
C. We are not sure how people started to use fire.
D. Nobody knows how to make a fire.
9. The reason why children mustn’t play with matches is that ________.
A. they don’t know how to make a fire with matches B. it is not interesting
C. matches can be dangerous D. matches burn paper
10. If you are going to put out a fire, you________.
A. must be careful with matches B. have to know fires kill many people every year
C. have to cover it with water only D. should keep air away from it
11. We must be careful with fire, or it ________.
A. can die B. warms our houses C. might burn us D. will help us
12. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Fire can help people in many ways. B. Fire can be both helpful and harmful.
C. Fire can burn things and people. D. We must be careful with matches.
Super- short tales of the unexpected, plus read- along tapes!
Twenty soft- cover 16-page mini books help students attain reading success through a high interest approach (方法). Audio cassettes, perfect for the ESL (English as a second Language) students, build listening skills by teaching pronunciation, giving oral directions, and presenting vocabulary words in context.
Each story is followed by four pages of short, simple comprehension and vocabulary exercises.
Price: $6.00 for each pack of books
(including five books).
$7.00 for each cassettes
(all together four cassettes).
Publisher: Shanghai Educational Publish House, Simon & Schuster.
5. The exercises following each story are bout ________.
A. vocabulary and comprehension B. listening and speaking
C. comprehension and writing D. listening and vocabulary
6. There are ________ packs of the books in this set.
A. 4B. 5 C. 9 D. 20
7. If you want to buy all the books plus read- along tapes, how much do you have to pay?
A. $ 24 B. 28 C. 58 D. 52
Do you love American country music? If you do, come to Nashville. It’s the home of American country music.
Nashville is the capital city of the state of Tennessee. Here you don’t have to go to the big auditoriums(音乐厅) to enjoy the country music. In the open air restaurants or on the streets, you can always hear the beautiful and sweet sounding folk music. All the singers are young and they play their guitars while they sing. The songs they sing are so touching(动人) that, if you listen attentively, you can feel they are singing with their souls rather than with their voices.
Shops selling music records and tapes can be found everywhere in Nashville. Many records are made by famous singers and they are sent to many countries all over the world.
The folk songs most of the singers sing come form the rural areas in the southern United States. The songs often describe those days to situations and the feeling of the country people. They often sing in praises of heroism(英雄) and true love.
1. From the passage we know Nashville is ________.
A. a village B. a big city C. a small town D. a capital city
2. To enjoy the country music, you can go to ________.
A. the big auditoriums B. the open air restaurants C. the streets D. All of the above
3. According to the passage which of the following statements is not true?
A. Shops that sell music records and tapes can be found everywhere in Nashville.
B. The folk songs can impress you deeply
C. Not all records are made by famous singers
D. The folk songs only sing in praises of heroism and true love.
4. The passage is mainly about ________.
A. Nashville B. American young people C. pop singers D. the country music
About 1966 or so, a NASA(美国航空航天局) team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took the astronauts near Tuba City. There the landscape of the Navajo Reservation looks very much like the lunar surface. Among all the trucks and large vehicles were two large figures that were dressed in full lunar space suits.
Nearby a Navajo shepherd (牧羊人) and his son were watching the strange creatures walk about, occasionally being watched over by other NASA workers. The two Navajo people were noticed and approached by the NASA people. Since the shepherd and his son did not know English, they asked the NASA people who the strange creatures were. The NASA people told them that they were just men that were getting ready to go to the moon. The shepherd became very excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.
The NASA officials thought this was a great idea so they provided a tape recorder. After the man gave them his message, they asked his son to translate. His son would not.
Later, they tried a few more people on the reservation to translate and every person they asked would chuckle (偷偷地笑) and then refuse to translate. Finally, with cash in hand someone translated the message, "Watch out for these guys, they have come to take your land! "
9. The appearance of the Navajo Reservation is very similar to that of ________.
A. the Tuba City
B. the moon
C. the NASA research center
D. the Apollo moon mission
10. When the older Navajo heard that the men in front of him were going to the moon, he ______.
A. felt frightened and ran away quickly
B. chatted excitedly with the NASA workers
C. got on the modern trucks and large vehicles for fun
D. tried to say something to the moon creatures
11. The son did not translate the words his father said because ________.
A. he had trouble in understanding his father
B. the words his father used were too difficult to be translated
C. his father was sending a warning against the NASA people
D. he believed that the NASA workers could understand their language
12. According to this passage, we can know that the shepherd was ________.
A. patient and brave B. foolish and impolite
C. humorous and intelligent D. knowledgeable and talkative