When I was a kid, I used to spend hours listening to Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew Pinsky on their Sunday night radio show Loveline. I listened so often that I began to use one of their well-known phrases—“good times”—in my daily conversations. Scientists have a name for this phenomenon: behavioral mimicry.
You’ve probably experienced this before: after spending enough time with another person, you might start to pick up on his or her behavior or speech habits. You might even start to develop your friend’s habits without realizing it. There is a large body of literature concerning this sort of phenomenon, and it regularly happens for everything from body gesture to accents to drink patterns（模式）. For example, one study found that young adults were more likely to drink their drink directly after their same-sex drinking partners, than for the two individuals to drink at their own paces.
And the effect isn’t limited to real-life face-to-face activities. Another study found that the same you-drink-then-I-drink pattern held even when watching a movie! In other words, people were more likely to take a drink of their drinks in a theater after watching the actors on the screen enjoy a drink. At least I don’t feel so strange anymore, having picked up on Adam Carolla’s “good times”.
New research published today in the journal PLOS ONE indicates that the same sort of behavioral mimicry is responsible for social eating, at least among university-age women of normal weight. That’s right: the young women were more likely to adjust their eating according to the eating pace of their same-sex dining companion.
As with most experiments, these results raise a whole new set of questions. However, the finding that behavioral mimicry may at least partly explain eating behavior is important, and has real effects on health. The researchers note that “as long as people don’t fully recognize such important influences on intake (eating), it will be difficult to make healthy food choices and keep a healthy diet, especially when people are exposed to the eating behavior of others”.The author takes his own example of using “good times” to_______.
| A．express his love for radio shows |
| B．prove the popularity of the show |
| C．show the influence of the hosts’ words |
| D．introduce the topic of the passage |
Which of the following is NOT an example of behavioral mimicry?
| A．A boy eats his popcorn after watching the actor eat. |
| B．A boy buys a Nike shirt when he finds his desk-mate has one. |
| C．A girl unconsciously sits straight just as others do. |
| D．A girl takes on the Yorkshire accent after a month’s stay. |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _______.
| A．behavioral mimicry is beneficial to our health |
| B．behavioral mimicry decides our eating behavior |
| C．people have realized the effect of behavioral mimicry on our health |
| D．It’s impossible to keep a healthy diet without knowing behavioral mimicry |
What is probably the author’s purpose of writing this passage?
| A．To draw readers’ attention to popular radio shows. |
| B．To introduce behavioral mimicry and its influence. |
| C．To appeal to readers not to fall into others’ habits. |
| D．To advocate healthy food choices among readers. |
How to improve our life? Many people think that they have to accept whatever life throws at them. They’ll say, “This is my destiny(命运). I cannot change it.”
Of course not! You don’t have to suffer needlessly. Your life depends on you, not on other factors.
I know a woman who says she just accepts what life gives her because she has done everything she can to improve it. Guess what her lifestyle is? She wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes back home, relaxes, chats with people, watches TV, and then goes to sleep. Next day, the same routine cycle follows.
Huh! Is this what she calls “doing her best”? She believes she has tried her best and just accepts it in her heart that this is the life that has been intended for her and that her luck can only change if God wills it. She hasn’t realized that we have to do our share of making the effort to live the life of our dreams.
Remember that you harvest what you sow. You have to get off the sofa, get your eyes off the TV screen, get your hands off the phone (unless it’s helpful to your success), and get your mind and body to work! Don’t expect your luck to change, unless you do something about it. If something goes wrong, don’t just regard it as a temporary(暂时的) problem; Instead, learn your lesson, make the most of the situation, and do something to solve the problem. It’s not enough to think positively; you also have to act positively.
If someone’s life is in trouble, do you just hope and pray that things will turn out fine? Of course not! You get to do anything you can to save the person. So it is with your own life. It is not enough to hope for the best, but you have to do your best. In other words, don’t just stand (or sit) there, do something to improve your life.As for the woman mentioned in Para.3, her life________.
| A．doesn’t need improving | B．couldn’t be improved |
| C．will be better some day | D．will be worse in the future |
What does the author think of the woman’s life?
| A．Positive. | B．Passive. |
| C．Disturbing. | D．Colorful. |
In Para.5, the author emphasized the importance of ________.
| A．positive action | B．positive thinking |
| C．hope for the best | D．intention to succeed |
The text is mainly designed to advise you to _________.
| A．know yourself | B．believe in yourself |
| C．improve your life | D．change your normal way |
Thousands of taxi drivers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, reportedly blocked streets with their vehicles on Sunday in protest against unlicensed vehicles using taxi-hiring apps(打车软件) and apps-based car rental companies providing passenger services, including high-end cars. Although the drivers also complained about the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy by the government, their main complaint was the loss of business because of the rising number of Internet-based car services companies.
On Wednesday, news reports came that Beijing transport authorities will take measures to stop the illegal “taxi business” of private cars through the newly rising Internet apps, following the footsteps of Shenyang and Nanjing.
It is not yet clear how the Shenyang city government will handle the issue and whether it will declare the services offered by market leaders such as Didi Dache, a taxi-hiring app provider backed by Tencent Holdings, and Kuaidi Dache illegal. But Shanghai transport regulators have set a rule, by banning Didi Zhuanche, or car services offered by Didi Dache in December.
Such regulations will cause a setback to the car-hiring companies and investors that are waiting to cash in on the potentially booming business. Just last month, Didi Dache got $700 million in funding from global investors, including Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings, Russian investment company DST Global and Tencent. Besides, the market is uncertain that Kuaidi Dache is about to finalize its latest round of funding after getting $800 million from global investors.
Regulatory uncertainties, however, could cast a shadow on the future of the Internet-based car-hiring services, which have become popular in most of China’s big cities. To be fair, these companies’ business model is anything but bad. For example, Didi Zhuanche works side by side with established car rental companies to provide high-end car service mainly for businesspeople through the Internet and mobile phone apps.
Every link in this business model chain has legal companies and services. Hence, it is hard to define it as illegal and ban it.Why did taxi drivers in Shenyang block the streets with their vehicles?
| A．Because they wanted the government to increase their driving allowances. |
| B．Because they wanted to be educated how to use the taxi-hiring apps. |
| C．Because they wanted to make their main complaints known to the government. |
| D．Because they wanted to call on passengers not to hire the private cars. |
The author’s attitude to banning internet car-hiring service is______.
| A．positive | B．negative |
| C．neutral | D．unclear |
Which of the following statements is false according to the passage?
| A．The problem referred to in the passage exists in all cities |
| B．App-based car rental is helpful to some degree |
| C．The government should regulate the app-based car rental market |
| D．Didi Dache is a China-foreign joint company |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The problem mentioned in the passage exists in all cities |
| B．App-based car rental is helpful in some sense |
| C．The government should regulate the app-based car rental market |
| D．Didi Dache is a China-foreign joint company |
From the passage we learn ___________.
| A．Shenyang banned apps-based car rental companies |
| B．Shanghai is the second city banning Didi Zhuanche |
| C．some international investment companies have faith in the future of apps-based car rental companies |
| D．it is easy to describe the apps-based car rental companies illegal |
Every New Year brings renewed(更新的) expectation for a change, for a better life and for a better you. That’s a wonderful thing, because this fresh start gives us a chance to reinvent our lives and ourselves. Here’s how.
Let go
Many times we are held back by our previous failures,emotions and barriers(障碍). This is all old baggage. Let everything unhappy from the past go. Let go of failures. Let go of fears you’ve built up. Let go of your ideas about what your life has to be like. Let go of long-held beliefs and habits which seem to be burdens(负担) to you.
Clear away distractions(分心)
Clear away email, your favourite blogs and news websites. Clearaway the iPhone or Blackberry, and clear away all the chores that pull at your attention. In fact, if you can, shut off the Internet for a while. You can come back to it after you take a break.
Decide what matters most today
Forget about your goals for all of this year. Instead, decide what you want to do today. What matters most to you and your life? What are you most passionate(热情的) about right now? What excites you? What gives you the most fulfillment(满足感)? Often the answer would be in creating something, making something new, helping others, becoming a better person, and working on a project that you will be proud of. But whatever your answer, have it clear in your mind at the beginning of the day.
Reinvent yourself every day
Every day, you are reborn.Reinvent yourself and your life. Do what matters most to you. It might be the same thing that mattered most yesterday, or it might not be. That isn’t important. What’s important is today---right now! Be passionate, and be happy!
You’ll have a fresh start every single day---not just on January 1 of a new year.Writing this passage, the author seems to be ________.
| A．strict | B．peaceful | C．nervous | D．confident |
The underlined word “chores” refers to ______.
| A．modern technology | B．unimportant things |
| C．online information | D．fashionable devices |
According to the passage, the writer’s suggestion is______.
| A．Stopping using hi-tech devices to avoid troubles in your life. |
| B．Seizing the moment, but not to make a plan for the far future. |
| C．Forgetting everything about and from the past |
| D．Making yourself a person reborn every day. |
which one is the most proper title for the passage ?
| A．Work Effectively in a New Year |
| B．Reduce Stress in a New Year |
| C．Freshen the Start of Every New Day |
| D．Live a Better Life in Every New Day |
As a school teacher, Inderjit Khurana used to take the train to work. And one day, at the station, she saw dozens of children who spent their days begging from train passengers rather than going to school. She learned that it was not a rare problem and that millions of children in India lived on the streets.
Realizing that these children would never be able to escape poor life and homelessness without education, and that it would be impossible to send these children to school, Inderjit decided to create a model program---taking the school to the most out- of-school children.
Khurana’s train platform schools aim to provide a creative school form and give children the basic levels of education. Her last goals reach far beyond the 20 platform schools she and her colleagues have created in India’s Bhubaneswar region. She is determined that her program will become a model for changing the lives of the poorest children throughout India and the world.
Khurana founded the Ruchika Social Service Organization(RSSO) in 1985. The teachers gather the children together between the stops of the train for reading, writing, maths and history taught through songs and other teaching tools.
Khurana recently comes to realize that the education of these children is impossible when the most basic needs of their families are not being met. So she also provides food and medicine for their families.
Khurana insists that every child have the right to an education and that if a child cannot come to the school, then the school must come to him or her.Khurana’s final aim is to .
| A．make the poorest children’s lives better |
| B．put an end to the problem of children’s dropout(辍学) |
| C．attract more students to her platform schools |
| D．set up 20 platform schools throughout India |
What can we learn about the RSSO?
| A．It has a history of more than 30 years. |
| B．It provides jobs for the poorest children. |
| C．It gives money to the out-of-school children. |
| D．Its work doesn’t only include free education for the street children. |
Khurana also provides free food and medicine for the children because_____.
| A．the fundamental family needs are included in her model program |
| B．she wants to draw more people’s attention to the RSSO |
| C．they are the necessities for the out-of-school children |
| D．she wishes to improve local people’s living standard |
Tang Zhou and his wife are planning to have their second child, a test-tube baby. His wife had a natural delivery when she was 34 and their first child, a boy, is now 7. The couple are now hoping to have a daughter through a surrogate mother in the US. “My wife couldn’t bear another delivery because of her heart condition and her age. Surrogacy helps avoid the risks to older mothers,” Tang said, “Moreover, our second child will be born in the US and become a citizen there. That is not a bad choice.”
The couple spent weeks researching their move, looking for a reliable agency that provides surrogacy services overseas. Surrogacy is still illegal in many countries, including China. “We will be taking much higher risks by relying on a surrogate mother in China because we are not protected by any regulation or law. You pay a lot of money but may meet with many problems,” Tang said. “You might not even get your baby back.”
Tang and his wife are part of an increasing number of Chinese couples who are turning to surrogacy services. Tang also considered surrogacy in Thailand but dropped the idea after recent reports about a baby with Down Syndrome(唐氏综合症) who was delivered through surrogacy and said to have been deserted in Thailand by the biological parents from Australia. Instead, Tang chose the California Surrogacy Center agency as his first option after reading the detailed introduction on its website. Compared with many other agencies that he could contact only via e-mail, the center has a consulting office in Beijing, Tang said.
The center is in San Diego, California, and has satellite offices in Los Angeles and Beijing. According to Liu, the center has been operating for more than eight years, and about 100 surrogate mothers live in California.“A surrogate mother” refers to a mother who _______.
| A．acts as a baby-sitter |
| B．nurses another woman’s baby |
| C．offers service to a new mother |
| D．gives birth to a baby for another woman |
Which of the following is True according to the passage?
| A．Chinese couples prefer to have a test-tube baby. |
| B．Couples face no risks in surrogacy services. |
| C．A sick test-tube baby was deserted in Thailand. |
| D．Unhealthy test-tube babies can be legally abandoned. |
Tang and his wife turned to overseas surrogacy services because _______.
| A．surrogacy remains illegal in China |
| B．they call for less money |
| C．it is more convenient to contact them |
| D．most of them are experienced |
The passage mainly tells us that ________.
| A．an old woman can take a risk of delivering a baby |
| B．more Chinese couples are turning to surrogacy |
| C．it’s not a bad choice to have a baby born overseas |
| D．biological couples may fail to get their babies back |