A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists who expected their future to be worse.
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents (受访者) were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio (比率) of disability and death for the study period.
"We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade," wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
"Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (预防措施)," the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes.
However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. "We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic," the authors concluded.
| 1． |
According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?
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| 2． |
Pessimism may be positive in some way because it causes people.
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| 3． |
How do people of higher income see their future?
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| 4． |
What is the clear conclusion of the study?
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根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项.选项中有两项为多余选项.
Kids' health: Four steps for fighting stress
Everybody gets stressed from time to time. Some ways of dealing with stress- like screaming or hitting someone - don't solve（解决）much. But other ways, like talking to someone you trust, can lead you to solving your problem or at least feeling better.
Try taking these four steps the next time you are stressed:
(1) Get support. When you need help, reach out to the people who care about you. Talk to a trusted adult, such as a parent or other relatives. They might have had similar problems, such as dealing with a test, or the death of a beloved pet.
(2) Don't take it out on yourself. Sometimes when kids are stressed and upset they take it out on themselves. Oh, dear, that's not a good idea. Remember that there are always people to help you. Don't take it out on yourself.
(3) Try to solve the problem. After you're calm and you have support from adults and friends, it's time to get down to business.Even if you can't solve it all,you can solve a piece of it.
(4) Be positive. Most stress is temporary (暂时的). Remember stress does go away,especially when you figure out the problem and start working on solving it.These steps aren't magic, but they do work. And if you can stay positive as you make your way through a tough time, you'll help yourself feel better even faster.
| A．Ask for a helping hand to get you through the tough situation. |
| B．Notice your friends' feelings and find a way to help them. |
| C．Different people feel stress in different ways. |
| D．Ah, it feels so good when the stress is gone. |
E. You need to figure out what the problem is.
F. And don't forget about your friends.
G. Then, find a way to calm down.
Saturday，March 24th
We have arrived in the hot, wet city of Bangkok. This is our first trip to Thailand (泰国). All the different smells make us want to try the food. We are going to eat something special for dinner tonight. The hotel we are staying in is cheap and very clean. We plan to stay here for a few days, visit some places in the city, and then travel to Chiang Mai in the North.
Tuesday, March 27th
Bangkok is wonderful and surprising! The places are interesting. We visited the famous market which was on water, and saw a lot of fruits and vegetables. Everything is so colourful, and we have taken hundreds of photos already! Later today we will leave for Chiang Mai. We will take the train north, stay in Chiang Mai for two days, and then catch a bus to Chiang Rai.
Friday，March 30th
Our trip to Chiang Rai was long and boring. We visited a small village in the mountains. The village people here love the quiet life—no computers or phones. They are the kindest people I have ever met. They always smile and say “hello”. Kathy and I can only speak a few words of Thai, so smiling is the best way to show our kindness. I feel good here and hope to be able to come back next year. The diaries above show the writer’s ______ days in Thailand.
| A．3 |
| B．7 |
| C．15 |
| D．8 |
It seems that visitors ______ in Bangkok.
| A．often feel hungry |
| B．can’t take any photos |
| C．can enjoy themselves |
| D．feel a little bored |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Chiang Mai is a beautiful city in the south of Thailand. |
| B．The writer left Chiang Mai for Chiang Rai by bus. |
| C．The writer is traveling alone in Thailand. |
| D．The writer will take a bus to Chiang Mai. |
The people in the village _______.
A. are friendly to others
B. like to speak English
C. hope to live in the cities
D. Live a very busy life
5. The best title of this article is_________.
A. My First Travel
B. The Outside World
C. Traveling in Thailand
D. My Trip to Chiang Mai
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。注意：每空格1个单词。
A new set of brain images shows why: Reading the Roman alphabets and Chinese characters uses different parts of the brain.
The results also suggest that Chinese schoolchildren have reading problems in a different part of the brain used in reading alphabet-based languages. This shows that the learning disorder dyslexia ( inability to read properly) is not the same in very culture and does not have a universal biological cause.
Scientists described the results as “very important and revolutionary”. While dyslexia has certain common roots, they said, they now have some proof that this kind of functional problem works differently according to the different demands that Western and Eastern languages place on the brain.
Dyslexia is a common developmental disorder in which people of normal intelligence have difficulty learning to read, spell and master other language skills.
The results suggest that treating dyslexia around the world probably will require different treatments.
“Reading is complex,” said Guinevere Eden, Georgetown University professor. “This shows we need to be more open-minded about diverse treatment approaches.”
Its origins are complex. There appears to be a genetic aspect to the illness. It also may result from brain injury before birth that changes visual and hearing pathways in the brain.
Earlier brain scans show that English-reading dyslexics don’t function properly in a left part of the brain associated with the awareness of 44 sounds from the English alphabet. However, according to the new study, reading Chinese uses some different parts of the brain located in the left-front of the brain. It is associated with symbol interpretation. Unlike alphabet letters, Chinese characters represent entire thoughts and physical objects.
Dyslexia
| Definition |
a learning(1)______ in which people of average IQ find it (2)_____to learn to read and acquire other language skills |
| Origins |
Genetic causes or brain (3)______ before birth, which affects (4) and hearing abilities |
| Finding of the earlier study |
(5)_____reading dyslexics don’t function properly in a left part of the brain |
| Discovery of the new study |
Reading Chinese uses the(6) _____part of the brain |
| Conclusion |
Reading Roman alphabets and reading Chinese characters place different(7)____on the brain. Dyslexia is not the same in every(8) _____and does not have the same(9)_____roots. |
| (10)_______ |
Dyslexia needs to be treated in different ways |
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day. Some visitors from the city arrived. The told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other place.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a batter future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides(杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job---eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning. From paragraph I we learn that the villagers __________.
| A．worked very hard for centuries |
| B．dreamed of having a better life |
| C．were poor but somewhat content |
| D．lived a different life from their forefathers |
Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．the frogs were easy money |
| B．They needs money to buy medicine |
| C．they wanted to please the visitors |
| D．the frogs made too much noise |
What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
| A．the crops didn’t do well |
| B．there were too many insects |
| C．the visits brought in diseases |
| D．the pesticides were overused |
What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?
| A．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country |
| B．Health is more important than money |
| C．The harmony between man and nature is important |
| D．good old day will never be forgotten |
For many parents , raising a teenager is like fighting a long war ,but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries , the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course，theteens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely . Both feel trapped.
In this article， I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things . Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom ,the preferred style of clothing , the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends .Second , blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third , needing to be right .It doesn’t matter what the topic is –politics. The laws of physics ,or the proper way to break an egg –the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong，for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something — and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately , as long as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other ,they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line |
| C．Neither has any clear winner |
| D．Neither can be put to an end |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent –teen conflicts |
| B．Examples of the parent –teen war. |
| C．Solutions for the parent –teen problems |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship |