The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a blackboard is a thing of the past. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smartphones, writing by hand has become something of nostalgic(怀旧的)skill. However, while today’s educators are using more and more technology in their teaching,many believe basic handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful-----both in school and in life.
Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says it’s important to continue teaching handwriting and help children acquire the skill of writing by hand.
Berninger and her colleagues conducted a study that looked at the ability of students to complete various writing tasks----both on a computer and by hand. The study, published in 2009, found that when writing with a pen and paper, participants wrote longer essays and more complete sentences and had a faster word production rate.
In a more recent study, Berninger looked at what role spelling plays in a student’s writing skills and found that how well children spell is tied to how well they can write. “Spelling makes some of the thinking parts of the brain active which helps us access our vocabulary, word meaning and concepts. It is allowing our written language to connect with ideas.” Berninger said.
Spelling helps students translate ideas into words in their mind first and then to transcribe (转换) “those words in the mind written symbols on paper or keyboard and screen,” the study said. Seeing the words in the “mind’s eye” helps children not only to turn their ideas into words, says Berninger, but also to spot(发现) spelling mistakes when they write the words down and to correct them over time.
“In our computer age, some people believe that we don’t have to teach spelling because we have spell checks,” she said. “But until a child has a functional spelling ability of about a fifth grade level, they won’t have the knowledge to choose the correct spelling among the options given by the computer.”What makes writing by hand a thing of the past?
| A．Theabsenceofblackboardsinclassrooms. |
| B．Theuseofnewtechnologiesinteaching. |
| C．Thelackofpracticeinhandwriting. |
| D．Thepopularuseofsmartphones. |
Berninger’s study published in 2009 ___________.
| A．focusedonthedifferencebetweenwritingbyhandandonacomputer. |
| B．indicatedthatstudentsprefertowritewithapenandpaper. |
| C．foundthatgoodessaysaremadeupoflongsentences. |
| D．discussedtheimportanceofwritingspeed. |
Which of the following best shows the role of spelling?
| A．Spellingimprovesone’smemoryofwords. |
| B．Spellingabilityiscloselyrelatedtowritingability. |
| C．Spellingbenefitsthetranslationfromwordsintoideas. |
| D．Spellingslowsdownfindingexactwordstoexpressideas. |
What does “mind’s eye” in paragraph 5 mean?
| A． Window. | B．Soul | C．Picture. | D．Imagination. |
What conclusion could be drawn from the passage
| A．Computerscanhelppeoplewiththeirchoiceofwords. |
| B．Spellcheckscantaketheplaceofspellingteaching. |
| C．Handwritingstillhasaplaceintoday’sclassrooms. |
| D．Functionalspellingabilitydevelopsfastinthefifthgrade. |
Susan Sontag (1933 ------ 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything----- to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords (格言), but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poorly-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasure of pop culture. In Notes Camp, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. Notes on Camp, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.
By conviction she was a sensualist (感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist, and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor ------published in 1978, after she suffered cancer ------ she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed (被压抑的) personalities, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame.
“Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending… is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that Sontag _________.
| A．was a symbol of American cultural life |
| B．developed world literature, film and art |
| C．published many essays about world culture |
| D．kept pace with the newest development of world culture |
She first won her name through _________.
| A．publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review |
| B．her story of a Polish actress |
| C．her explanation of a set of difficult understandings |
| D．her book Illness as Metaphor |
From the works Susan published in the 1970s and 1980s, we can learn that ________.
| A．she was more of a moralist than a sensualist |
| B．she was more of a sensualist than a moralist |
| C．she believed repressed personalities mainly led to illness |
| D．she would like to re-examine old positions |
According to the passage, Susan Sontag would agree to the ideas except _________.
| A．We should try hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. |
| B．Cancer can be defeated because it is a special problem of repressed personalities. |
| C．‘Form’ should be over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ should be over ‘morals. |
| D．We should defend the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．A lifelong watchword: seriousness |
| B．Susan Sontag is the symbol of American culture |
| C．How Susan Sontag became famous |
| D．An introduction to Susan Sontag and her watchword |
America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily. Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably. For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!The writer of this passage must be ______.
| A．an American | B．a Chinese | C．a professor | D．a student |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families. |
| B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives. |
| C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy. |
| D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break. |
From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
| A．warmly welcomed at the airport |
| B．offered a ride to his home |
| C．treated hospitably at his home |
| D．treated to dinner in a restaurant |
The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.
| A．strict with time | B．serious with time |
| C．careful with time | D．willing to spend time |
A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
| A．Friendships between Chinese |
| B．Friendships between Americans |
| C．Americans’ hospitality |
| D．Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed. As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated on the test.The story took place exactly ____ .
| A．in the teacher’s office | B．in an exam room |
| C．in the school | D．in the language lab |
The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____ .
| A．she had not brought a pen with her |
| B．she had lost her own on her way to school |
| C．there was something wrong with her pen |
| D．her own had been taken away by someone |
The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____ .
| A．to go on writing his paper |
| B．to stop whispering |
| C．to leave the room immediately |
| D．to stay behind after the exam |
The thing(s) emphasized in the teacher’s talk was (were) ____ .
| A．honesty | B．sense of duty |
| C．seriousness | D．all of the above |
The boy knew everything ____ .
| A．the moment he was asked to stay behind |
| B．when the teacher started talking about honesty |
| C．only some time later |
| D．when he was walking out of the room |
A purple tomato genetically engineered to contain nutrients more commonly seen in dark berries helped cancer in mice, British researchers said on Sunday. The finding, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, bolsters the idea that plants can be genetically modified(changed) to make people healthier.
Cancer-prone mice fed the modified fruit lived significantly longer than animals fed a standard diet with and without regular tomatoes, Cathie Martin and colleagues at
the government-funded John Innes Center in Britain reported. “The effect was much bigger than we had expected.” said Martin, a plant biologist.
The study focused on anthocyanins，a type of antioxidant found in berries such as blackberries and blackcurrants that have been shown to lower risk of cancer, heart diseases and some neurological diseases. While an easy way to improve health, many people don’t eat enough of these fruits, the researchers said. Using genes from the snapdragon flower, the researchers discovered they could get the tomatoes to make anthocyanins---- turning the tomato purple in the process.
Mice genetically engineered to develop cancer lived an average of 182 days when they were fed the purple tomatoes, compared to 142 days for animals on the standard diet. “It is greatly encouraging to believe that by changing diet, or specific components in the diet. You can improve health in animals and possibly humans.” Martin said in a telephone interview.
The researchers warned that trials in humans are a long way off and the next step is to investigate( look into) how the antioxidants actually affect the tumors to promote better health. But the findings do support the formal research suggesting that people can significantly improve their health by making simple changes to the daily diet, other researchers said.
“It’s exciting to see new techniques that could potentially make healthy foods even better for us.” said Doctor Lara Bennett, science information office at Cancer Research UK. “ But it is too early to say whether anthocyanins obtained through diet could help to reduce the risk of cancer.” The text mainly tells us _________.
| A．what can prevent people from having cancer. |
| B．Scientists have developed cancer- fighting tomato. |
| C．ways to live much longer have been found by scientists. |
| D．genetically engineered food is good for people’s health. |
In the first paragraph the underlined word “ bolster” probably means _______
| A．change | B．reduce | C．support | D．test |
Which of the following was NOT the result found in the study?
| A．Blackberries and blackcurrants can lower risk of cancer. |
| B．The anthocyanins can make the purple tomatoes grow stronger. |
| C．Genes from snapdragon flowers can be put into common tomatoes. |
| D．Mice fed the modified fruit lived longer than the common ones. |
According to Dr. Lara Bennett, the effects of anthocyanins through diet on human being________
| A．are not certain now. |
| B．have been proved |
| C．are very harmful |
| D．are hard to be tested |
Psychologists(心理学家) have known that what's going on inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Professor Remi Radel wanted to investigate(look into) how this happens -- whether it's right away, as the brain receives signals from the eyes, or a little later, as the brain's higher-level thinking processes get involved.
Radel chose 42 students and each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating on the day of the test. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word, the person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they'd seen -- a food-related word like gateau (cake) or a neutral (中性的) word like bateau (boat).
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food-related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception (直觉), Radel says—it's not because of some kind of processing happening in the brain after you've already figured out what you're looking at.
"This is something great to me, that humans can really realize what they need or what they hope for, to know that our brain can really arrange for our motives and needs," Radel says. "There is something inside us that selects information in the world to make life easier.”The purpose of Radel's research is to let us know ____.
| A．how our thinking has effect on our senses happens |
| B．what it is the good time for students to have lunch |
| C．whether poorer children think coins are larger than they are |
| D．whether hungry people think pictures of food are brighter |
In the experiment 20 words that flashed on the screen had something to do with “____”.
| A．boat | B．food | C．mind | D．weather |
Which of the following is true about the experiment?
| A．The students should stare at the words in the book. |
| B．Each word appeared slowly in order that the participant could read it exactly. |
| C．After each word flashed on the screen, the person was asked to finish two tasks. |
| D．On the day of the test, all the students were very hungry because of the delay of their lunch. |
What does the new study find?
| A．Actually our brain can arrange for our motives and needs. |
| B．In the experiment the brain was totally controlled by the senses. |
| C．People who had just eaten saw all the words more clearly than hungry people. |
| D．The participants saw the words look different long after the brain dealt with the information. |