Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting(收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton andSussexMedicalSchoolsaid: "Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart."
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, "The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see - and guide whether we see fear."
To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner(扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.
"We have found an importantmechanismby which the heart and brain‘speak’to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear," Dr Garfinkel said.
"We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder."What is the finding of the study?
A.One's heart affects how he feels fear. |
B.fear is a result of one's relaxed heartbeat. |
C.fear has something to do with one's health. |
D.Ones fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear. |
The study was carried out by analyzing _______.
A.volunteers' heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures |
B.the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions |
C.volunteers' reactions to horrible pictures and data form their brain scans |
D.different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to "mechanism" in Paragraph 6?
A.Order. |
B.system. |
C.Machine. |
D.Treatment. |
This study may contribute to _______.
A.treating anxiety and stress better |
B.explaining the cycle of fear and anxiety |
C.finding the sky to the heart-brain communication |
D.understanding different fears in our hearts and heads |
As Rosalie Warren stood at the mailbox in the lobby of her apartment building in May 1980, she shared the anxiety of many other college seniors. In her hand was an envelope containing her final grades. As she nervously opened it, Warren wondered whether her hundreds of hours of studying had paid off.
They had.
“I got five ‘A’s,” she still recalls with elation. “I almost fell on the floor!”
Warren would graduate from Suffolk University with a bachelor of science degree in philosophy and history at age 80.Three years later, at age 83, she would receive her second degree from Suffolk, a master’s in education.
Now, with both diplomas proudly displayed in her apartment, Warren is not finished with learning. Now 93,she continues for her 18th year at Suffolk under a program that allows persons 65 and over to attend classes tuition free. “It’s my life to go to school, to enjoy being in an academic atmosphere,” she says. “That’s what I love.”
Warren was born Rosalie Levey on Aug.29, 1900. Two years after she entered high school, her father died. Warren had to leave school for factory work to help support her family’s 10 children. Warren describes herself as a “person who always liked school,” and she says the move “broke my heart completely because I couldn’t finish high school.”
In the end, however, “I went to school nights,” she recalls. “Any place I could find an outlet of learning and teaching, I was there.”
A short time later, her mother became ill, and Warren had to care for her, once again putting her education on hold.
Finally, in 1921, her mother, now recovered, drew from her saving to send Warren to Boston University for two years to study typing, stenography, and office procedures.
Those courses helped Warren gain several long-term office positions over the next 60 years, but her great desire “to be in the academic field” continued.
In 1924, she married Eugene Warren, and seven years later, her daughter, Corinne, was born. In 1955, by then a widow and a grandmother, Warren took a bus tour across the United States that was to last nine months. She said she wanted to see “things you never see in the West End.”
When she returned home, she took a bookkeeping position and also enrolled in courses in philosophy, sociology
And Chinese history. free program for senior citizens.” I was at the registrar’s office the very next day.”she recalls. At first ,she took one or two courses at a time , but encouraged by her professors , she enrolled as a
In 1975, when she was 75, Warren learned from a neighbor about Suffolk University’s tuition- degree candidate.
“I had not studied for so many years,” she says, “but I was determined.” For the next four years, Warren, who calls herself a “student of philosophy,” worked toward her degree.
Nancy Stoll, dean of students at Suffolk, says Warren is “an interesting role model for our younger students---that learning is a lifetime activity….She is genuinely enthusiastic about being here, and that permeates (散发) her activities and is contagious (传染的) to students and faculty.”What does the word elation mean in the sentence “I got fives ‘A’s”, she still recalls with elation”?
A.Great happiness | B.Great surprise | C.Great pride | D.Great honor |
How old was Warren when she got her first college degree?
A.She was 79 | B.She was 23 | C.She was 80 | D.She was 75 |
What kind of work did she do for 60 years?
A.Studying | B.Factory work | C.Typing | D.Office work |
Which statement can be inferred from the underlined sentences?
A.Because Warren needn’t pay her tuition, she went to study at Suffolk University |
B.At first Warren had to pay for her courses at Suffolk University |
C.Most of the students at Suffolk University are older than 65 |
D.Suffolk University encourages older people to take courses |
It can be inferred from this passage that Rosalie Warren _______.
A.came from a wealthy family | B.didn’t like working in an office |
C.put her family before her education | D.didn’t like her family very much |
What is the main topic of this passage?
A.Rosalie Warren’s family |
B.Rosalie Warren’s life |
C.Rosalie Warren’s education |
D.Rosalie Warren’s studying at Suffolk University |
I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in City and landing on my head. Now I am thirty two. I can slightly remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is .It would be wonderful to see again , but a calamity (灾难)can do strange things to people .It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn’t been blind . I believe in life now.I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply , otherwise. I don’t mean that would prefer to go without my eyes . I simply mean that Atlantic the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left .
Life, I believe, asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality. The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments, the more meaningful his own private world becomes. The adjustment is never easy. I was totally confused and afraid. But I was lucky. My parents and my teachers saw something in me--a potential to live, you might call it--which I didn't see, and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. That was basic. If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life. When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone. That is part of it. But I mean something bigger than that: an assurance that I am, despite imperfections, a real, positive person; that somewhere in the sweeping, intricate(错综复杂的) pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance. It had to start with the simplest things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. I thought he was making fun of me and I was hurt. "I can't use this." I said. "Take it with you," he urged me, "and roll it around." The words stuck in my head. "Roll it around! "By rolling the ball I could hear where it went. This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible: playing baseball. At Philadelphia's Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball. We called it ground ball.
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them, one at a time. I had to learn my limitations. It was no good trying for something that I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure. I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.We can learn from the beginning of the passage that _______
A.the author lost his sight because of a car crash. |
B.the author wouldn't love life if the disaster didn't happen. |
C.the disaster made the author appreciate what he had. |
D.the disaster strengthened the author's desire to see. |
What's the most difficult thing for the author?
A.How to adjust himself to reality. |
B.Building up assurance that he can find his place in life. |
C.Learning to manage his life alone. |
D.How to invent a successful variation of baseball. |
According to the context, “a chair rocker on the front porch” in paragraph 3 means that the author __________
A.would sit in a rocking chair and enjoy his life. |
B.would be unable to move and stay in a rocking chair. |
C.would lose his will to struggle against difficulties. |
D.would sit in a chair and stay at home. |
According to the passage, the baseball and encouragement offered by the man _____
A.hurt the author's feeling. |
B.gave the author a deep impression. |
C.directly led to the invention of ground ball. |
D.inspired the author. |
What is the best title for the passage?
A.A Miserable Life |
B.Struggle Against Difficulties |
C.A Disaster Makes a Strong Person |
D.An Unforgettable Experience |
We can stay young forever. That is the message Dr. Shen Ziyin wants to give the world. And the Chinese doctor claims that he has found an answer to the problems of aging.
His solution is a herbal medicine to slow the process of aging.
Dr. Shen Ziyin has been trained in Western medicine. At the same time he studied traditional Chinese medicine. And, he has been working for the past forty years to put together the best of both and find a cure for aging. He has
taken a hint from its aging process. It is responsible for the level of activity that the human bodies go through Studies conducted by Dr.Shen show that herbal medicine based on the shen system slow the the ancient Chinese medicine system called “shen”.
According to Shen, it is the kidney(肾脏)which adjusts the functioning of the body as well as aging process, says a report in The Telegraph newspaper.
We notice that when people grow old, they have reduced strength, loss of hair, backache, weakness in general, and wrinkles, among others. This happens because when people grow old, their bodies produce T-cells. These T-cells contain a particular substance called Fas. Fas makes the cells in the body destruct themselves.
So the only way to slow down aging is to slow the production of T-cells in the body. This can happen if people eat low calorie food. Then the body is not active enough to produce extra T-cells. But, is going hungry all the time a good price to pay for staying young?
This is where Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine comes in. But how effective it will be, only time can tell.How did Dr. Shen find the solution to the problem of aging?
A.By studying Western medicine. |
B.By learning traditional Chinese medicine. |
C.By combining both Western and Chinese medicine. |
D.By doing research on both Western and Chinese people. |
What plays the most important role in keeping people young according to Shen?
A.Medical treatment. | B.People’s good kidney. |
C.Level of people’s activity. | D.Positive life attitude. |
The reason why people become old is that _________.
A.their bodies produce T-cells |
B.their bodies are unable to fight diseases |
C.they have reduced strength, loss of hair |
D.they become weaker and weaker |
We can probably learn from the passage that _________.
A.producing more low calorie food allows people to keep young |
B.the more Chinese herbal medicine people drink, the better for health |
C.people should try to quicken the production of T-cells in the body |
D.it remains unknown how effective Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine is |
It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Children were upstairs unpacking , and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. My parents lived nearby ,and Dad had visited us several times already. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him .He looked up, smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.” Knowing my father, I thought it could be just about anything. A self-employed jobber, he was always building things out of odds and ends. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us.
Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught ups in the busyness of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise. Until one gloomy day the following March when I glanced out of the window. Any yet… I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花), throughout the front lawn. Lavender, blue, yellow and my favorite pink ---- little faces moved up and down in the cold wind.
Dad! I smiled, remembering the things he had secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?
My father’s crocuses bloomed each spring for the next four or five seasons, bringing the same assurance every time they arrived: hard times was almost over. Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon.
Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms. The next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses. I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did.
He died suddenly one October day. My family was in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith. I missed him terribly.
Four years passed, and on a dismal spring afternoon I was driving back when I found myself feeling depressed. “You’ve got the winter depression again and you get them every year.” I told myself.
It was Dad’s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual --- my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived his faith. Once I saw him give his coat to a homeless man.
Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. And there on the muddy grass and small gray piles of melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.
How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years old, one that had not blossomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.
Hold on, keep going, light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day. But it built my faith for a lifetime.According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that _________.
A.the writer was unpacking when her father was making the surprise |
B.the writer knew what the surprise was because she knew her father |
C.it was not the first time that the writer’s father had made a surprise |
D.it kept bothering the writer not knowing what the surprise was |
Which of the following would most probably be the worst time of the year as seen by the writer?
A.Spring. | B.Summer. | C.Autumn. | D.Winter. |
Which of the following is NOT true, according to the passage?
A.The writer’s father planted the crocus to lift her low spirit. |
B.The crocuses bloomed each spring before the writer’s father died. |
C.The writer often thought about her father since her father died. |
D.The writer’s father died some years after he planted the crocus. |
The writer’s father should be best described as_________.
A.a full-time gardener with skillful hands |
B.a part-time jobber who loved flowers |
C.a kind-hearted man who lived with faith |
D.an ordinary man with doubts in his life |
Crocus was viewed as the symbol of _________ by the writer.
A.faith | B.family | C.love | D.friendship |
Application Form
Before an applicant can be invited to take part in an assessment, an application form should be returned to the Admissions Office, and the application fee of HK$1,000 cannot be returned. For overseas applicants wishing to pay in currencies other than HK dollars, the fee is US$145. Checks are also good for payment to “Chinese International School”.
The application should include:
※ Applicants’ academic report from the last school year.
※ A recent passport-sized photo (attached to the application form).
※A copy of the applicant’s Hong Kong ID card or a passport showing a valid Hong Kong visa.
※ Only for applicants applying under a Corporate Nomination(提名) Right: A company letter confirming the nomination.
Please note that the application fee is non-refundable. Applicants who would like to re-apply for another academic year are asked to submit a new application and application fee.
Acceptance
Applicants will be informed of their acceptance status in writing by postal mail. Initial(最初的) offers for Reception will be sent out from late March once all assessments have been completed.
Some applicants who have been assessed may be held on a reserve list. Acceptances may also be made on a conditional basis among the applicants on the reserve list.
Applicants who have been assessed but who have not been admitted are welcome to reapply for the next academic year. Please note that such applicants will be asked to submit a new application and application fee.
Confirmation of Acceptance and Enrollment(录取)
Once an applicant has been admitted, the applicant family will be asked to confirm acceptance and hold the student’s place with immediate payment of the required fees for the Nomination Right (HK$ 500), plus the sum of HK$ 7,500 as the first tuition (学费) payment.
In addition, enrollment will not be considered complete until the following have been received, normally one month before the start of the new school year:
※ Physical examination results
※ Tuition (first month) According to the passage, if the applicants reapply for an academic year,.
A.a new application and application fee are to be required |
B.applicants on a reserve list needn’t be assessed |
C.the application fee can be reduced to a half |
D.the initial application form should be returned to the Admissions Office |
. Which of the following is true?
A.Once applicants are refused, they can’t apply for it again |
B.Applicants held on a reserve list will not be admitted |
C.Applicants don’t have to get a company letter to confirm their application |
D.The applicants should show either a Hong Kong visa or a Hong Kong ID card |
. According to the Application Process, the first tuition payment is ______.
A.HK$ 500. | B.HK$7, 500. | C.HK$1, 000. | D.US$ 145. |
. If an applicant has been admitted, the applicant family .
A.will be asked to submit a new application |
B.will receive physical Examination results |
C.will be asked to only pay the first month fee |
D.will be asked to confirm acceptance and pay the fees |