Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they
relive these experiences in nightmares.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might
reduce, or possibly erase(抹去), the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body
releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.
Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers" troubling memories after war. They
say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories.
"Some memories can ruin people"s lives. They come back to you when you don"t want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions," said Roger Pitman, a professor
of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "This could relieve a lot of that suffering."
But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because
memories give us our identity(特质).They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.
"All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are, I"m not sure we want to wipe those memories out," said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist.
B. a new research on the pill
C. a way of erasing painful memories
D. an argument about the research on the pill
B. stop people remembering bad experiences
C. prevent body producing certain chemicals
D. erase the emotional effects of memories
3. We can infer from the passage that ____________.
B. the pill will stop people"s bad experiences
C. taking the pill will do harm to people"s health
D. the pill has probably been produced in America
B. People want to get rid of bad memories
C. Experiencing bad events makes us different from others
D. The pill will reduce people"s sufferings from bad memories
Over the summer, 18-years-old Roberto Mancera of Chandler wasn"t looking forward to dances,
football games or even his last year in high school.He was more excited about building a robot that will
compete in the sixth annual FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)Arizona Regional.
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit
organization that believes the heroes of today"s youth should be engineers, not sports or pop stars.They
aim to change the culture by hosting athleticlike competitions for robots,with cheering fans, mascots (吉祥物) and music.
Mancera and a team of about 14 of his schoolmates will compete this year against 44 other high
school teams from all over Arizona,California and New Mexico at the Arizona Veterans Memorial
Coliseum in Phoenix.Finalists will move on to the FRC 2009 Championship in Atlanta to face teams from
48 states and seven other countries.
For the 40 regional events worldwide, a similar“ kit (工具包) of parts” is given to each of the 1,680
teams from around the globe every January.The robot functions are different every year, and after a
sixweek building season, robots are boxed up and shipped off to the competition"s destination.
The competition has a minimum $6,000 entrance fee, and students are sponsored and mentored by
adult professionals and experts,like computer science teacher Sam Alexander, 39, at Chandler High.“I
try to give the kids the challenge and they try to figure it out,” he said.“They work through the entire
scientific method without me giving them the answers.”
FIRST students are also eligible(有资格的)to apply for $9.7 million in college scholarships,
something that Alexander"s students have taken advantage of.
“You learn skills that your average student isn"t learning.” Mancera said.“It"s really amazing, and I"ve
been able to meet a lot of interesting people.” Mancera said that he found himself when he joined the
robot ics team.He now has set a career goal and has learned valuable leadership skills.
B.choose heroes for today"s youth
C.develop the interest of young people in sports
D.create a culture of valuing technology
B.decorated similarly
C.a teammade product
D.a copy of famous robots
B.Controlled.
C.Judged.
D.Replaced
B.He has become the hero for his classmates.
C.It has helped him to decide his future career.
D.It has allowed him to make a lot of friends with the same interest.
The study, authored by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales,showed that people in a negative mood were more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people, who were more likely to believe anything they were told.
"Although positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger (引发) more attentive,careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world," Forgas wrote.
"Our research suggests that sadness...promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations."
For the study,Forgas and his team conducted several experiments that started with inducing happy or sad moods in their subjects through watching films and recalling positive or negative events.
In one of the experiments,happy and sad participants were asked to judge the truth of urban myths and rumors and found that people in a negative mood were less likely to believe these statements.
People in a bad mood were also less likely to make snap decisions based on racial or religious prejudices, and they were less likely to make mistakes when asked to recall an event that they witnessed.
The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style."
"Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors,are more resistant to eyewitness distortions (扭曲) and are better at producing highquality, effective persuasive messages," Forgas wrote.
The study was published in the November/December edition of the Australian Science journal.
B. shows less concern about others
C. is willing to believe what he hears
D. cares more about his surroundings
B. Being stubborn.
C. Being careful.
D. Concentration.
B. By listening to happy or sad stories.
C. By dealing with demanding situations.
D. By thinking back on their past experience
B. Sad people remembered what they saw precisely.
C. Cheerful people were less likely to believe rumors.
D. People in bad mood tend to make quick decisions.
B. bad moods can actually be good for us
C. we should think positively and negatively
D. the Australian study is of practical value
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
foods in an attempt to appear more American, a new study finds. That"s one reason why immigrants
approach US levels of obesity within 15 years of moving to America.
The researchers also did an experiment that measured whether or not the threat of appearing un-
American influenced respondents" food choices. After being questioned about their ability to speak
English, 75 percent of Asian-Americans identified a typical American food as their favourite. Only 25
percent of Asian-Americans who had not been asked if they spoke English did the same.
When their American identity was called into question during a follow-up study, Asian-American
participants also tended to choose typical American dishes, such as hamburgers and cheese sandwiches. In that experiment, 55 Asian-Americans were asked to choose a meal from a local Asian or American
restaurant. Some participants were told that only Americans could participate in the study. Those who
chose the more typical American fare ended up consuming an extra 182 calories, including 12 grams of
fat and 7 grams of saturated fat (饱和脂肪).
"People who feel like they need to prove they belong to a culture will change their habits in an attempt
to fit in."said Sauna Cheryan, an author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at the
University of Washington."If immigrants and their children choose unhealthy American foods over
healthier traditional foods across their lives, this process of fitting in could lead to poorer health." Cheryan added.
Social pressures, the study concluded, are at the heart of the problem. "In American society today,
being American is associated with being white. Americans, who don"t fit this image even if they were
born here and speak English, feel that pressure to prove that they"re American. " said Cheryan.
A. more and more Asians enjoy high-calorie snacks
B. immigrants tend to eat American junk food to fit in
C. most Americans are at the risk of heart disease
D. all the American people have a bad eating habit
2. According to the survey,______.
A. Asian-Americans care less about their health
B. 25 percent of Americans like junk food
C. choosing food is related to Asian-Americans" situation
D. immigrants are forced to eat junk food
3. The underlined word"fare"in Paragraph 4 most probably means"________".
A. food offered as a meal
B. a person taking a taxi
C. money spent on food
D. an arranged thing to do
4. According to Sauna Cheryan,________.
A. what immigrants have done is ridiculous.
B. American traditional foods are healthier
C. immigrants risk their health in order to fit in
D. American culture affects immigrants deeply
becoming hotter and hotter. There"s also strong evidence that humans are contributing to the warming.
Countless recent reports have proved the same thing. For instance, a 2010 summary about the climate
science by the Royal Society noted that:"The global warming over the last half-century has been caused mainly by human activity."
You may not believe that humans could change the planet"s climate, but the basic science is well
understood. Each year, billions of tons of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere because of
human activity. As has been known for years, these gaseshold heat that would otherwise escape to space, wrapping the planet in an invisible(看不见的) blanket.
Of course, the earth"s climate has always been changing due to "natural" factors such as volcanic
eruption (熔化) or changes in solar, or cycles concerning the Earth"s going around the sun. According to
the scientific research, however, the warming observed by now matches the pattern of warming we would expect from a build-up of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere-not the warming we would expect from
other possible causes.
Even if scientists did discover another reasonable explanation for the warming recorded so far, that
would give birth to a difficult question. As Robert Henson puts it: "If some newly discovered factor is to
blame for the climate change, then why aren"t carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases producing
the warming that basic physics tells us they should be?"
The only way to prove with 100% certainty that humans are responsible for global warming would be
to run an experiment with two identical Earths-one with human influence and one without. That obviously isn"t possible, and so most scientists are careful not to state human influence as an absolute certainty.
1. In most scientists" opinion, the global warming is mainly caused by________.
A. solar activity
B. volcanic activity
C. natural factors
D. human factors
2. The text is developed by________.
A. giving typical examples
B. following the order of space
C. analyzing a theory and arguing it
D. comparing and finding differences
3. The underline word "identical" in the last paragraph probably means________.
A. totally different
B. exactly the same
C. extremely important
D. partly independent
4. Which of the following can be the best title?
A. Are All the Scientists Really Scientific?
B. Where Is Global Warming Leading Us to?
C. Are Humans Definitely Causing Global Warming?
D. What"s Relation of Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases?
science can be easy;there"s no need for a lot of scientific terms or expensive lab equipment.You only
have to share your children"s curiosity.Firstly, listen to their questions.I once visited a classroom of s
evenyearolds to talk about science as a job.The children asked me" textbook questions" about schooling,
salary and whether I liked my job.When I finished answering,we sat facing one another in silence.Finally I
said, "Now that we"re finished with your lists, do you have questions of your own about science?"
After a long pause, a boy raised his hand, "Have you ever seen a grasshopper(蚱蜢) eat? When I try
eating leaves like that,I get a stomachache.Why?"
This began a set of questions that lasted nearly two hours.
Secondly, give them time to think.Studies over the past 30 years have shown that, after asking a
question, adults typically wait only one second or less for an answer,no time for a child to think.When
adults increase their " wait time" to three seconds or more, children give more logical, complete and
creative answers.
Thirdly, watch your language.Once you have a child involved in a science discussion, don"t jump in
with "That"s right" or" Very good". These words work well when it comes to encouraging good behavior.
But in talking about science, quick praise can signal that discussion is over.Instead, keep things going by
saying" That"s interesting" or" I"d never thought of it that way before", or coming up with more questions or ideas.
Never push a child to"Think",It doesn"t make sense.Children are always thinking, without your telling
them to.What"s more, this can turn a conversation into a performance.The child will try to find the answer
you want,in as few words as possible, so that he will be a smaller target for your disagreement.
Lastly, show; don"t tell.Reallife impressions of nature are far more impressive than any lesson children
can learn from a book or a television program.Let children look at their fingertips through a magnifying
glass (放大镜), and they"ll understand why you want them to wash before dinner.Rather than saying that
water evaporates (蒸发), set a pot of water to boil and let them watch the water level drop.
1. According to the passage, children are natural scientists, and to raise their interests,the most important
thing for adults to do is________.
A. to let them see the world around
B. to share the children"s curiosity
C. to explain difficult phrases about science
D. to supply the children with lab equipment
2. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the word" lists" could best be replaced by ________.
A. any questions
B. any problems
C. questions from textbooks
D. any number of questions
3. According to the passage, children can answer questions in a more logical, complete and creative way if adults________.
A. ask them to answer quickly
B. wait for one or two seconds after a question
C. tell them to answer the next day
D. wait at least for three seconds after a question
4. In which of the following paragraph(s) does the author tell us what to say to encourage children in a science discussion?
A. The second and third.
B. The fourth and fifth.
C. The fifth and sixth.
D. The seventh.
- 1牵牛花清晨开放,傍晚关闭,这种现象说明生物具有的特征A.需要营养B.进行呼吸C.对外界刺激作出反应D.生长和繁殖
- 2原来静止的质子经加速电压加速之后,垂直进入磁感应强度为B的匀强磁场中,做半径为r的匀速圆周运动,则下列叙述正确的是(
- 3(2012•广东)设i是虚数单位,则复数=( )A.6+5iB.6﹣5iC.﹣6+5iD.﹣6﹣5i
- 4下列命题中:①设{直线},{圆},则集合的元素个数为:0或1或2;②过抛物线:的焦点作直线交抛物线于两点,则;③已知二面
- 5下列各式中总是正数的是[ ]A.a2 B.|a|C.|a+1| D.a2+1
- 6小明用如图所示装置研究“浮力大小跟物体排开液体体积关系”实验时,将一个挂在弹簧测力计下的金属圆柱体缓慢地浸入水中(水足够
- 7Dog owners now have a little help understanding their furry
- 8如图所示,在一竖直面内,小球a从距地面高度为H的点,以初速度va沿水平方向抛出,经时间t落到地面上的P点,若不计空气阻力
- 9阅读下面得文言文,完成2-4题。 萧允,字叔佐,兰陵人也。祖惠蒨,散骑常侍、太府卿、左民尚书。父介,梁侍中、都官尚书。
- 10比较下列各组数的大小.(1)-23与-34; (2)|-(2.1)|与-(-2.1); (3)-3.2与-318.
- 1分式a2-9a2-a-6的值为0,则a的值为( )A.3B.-3C.±3D.a≠-2
- 2导体两端的电压为3伏时,导体中的电流为0.3安,导体的电阻为______欧;如果导体两端的电压增大了6伏,则通过导体的电
- 3下列句中划线的成语使用正确的一项是[ ]A.这次艺术节办得栩栩如生,全校师生交口称赞。B.执法部门要善于虚张声
- 4阅读下面的文字,完成问题。通俗史学家蔡东藩来新夏 蔡东藩(1877----1945)的一生正处在中国近代历史发生巨变
- 5为保护环境而提倡的低碳生活,是指生活中所耗用的能量要尽量减少,从而降低二氧化碳的排放量。下列各项属于低碳生活方式的是(
- 6辛亥革命的历史功绩不包括 [ ]A.推翻了清王朝的封建专制统治 B.结束了两千多年的封建君主制度C.改变了中国半
- 7子贡问孔子怎样与朋友相处,孔子说:“忠告而善道之,不可则止, 自辱焉。”(《论语•颜渊》)请对孔子的话作解读,要解读出一
- 8南美洲是世界上种族成分非常复杂的大洲,号称“世界人种大熔炉”。[ ]
- 9在赤道上空,水平放置一根通以由西向东的电流的直导线,则此导线( )A.受到竖直向上的安培力B.受到竖直向下的安培力C.
- 10安全操作是实验成功的保证,下列实验操作不正确的是