cognitive (认知) abilities through well-designed training. Everyone experiences some degree of memory
loss and cognitive decline as they get older. The decline usually becomes noticeable after 50, when
people may find it slightly more difficult to focus on tasks, organize everyday jobs and remember how
to do things in the right order.
A team of psychologists (心理学家) in Toronto created a strategy (策略) of cognitive training to help
people preserve these abilities."Our primary emphasis was on improving the use of general strategic abilities
because they are particularly weak to the aging process," Dr. Donald Stuss, director of the study, said in
a press release. The team examined 49 healthy older adults with normal cognitive decline. All of the
participants were between the ages of 71 and 87. Over the course of 12 weeks, psychologists taught them
methods to improve their strategic abilities. Afterwards, researchers saw a 15 to 40 percent improvement
in the memories of all participants."Over a period of six months their improvement not only maintained, but
increased," said Dr. Gordon Winocur, coordinator of the study.
The 12-week course was broken up into three four-week sections, focusing on a different skill involved
in strategic abilities: memory, goal management and psychosocial function.
The memory training emphasized how to preserve and recover information, while goal management
focused on methods to lower the chance of memory slips. Psychosocial training was aimed at increasing
the participants" confidence in their mental abilities.
"We wanted to develop a cognitive training program that would produce improvement over a relatively
short period of time, so participants could benefit more on that while they"re still functional and slow down
the rate of decline," said Winocur. "If we can work with people in the early stages of cognitive decline, then
we can slow down the rate of this decline and help them maintain a higher level of function for a longer period
of time."
B. A new way to develop a good memory.
C. Cognitive abilities are essential to memory.
D. Say no to the memory decline.
B. Psychosocial function.
C. General strategic abilities.
D. Goal management.
B. kept
C. changed
D. improved
B. Three.
C. Four.
D. Five.
B. the training can prevent one"s memory from declining
C. the earlier they begin the training, the better the result will be
D. Winocur aims to help aging people suffer less from memory loss and cognitive decline
lungs (肺), while others insisted it was to increase blood pressure and the heart rate.
While both findings are correct, new studies show that the main point of yawning is to relax.
Researchers point out that we have a tendency to yawn before big events-athletes yawn before races, pilots
yawn before take-offs, and students yawn before exams. Humans are not the only creatures who yawn.
Animals have been observed to yawn before feeding time. while wild animals have a tendency to yawn
before fights.
New findings also show that yawing might be a handover from our ancestors, and represents a need
for change. Our ancestors passed it to us with other life skills. Even babies yawn as they change positions,
but children do not begin to copy other people"s yawns until the age of four or five.
Strangely enough yawning is also related to respect. Hundreds and thousands of years ago,the campfire
(篝火) served as the main gathering point for members of groups. Researchers claim that as people sat
around the fire, warming themselves, they would yawn if the leader yawned, as a mark of respect. Those
who were more supportive of the leader tended to yawn more easily.
Despite all these findings, scientists still haven"t figured out why we yawn before bedtime. Then again,
it may be another way of demanding a change-enough of TV, it"s time to go to bed!
B. Why we yawn.
C. The history of yawning
D. The disadvantages of yawning.
B. you don"t like taking exams
C. you want to control your heart rate
D. you"re sleepy
B. something our ancestors have passed on to us
C. the way in which people copy others"yawns
D. a lost life skill
B. people yawn when they feel warm
C. yawning happened at night in ancient times
D. yawning was a social skill in ancient times
through playing to develop the child"s physical, sensory (感觉的), communicational and social development.
Early childhood education has become a concern of the government, who pushes poor children to be formally
trained before they are old enough for the kindergarten.
There are good reasons for the government to push early childhood education. Studies have shown that
orphan children who did not receive good care and education become developmentally delayed causing failure
in school, and even in life. Further studies show that poor children who take part in Head Start programs are
more prepared for school, less likely to end up in Special Education classes, and are less likely to receive public
help or go to jail.
There are also negative parts of putting a child in formal education programs too early. Time Magazine online
explains that the younger the child, the less his chances of catching up with first-grade work. I have personally
witnessed many children of my generation who went to Head Start programs became frustrated and bored with
school before they finished high school. Yet parents have been sure that the earlier the child starts school, the
better off he or she is, so they push to start childhood education earlier.
Actually while early formal education of poor children does show great gains in the early elementary years,
studies also show that this head start is really a"false start", as the gains are lost in middle and high school years.
It seems that environment is a bigger factor on life"s success than early education. Head Start programs have
not achieved its original goal in closing the achievement gap in poor and middle school children. Perhaps it is
time to find other ways to close that gap.
B. to give orphaned children good care and education
C. to get the children prepared for the kindergarten
D. to train the children formally and regularly
B. The orphaned children are usually unhappy in their life.
C. Children without early education can do well at school.
D. Head Start programs are helpful to the poor children.
B. objective
C. indifferent
D. approving
B. Head Start programs have helped the children a lot
C. environment is the most important to life"s success
D. better ways should be found to help the poor children
power to pump water for irrigating crops 4,000 years ago, and sailing boats were around long before that.
Wind power was used in the Middle Ages, in Europe, to grind (磨碎) corn, which is where the term"windmill"
comes from.
We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propeller on the top. The wind
blows the propellor round, which turns a generator to produce electricity. We tend to build many of these
towers together, to make a"wind farm" and produce more electricity. The more towers, the more wind, and
the larger the propellors, the more electricity we can make. It"s only worth building wind farms in places that
have strong, steady winds, although boats and caravans (大篷车) increasingly have small wind generators to
help keep their batteries charged.
The best places for wind farms are in coastal areas, at the tops of rounded hills, open plains and gaps in
mountains-places where the wind is strong and reliable. Some are offshore. To be worthwhile, you need an
average wind speed of around 25 km/h. Most wind farms in the UK are in Cornwall or Wales. Isolated places
such as farms may have their own wind generators. In California, several"wind farms" supply electricity to
homes around Los Angeles.
The propellors are large, to obtain energy from the largest possible volume of air. The blades can be
angled to cope with varying wind speeds. Some designs use vertical turbines (垂直涡轮机), which don"t
need to be turned to face the wind. The towers are tall, to get the propellors as high as possible, up to where
the wind is stronger. This means that the land beneath can still be used for farming.
B. the source of wind power
C. the nations using wind power
D. the history of using wind power
B. isolated farms don"t have enough electricity
C. there are less human activities
D. the wind is strong and reliable
B. wind farms need no fuel because wind is free
C. the blades can be angled to turn to face the wind wherever it comes from
D. the higher and larger the towers are, the stronger the wind is
B. ABC of the using of wind energy.
C. How to make best use of wind.
D. Wind energy is the best energy.
Stingrays are pancake-shaped fish, and you"d never guess it: they"re close cousins of sharks.The smallest
kinds are about the size of a dinner plate. But some 4-metre stingrays live in the waters near Australia. About
170 different kinds of stingrays live in the oceans around the world. And some live in freshwater too. In South
America, a few kinds swim in the Amazon and other rivers that flow into the Atlantic. One ocean kind, the
Atlantic stingray, also lives in the St. Johns River in Florida.
A stingray has a mouth and nostrils (鼻孔) on the bottom of its body. These nostrils are for smelling, not
for breathing. When water flows into a stingray"s nostrils, the fish may pick up the smells of creatures it wants
to eat. It can also find prey (牺牲者) by sensing the tiny amount of electricity that animals give off. Slowly,
slowly the fish hunts by moving along the ocean or river bottom. When it senses a worm, clam, shrimp, or
other creature, it flaps (拍打) its fins until the prey is uncovered. Then the fish lies down over the prey, sucks
it in, and crunches it with its small teeth. A stingray"s flat shape helps it hide. It stirs up a cloud of sand by
flapping its big, flat fins. When the sand settles down over the fish, everything is covered but its eyes,
breathing holes, and sometimes its tail. Its tail gave the"sting" to a stingray"s name. When a stingray is attacked
by an enemy, it whips its tail around. Then a sharp stinger releases a powerful poison into the enemy. When
stingrays are on the ocean bottom, it"s easy for a diver to step on one by mistake. Then the fish usually stings
the person in the ankle. The poison is very painful, and the wound may hurt for a day or two. Worse yet,
pieces of the stinger can break off and infect the ankle. But stingrays don"t chase after prey or people to sting
them. In fact, divers can swim among friendly stingrays without getting hurt.
B. To give readers facts about an interesting fish.
C. To warn readers about dangers in the ocean.
D. To teach readers how fish hunt their prey.
B. can cover themselves with sand
C. move slowly above the ocean floor
D. live in freshwater as well as in oceans
B. To escape from the prey.
C. To find the prey.
D. To frighten the prey.
B. Pieces of the stinger come loose in the wound.
C. Electricity from the stinger shocks the wound.
D. Fins beside the stinger throw sand into the wound.
You don"t need millions to be happy. In fact, at The Happiness Institute in Australia, a couple of hundred
dollars may be enough.
The institute opened its doors last year, and, since then, men and women of all ages have been paying A
$ 200 an hour (US $140) for lessons on how to feel great.
" You can actually increase your happiness levels. That"s what we teach," said Timothy Sharp, founder
of the institute.
Experts say that only about 15 percent of happiness comes from income, assets and other financial factors. As much as 85 percent comes from things such as attitude, life control and relationships.
Most of us are significantly better off financially than our parents and grandparents, but happiness levels
haven"t changed to reflect that.
Studies show that once the basic needs of shelter and food are met, additional wealth adds very little to
happiness. Many decades ago, the "sage of Baltimore, Maryland", editor HL Mencken, defined wealth as
earning US $100 more than your “wife"s sister"s husband.”
Behavioral economists now say part of the reason we are richer but not happier is because we compare
ourselves to people better off materially.
"The argument is that if you want to be happy there"s a very simple thing you can do: Compare yourself
to people who are less well off than you- poorer, smaller house, car," said Sharp.
The Happiness Institute aims to show you how to overcome these unhappiness factors by focusing on
" more than just your bank account."
"If I compare myself to Bill Gates then I"m always going to be down," said Sharp.
A better thing to compare with, he said, might be Kerry Packer, Australia"s richest person who has had
a kidney transplant and heart surgery in recent years.
B. Most of us are happier than our parents or grandparents since we earn more.
C. Earning US $100 more than your wife"s sister"s husband if you want to be happy.
D. Both Bill Gates and Kerry Packer are examples of those who are extremely rich but obviously unhappy.
B. 450
C. 350
D. 250
B. unhealthy
C. free
D. wealthy
B. wealth is the foundation of happiness
C. have fun at the Happiness Institute
D. money doesn"t always mean happiness
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