with cash and credit cards?
Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother with the trip to the post
office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard
Wiseman, there"s one thing that"ll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet:
a photograph of a cute baby.
In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The
psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the
addresses listed on the drivers" licenses inside-but more than that, they wanted to find out what
would make a person more likely to help out a stranger.
To finish this, they included personal touches in most of the wallets: some included a photo of
a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some
held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts(发票) showing that the wallet"s owner had recently
donated to a charity. Some contained no personal details.
As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any
heart: only one in ten of the strangers who retrieved such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the
second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no
photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.
The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion for the young that"s been passed
down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. "The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people,
which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective(进化的角度)," he told the Times.
To ensure our species" survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our
young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won"t feel compassion only for our
own babies, but for any that we see-hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to
the baby"s parent.
On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever
lost, you"re more likely to get it back. "If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being
returned if lost, obtain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly
displayed," said Dr. Wiseman.
B. what made people willing to help strangers
C. what kind of feelings could be caused by a smiling baby
D. how evolution influenced human beings
B. spread out
C. found out
D. looked for
B. Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them.
C. Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby
D. Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children.
be returned?
B. About 15.
C. 20 or so.
D. About 27.
B. the caring feeling in people is gone during evolution
C. scientists believed that people only feel compassion for their own babies
D. a wallet with a cute baby"s picture in it cannot be lost
a bribe(贿赂), but is close to it.
All sorts of people are apple polishers, including politicians and people in high offices-just abou
t everybody. Oliver Cromwell, the great English leader, offered many gifts to win the support of
George Fox and his party, but failed.
There are other phrases meaning the same thing as “apple-polishing”-“soft-soaping” or
“buttering-up”. A gift is just one way to “soft-soap” somebody, or to “butter him up”. Another
that is just as effective is flattery, giving someone high praise-telling him how good he looks, or how
well he speaks, or how talented and wise he is.
Endless are the ways of flattery. Who does not love to hear it? Only an unusual man can resist the
thrill of being told how wonderful he is. In truth, flattery is good medicine for most of us, who get so
little of it.
We need it to be more sure of ourselves. It cannot hurt unless we get carried away by it. But if we
just lap it up for its food value and nourishment, as a cat laps up milk, then we can still remain true to
ourselves.
Sometimes, however, flattery will get you nothing from one who has had too much of it. A good
example is the famous 12th century legend of King Canute of Denmark and England. The king got
tired of listening to endless sickening flattery of his courtiers(朝臣). They overpraised him to the skies,
as a man of limitless might.
He decided to teach them a lesson. He took them to the seashore and sat down. Then he ordered
the waves to stop coming in. The tide was too busy to listen to him. The king was satisfied. This might
show his followers how weak his power was and how empty their flattery.
B. An employee tells her boss how good he is at management.
C. A knight is said to be of limitless power by his followers.
D. A teacher praises her students for their talent and wisdom.
B. Cromwell was not a good apple-polisher.
C. George Fox and his party were not apple-polishers.
D. There are people who don’t like being apple-polished.
B. Flattery is too empty to do people any good.
C. Flattery can get you nothing but excessive(过度的) pride.
D. Flattery is one of the ways to apple-polish people.
B. he disliked being overpraised any more
C. he wanted them to realize how wise he was
D. he wanted them to see how weak he was as a king
B. lack confidence
C. are really excellent
D. think highly of themselves
The chip will also know if your child has fallen and needs immediate help. Once doctors arrive,
the chip will also be able to tell them which drugs are not suitable for little Johnny or Janie. At the
hospital, the chip will tell doctors his or her complete medical history. And of course, when you
arrive to pick up your child, settling the hospital bill with your health insurance policy will be a simple
matter of waving your own chip-the one embedded in your hand.
To some, this may sound unbelievable. But the technology for such chips is no longer the stuff
of science fiction. And it may soon offer many other benefits besides locating lost children or elderly
patients. It could be used as credit cards and people won’t have to carry wallets anymore.
On the other hand, some are already wondering what this sort of technology may do to the sense
of personal privacy and liberty.
“Any technology of this kind could result in abuse of personal privacy,” says Lee Tien, senior
staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “If a kid can be tracked, do you want other
people to be able to track your kid? It’s a double-edged sword.”
Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. in Palm Beach, Florida, says it has recently applied to the Food
and Drug Administration for permission to begin testing its device in humans. About the size of a
grain of rice, the microchip can be encoded (编码) with bits of information and embedded in humans
under a layer of skin. When scanned by a nearby reader, the embedded chip gives the data.
Most embedded chip designs are so-called passive chips, which give information only when
scanned by a nearby reader. But active chips-such as the proposed Digital Angel of the future-will
give out information all the time. And that means designers will have to develop some sort of power
source that can provide a continuous source of energy, yet be small enough to be embedded with
the chips.
In addition to technical problems, many suspect that all sorts of legal and privacy issues would
have to be cleared as well.
B. chips are more convenient than credit cards
C. chips will soon be useful in many aspects of daily lives
D. chips will bring out the issue of abuse of personal privacy
B. Indifferent.
C. Arbitrary(随意的).
D. Cautious.
B. capacity
C. safety
D. purpose
B. Digital Angel will soon be produced and replace passive chips.
C. Digital Angel will be embedded in humans under a layer of skin.
D. Digital Angel will give information without being scanned by a reader.
B. technical problems
C. legal problems
D. privacy problems
self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting tha
t life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating. You are
easily annoyed, bothered, and irritated. Patience adds a dimension of ease and acceptance to your
life. It’s essential for inner peace. Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present
moment, even if you don’t like it. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being
patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking get out
of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an
opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is “small stuff”.
Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice. An effective
way that I have found to deepen my own patience is to create actual practice periods-periods of time
that I set up in my mind to practice the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the
curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for
patience over time. What you’ll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially
if you know it’s only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience
is one of those special qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone(里程
碑)-five minutes of successful patience-you’ll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to
be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.
Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You’ll see even a difficult situation, say your
present challenge, isn’t “life or death” but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with. Without
patience, the same scenario can become a major emergency complete with yelling, frustration, hurt
feelings, and high blood pressure.
B. awaiting a result calmly
C. taking a deep breath
D. losing your patience
B. patience is very important for us
C. patience is essential for inner peace
D. being late is “small stuff”
B. patience should become a school course
C. you’ll get more than expected from practicing patience
D. the quality of patience will lead you to success
B. a matter of life or death
C. the small stuff
D. a great chance
B. tell how to practice patience
C. list the advantages of patience
D. state the importance of patience
When difficult people express themselves orally,they generally want at least two things: they"ve been
heard and they"ve been understood.As a good communicator should be a good listener,five steps are
advocated toward good listening.
The first step is cooperating(合作). How does a difficult person know that you"re listening and
understanding? In fact, it"s through the way you look and sound while he is talking.You may help him to
fully express his thoughts and feelings. You do this by nodding your head in agreement, making certain
sounds of understanding.
When the person begins to repeat what"s been said, it"s a signal of step two: turning back. It means
that you repeat back some words he is using,sending a clear signal that you"re listening carefully and that
you think what he is saying is important.
Having heard what he has to say, the next step is clarifying. At this point, you start to gather information about what is being communicated. Ask some open ended questions, which will allow you to figure out
what intention he is hoping to satisfy.
The fourth step is to summarize(概括)what you"ve heard. This allows you to make sure that both you
and the difficult person are on the same page. When you do this,two things happen. First, if you"ve
missed something, he can fill in the details(细节). Second, you"ve shown that you"re making an effort to
understand completely. This increases the possibility of gaining cooperation from him.
Having listened carefully, you"ve now arrived at the point of confirming with the person that he feels
satisfied that his thoughts have been fully voiced. Ask if he feels understood. When enough sincere
listening, questioning, and remembering are brought together, understanding is usually achieved and a
difficult person becomes less difficult and more cooperative.
animal hospitals to give them injections(注射) so that they won"t carry diseases. There are many special
animal food stores, though people can get animal food in almost every kind of store. Some people spend
around two hundred Canadian dollars a month on animal food. When you visit people"s houses, they will
be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them. You will also find that almost every
family has a bird feeder in their garden. All kinds of birds are welcome to come and have a good meal. They are free to come and go and nobody is allowed to kill any animal in Canada. They have a law against
killing wild animals. If you killed an animal, you would be punished. If an animal happened to be hurt by a
car, people would be very sad about it.
People in Canada have many reasons to like animals. One of them might be: Their family ties are not as close as ours. When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own lives. Then the old will
feel lonely. But pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave them alone.
B. pets in Canada
C. how to take good care of pets
D. life of the old in Canada
B. the pets are wild
C. they want to stop them from carrying disease
D. they want them to sleep on the way home
B. often kill animals
C. love animals
D. don"t keep pets inside houses
B. Pets eat better than people.
C. Almost every family has a birdcage in his house.
D. Any bird can come to the bird feeders to eat.
- 1如果x1,x2是一元二次方程ax2+bx+c=0(a≠0)的两根,那么有.这是一元二次方程根与系数的关系,我们利用它可以
- 2已知︳a∣="5," 知︳b∣=7,且︳a+b∣=a+b,则a-b的值为 .
- 3根据单摆周期公式T=2πLg,可以通过实验测量当地的重力加速度.如图1所示,将细线的上端固定在铁架台上,下端系一小钢球,
- 4《晏子春秋》中说:“橘生淮南则为橘,生于淮北则为枳”,造成这一差异的主要因素是 ①地形 ②土壤 ③气候
- 5下列物体运动过程中,机械能守恒的是( )A.沿粗糙斜面匀速下滑的木箱B.被匀速吊起的物体C.在空气中匀速下落的降落伞D
- 6根据我国统计部门的资料,平均来说,在1985年用100元能够买到的消费品,到2009年大约需要653元才能买到。上述材料
- 7已知复数z满足z(1-2i)=5(i为虚数单位),则z=______.
- 8Jimmy is ______ of the two basketball players, but he is muc
- 9潜水艇原停在海面下650米,先上浮200米,又下潜150米,这时潜水艇在海面下 米处.
- 10乾隆帝时平定大小和卓的叛乱与土尔扈特部回归祖国,它们表明[ ]A.分裂割据不得人心B.维护国家统一是朝廷的职责C
- 1如图是由三个半圆组成的图形,点O是大半圆的圆心,且AC=CD=DB,此图形关于点O成中心对称的图形是下图中的( )A.
- 2黑暗房间内的植物经常朝窗户方向弯曲生长,对植物产生这种影响的非生物因素是( )A.温度B.土壤C.光照D.水分
- 3【题文】“伴随着封建土地私有制的确立,以一家一户为单位男耕女织的小农经济逐渐形成。那时的农民,生产主要是为了满足自家的基
- 4阅读《捕蛇者说》中的文段。(8分)余悲之,且曰:“若毒之乎?余将告于莅事者,更若役,复若赋,则何如?”蒋氏大戚,汪然出涕
- 5对公共场所用过氧乙酸溶液进行消毒是预防非典型肺炎的措施之一。已知过氧乙酸(X)是一元酸,有较强的腐蚀性,并易按下式分解:
- 6“在中世纪人们普遍认为地球是宇宙的中心,人类是地球的主人,万物都是为了人类生活这个目的而由上帝创造出来的。”上帝被人们从
- 7沼泽、滩涂、水库和稻田等湿地的共同特点是[ ]A.地表常年有水B.地表经常有水C.地表常年或经常有水D.地表无水
- 8先化简,再求值:,(其中x在-2和1中任选一个)
- 9已知点P(-l,4)在反比例函数的图象上,则k的值是( )A.B.C.4 D.-4
- 10我国的登月工程分三个阶段进行,其中发射首颗月球探测卫星“嫦娥一号”是这一工程的第一个阶段,如图是它发射升空的场景.关于“