Curiosity is what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward. But how does one generate (产生) curiosity, in oneself or others? George Loewenstein, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, offered an answer in the classic1994 paper, “The Psychology of Curiosity.”
Curiosity arises, Loewenstein wrote, “when attention becomes focused on a gap in one's knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation (匮乏) labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce the feeling of deprivation.” Loewenstein's theory helps explain why curiosity is such a force: it's not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that drives us forward.
Scientist Daniel Willingham notes that teachers are often “so eager to get to the answer that we do not devote enough time to developing the question.” Yet it's the question that stimulates (刺激) curiosity; being told an answer stops curiosity before it can even get going.
In his 1994 paper, George Loewenstein noted that curiosity requires some basic knowledge. We're not curious about something we know absolutely nothing about. But as soon as we know even a little bit, our curiosity is aroused and we want to learn more. In fact, research shows that curiosity increases with knowledge: the more we know, the more we want to know. To get this process started, Loewenstein suggests, take steps with some interesting but incomplete information.
Language teachers have long used communication in exercises that open an information gap and then require learners to communicate with each other in order to fill it. For example, one student might be given a series of pictures for the beginning of the story, while the student's partner is given a series of pictures showing how that same story ends. Only by speaking with each other (in the foreign language they are learning, of course) can the students fill in each others' information gaps.
1.When one notices a gap in his knowledge, he .
A.desires to fill it
B.tends to be afraid
C.might get tired and sad
D.will become focused on his learning
2.What does Daniel Willingham imply in the article?
A.Answers are more important than questions.
B.Teachers should be eager to get to the answer.
C.Teachers know how to stimulate students’ curiosity.
D.Teachers are partly to blame for students’ hating school.
3.According to George Loewenstein’s paper, curiosity about something occurs only when you .
A.have read a lot of books B.know little about something
C.have some related information D.are given incomplete information
4.What is the article mainly about?
A.Why students hate school.
B.Why curiosity is important.
C.How to stimulate curiosity.
D.What makes people hungry for knowledge.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
First aid means what it says the aid, or help that can be given to an injured person first which is before any other help. Usually the first thing we should do if a serious accident happens is to telephone for an ambulance, but sometimes quick actions by us may save someone's life.
Shock: people often suffer from shock after receiving an injury. The face turns grey and the skin becomes damp and cold. They breathe quickly. They should be kept warm. Cover them with a blanket and give them a warm drink.
Broken Bones: Don't move the person. Send for an ambulance at once.
Poison: A person who has swallowed poison should be taken to hospital at once. With some poisons, sleeping pills, for example, it is a good thing to make the person sick by pushing your fingers down his throat. But if he has swallowed some kind of acid, or anything that burns, it would be a bad thing to make the person sick by pushing your fingers down his throat. The poison would burn his throat as it came up. It is, therefore, best to find out what the person has taken so that you can call to tell the doctor.
Suffocation: This means not being able to breathe. For example, a drowning person will have his lungs full of water. Lay him down with his head lower than the rest of his body so that the water will drain out. If a person has something stuck in his throat, try to remove it with your fingers, or by hitting him on the back. When a person has stopped breathing because of drowning, electric shock, breathing in a poisonous gas etc. you can help him to begin breathing again.
Remember: When an accident happens, send someone to telephone for an ambulance at once. Keep the injured person warm and quiet. Give him plenty of air. Do not let other people crowd around him. If you see an injured person who is being looked after, keep away.
1.The underlined words "drain out" in Paragraph 5 probably mean __________.
A.leave out B.squeeze out
C.flow away D.let out
2.When someone is injured, what should we do first?
A.Keep him warm with a blanket.
B.Send for an ambulance at once.
C.Make him sick by pushing your fingers down his throat.
D.Lay him down with his head lower.
3.The passage is mainly about __________.
A.the importance of first aid B.the symptoms of shocks
C.the types of injuries D.how to offer first aid
4.Where would this article probably appear?
A.In a safety booklet . B.In an advertisement.
C.In a newspaper. D.In a popular magazine.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
I remember clearly the last time I cried. I was twelve years old, in the seventh grade, and I had tried out for the junior high school basketball team. I walked into the gym. There was a piece of paper on the wall.
It was a cut list. The boys whose names were on the list were welcome to keep on practicing. The boys whose names were not on the list had been cut. Their presence was no longer desired.
I had not known the cut was coming that day. I stood and stared at the list. The list had not been made with a great deal of consideration. The names of the best players were at the top, and the other members of the team were listed in what appeared to be a descending (下降的) order of basketball skills. I kept looking at the bottom of the list, hoping that my name would appear if I looked hard enough.
I held myself together as I walked out, bat when I got home I began to cry. For the first time in my life, I had been told officially that I wasn't good enough. Sports meant everything to boys of that age. If you were on the team, it put you in the desirable group. If you were not, you might as well not be alive.
All these years later, I remember it as if 1 were still standing right there in the gym. I don't know how the mind works in matters like this. I don't know what went on in my head following that day of cut. But I know that my determination has been so strong ever since then. I have known that for all my life since that day. I have done more work than I had to be doing and pat in more hours than I had to be spending, I don't know if all of that came from a determination never to allow myself to be cut again—never to allow someone to tell me that I'm not good enough again—but I know it is there. And clearly it's there in a lot of other successful men too.
1.From the text we learn that the cut list had names of pupils __________.
A.who were cut out B.who were still on the team
C.who were the old players D.who were not good enough
2.Why did the author react so strongly to the cut?
A.It hurt his pride deeply. B.It was open to the public.
C.It listed his name at the bottom. D.It forced him to change the team.
3.We can infer from the text that the author __________.
A.has made friends with many other men
B.has never learned the truth of the cut
C.has become quite successful in life
D.has learned to play basketball very well
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Most people hold the belief that young people from poor families whose socio-economic backgrounds are not in bad conditions tend to do less well in the education system. In an attempt to help the children of poor families, a nationwide program called “Headstart” was started in the US in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and it was expected to help them succeed in education. However, the results have been disappointing, because the program began too late. Many children who entered it at three were already behind their peers in language and intelligence and the parents were not willing to get involved in the process.
To improve the results, another program was started in Missouri that concentrated on parents as the child’s first teachers. This program was based on researches showing that working with the family is the most effective way of helping children get the best possible start in life. The four-year study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and represented different social-economic status, age and family structure. The program invited many trained educators visiting and working with the parent or parents and the child. The program also gave the parents some guidance to communicate with their children, and useful skills on child development.
At the age of three, the children involved in the “Missouri” program were evaluated with the children selected from the same socio-economic background and family situations. The results were obvious. The children in the program were more advanced in language development, problem solving and other intellectual skills than their peers. They performed equally well regardless of socio-economic backgrounds or family structures. What they found through the program was that one of the most important factors that affected the child’s development was the poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.
The “Missouri” program is quite different from “Headstart” program. From what they did we can draw a conclusion: Without a similar focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational unfairness.
1.What can we learn about the “Headstart” program?
A.It helped many children from poor families to make progress.
B.It failed because the children they helped had already fallen behind.
C.It helped the children involved succeed in their education soon.
D.It succeeded in improving the intelligence of all the children.
2.We can learn from the second paragraph that the “Missouri” program ______.
A.focused on the children’s first school teachers.
B.helped the children return to the same home.
C.made the children improved in many aspects.
D.gave the parents advice on their development.
3.What does the underlined word “interaction” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.Intelligence. B.Performance.
C.Education. D.Communication.
4.The last paragraph tells us that ______.
A.parents play an important role in children’s education.
B.it is impossible to overcome educational unfairness.
C.poor families cannot change the fate of their children.
D.The “Missouri” program pay more attention to the ages.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) was founded by Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) in 1979. With the characteristics of foreign language and educational publishing, FLTRP is now the leading comprehensive cultural and educational publishing organization in China with worldwide reputation. During the past 40 years after its founding, FLTRP has always been carrying out its business with the mission of “recording human civilization and bridging world cultures”. Relying on the academic advantages of BFSU, FLTRP is now capable of publishing diversified books and journals in more than 80 languages every year. In the meantime, FLTRP has also been actively engaged in exploring the transformation of educational services and digital innovation, expanding its global business and promoting cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, for which FLTRP is hailed as the “true industry leader” and the “epitome (缩影) of the reform and development of China’s publishing industry” in China’s foreign language publishing market.
Responding to the state call of carrying out the transformation of digital publishing, Beijing Viaton Education & Technology Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Viaton) was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of FLTRP. The main product of this company is the Viaton E-pen, which is developed with international advanced optical recognition technology and digital voice technology, recognizing the sixth generation of electronic teaching and learning products. FLTRP now has published more than 4,000 books in conjunction with the Viaton E-pen. With seven years of accumulation, Viaton E-pen has become a leading brand in the domestic E-pen industry. In 2017, Viaton launched the first intelligent E-pen, marking a new era of learning intelligence.
In 2020, FLTRP developed Viaton VT-E01, a bilingual translation machine to translate text, speech, or images from English into Chinese or vice versa. It employs A Modern English-Chinese Dictionary and A Modern Chinese-English Dictionary pressed by FLTRP, overwhelming more than 4,000,000 words with professional pronunciations. FLTRP perfectly combines professional resources and advanced technology to offer a comprehensive translation service for customers. Supporting multiple functions as a dictionary, a scanner, an audio player and most importantly a translator, Viaton VT-E01 provides a brand new method in daily English learning.
1.FLTRP is a leading publishing organization to ______.
A.reform China’s foreign language publishing market
B.develop advanced optical recognition technology
C.publish books and journals in different languages
D.launch new generations of digital voice technology
2.When did Viaton’s first intelligent E-pen come into the market?
A.In 1979. B.In 2019.
C.In 2017. D.In 2020.
3.Viaton VT-E01 can be used to do the following activities except ______.
A.translating text from Chinese into more than 80 languages
B.pronouncing more than 4,000,000 words professionally
C.scanning text, speech, or images in English and Chinese
D.working as an electronic English-Chinese dictionary
4.What is the purpose of FLTRP developing Viaton E-pens?
A.To combine professional resources and advanced technology.
B.To become a leading brand in China’s foreign publishing market.
C.To record human civilization and bridge world cultures.
D.To provide a brand new method in daily English learning.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Sunaian’s family left India and moved to the UK when she was 13. She had to start a new school...
I remember it really well. My parents drove me to the school and said goodbye to me. I took a deep breath and walked into the school.
I didn’t know what to feel. I was excited and scared and a bit nervous, all at the same time. There were lots of other kids around. They were already in groups of friends, but none of them said hello or anything. It was a strange feeling for me, like I didn’t really belong there. I wanted to be somewhere else, but that wasn’t possible.
The first thing I had to do was register, so I went to a room in the school that had a sign saying “Administration”. Suddenly, I felt like I was some kind of criminal. They started asking me all kinds of questions. Then I went off to my first class.
My first class. Wow, that was horrible. Perhaps it was because my hair or clothes were different, but everyone just looked at me in such a strange way. And just like when I arrived, no one came to talk to me. Incredibly, that’s never happened: no one has even taken the time to get to know me or like me. I have friends because I made the first move to meet people.
Maybe the worst class that day, though, was Science. The teacher wasn’t too bad. She introduced me to the class and showed me where to sit. But the other students? Well, they looked at me like I was a guinea pig or something they were going to use for an experiment. I hated every minute.
Then there was a break and I went to sit somewhere alone, missing my mum and dad. But I thought they’d want me to keep trying, so I tried to be more positive in the next class. Not so good, though. Everyone talked to other students, but I sat by myself. At the end of the day, I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
But, as time passed, things have got better. Now I’m doing fine and I get OK grades. I’ve learned lots of things — but not what the teachers teach. I’ve learned that I’m strong and brave. I’ve learned that I will succeed even if some things aren’t the way I want them to be.
1.From the passage, we can learn that ______.
A.Sunaina was well received upon the arrival at school
B.Sunaina was treated as a criminal in the register department.
C.Nobody wanted to waste time getting to know Sunaina at first.
D.Other students’ hair and clothes were similar to Sunaina in her class.
2.What made Sunaina think Science the worst class that day?
A.The Science teacher’s quality and qualification.
B.The way the other students looked at Sunaina.
C.The way the teacher introduced Sunaina to the class.
D.The other students’ thinking of using Sunaina for an experiment.
3.Which of the following is suitable to describe Sunaina?
A.Weak and scary. B.Tough and courageous.
C.Sensitive and shy. D.Generous and outgoing.
4.What does the story intend to tell us?
A.What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
B.A life without a friend is a life without a sun.
C.Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
D.A good word is warm in winter, but a bad word hurts in June.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
One of a doctors’ most valuable tools is his nose. Since ancient times, medics have relied on their sense of smell to help them work out what is wrong with their patients. Fruity odors (气味) on the breath, for example, let them monitor the condition of diabetics (糖尿病病人).
But doctors can, as it were, smell only what they can smell—and many compounds characteristic of disease are odorless. To deal with this limitation, Hossam Haick, a chemical engineer at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, has developed a device which, he claims, can do work that the human nose cannot.
The idea behind Dr. Haick’s invention is not new. Many diagnostic “breathalysers” already exist, and sniffer dogs, too, can be trained to detect illnesses such as cancer. Most of these approaches, though, are disease-specific. Dr. Haick wanted to generalize the process.
As he describes in ACS Nano, he and his colleagues created a series of electrodes made of carbon nanotubes (纳米碳管). Each of these had one of 20 organic films laid over it. Each film was sensitive to one of a score of compounds known to be found on the breath of patients suffering from a range of 17 illnesses, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and bladder cancer. When a film reacted, its electrical resistance changed in a predictable manner. The combined changes produced an electrical fingerprint that would be diagnostic of the disease a patient was suffering from.
To test their invention, Dr. Haick and his colleagues collected 2,808 breath samples from 1,404 patients who were suffering from at least one of the diseases. Its success varied. It could distinguish between samples from patients suffering from gastric cancer and bladder cancer only 64% of the time. At distinguishing lung cancer from head and neck cancer it was, though, 100% successful. Overall, it got things right 86% of the time. Not perfect, but a useful aid to a doctor planning to conduct further investigations. And this is only the first model. Slightly adjusted, its success rate would be expected to improve.
1.How useful is nose to doctors?
A.They can smell what other people can’t.
B.They could tell which diseases are odorless.
C.They diagnose illness through their sense of smell.
D.They will apply new device to helping with diagnosing illness.
2.What is the most special aspect of the new invention?
A.It can help detect more than one disease.
B.It is made of a series of electrodes.
C.It works through analyzing patients’ electrical fingerprints.
D.It can be used to help diagnose cancers.
3.What can we infer about the device?
A.It’s the first invention by using principle of sense of smell.
B.It will be a useful tool in diagnosing lung cancer.
C.Its success rate differs from patient to patient.
D.It can successfully tell Bladder cancer from other cancers.
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A.High Tech in diagnosing illness B.A new way in diagnosing illness
C.Diagnosing illness can be easy D.Diagnosing illness by smell
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Dolphins are universally regarded as some of the cleverest creatures in the world. In captivity ( 圈养), they can be trained to complete complex tasks such as jumping through hoops and somersaulting through the air.
But their intelligence doesn’t stop there. In a recent study of cetaceans (鲸目动物)--a group of animals that includes dolphins and whales--researchers created a list of intelligent behaviors observed in 90 different cetacean species, reported the Guardian. For example, the smartest cetaceans hunt in groups, share knowledge through mimicry (模仿) and even care for each other's children. Some even consider their behavior to be human-like.
“There is the saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ seems to be true for both whales and humans,”
Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.
However, cetaceans don’t just use their brain power for survival. The study suggests that dolphins might even gossip. That's because some species greet each other with specific whistles, just as humans greet each other by name, the Guardian reported. Sometimes, a group of dolphins whistles the “name” of a dolphin that isn't there. Could they be speaking about their “friend” behind its back?
For the researchers, dolphin small talk is a big deal. As they found that the most social cetaceans also have the largest brains, they argue that cetacean intelligence developed to meet the demands of complex social groups.
Known as the “cultural brain hypothesis (假设),” it had only been used to explain the intelligence of humans and other primates (灵长目动物). The new study aimed to find a common pathway for the evolution of intelligence among biologically different species.
“It is interesting to think that whale and human brains are different in their structure but have brought us to the same patterns in behavior, ” Luke Rendell, a biologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian.
Indeed, we still have a lot to learn about our intelligent ocean-dwelling neighbors. “We don’ t have to look at other planets to look for aliens,” Muthukrishna told the Guardian, “because we know that underwater there are these amazing species with so many parallels to us in their complex behaviors.”
1.The recent study was intended to ______.
A.learn more about intelligent creatures of the sea
B.explain the intelligence of humans and cetaceans
C.create a list of intelligent behaviors of different cetacean species
D.see whether the intelligence of different species evolved in the same way
2.The implied meaning of the underlined part in Paragraph 3 is that ______.
A.villagers have the responsibility to raise any child in the village
B.like human beings, whales even help raise each other’s babies
C.cetaceans have social behaviors very similar to human beings
D.it is not easy for one villager to take care of his or her own child
3.It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A.it is unnecessary to look for aliens and do research into them
B.some cetaceans have the same intelligence as human beings
C.both dolphins and whales greet each other with specific whistles
D.both dolphins and whales have a lot in common with humans in behaviors
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A.Aliens living underwater B.A study of intelligent dolphins
C.Intelligent creatures of the sea D.Reasons for the intelligence of sea creatures
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old, I learned how to make a coin disappear. I’d read The Lord of the Rings and ventured into the adult section of the library to search for a book of spells—nine being that curious age at which you’re old enough to work through more than 1,200 pages of fantasy literature but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library. The book I found instead taught basic sleight-of-hand technique, and I dedicated the next months to practice.
At first the magic wasn’t any good. At first it wasn’t even magic; it was just a trick—a bad trick. I spent hours each day in the bathroom running through the secret moves in front of the mirror. I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day, and after two weeks of this my mom got a carpet from the hardware store and placed it under the mirror to muffle the sound of the coin falling again and again.
I had heard my dad work through passages of new music on the piano, so I knew how to practice—slowly, deliberately, going for precision rather than speed. One day I tried the illusion in the mirror and the coin vanished. It did not look like a magic trick. It looked like a miracle.
One of the lessons you learn very early on as a magician is that the most amazing part of a trick has nothing to do with the secret. The secret is simple and often dull: a hidden piece of tape, a small mirror, a duplicate playing card, diversion of the audience’s attention. In this case, the secret was a series of covert ( 暗 中 的 ) technique to hide the coin behind my hand in the act of opening it, a dance of the fingers that I learned so completely I didn’t even have to think. I would close my hand, then open it, and the coin would vanish not by skill but by real magic.
1.What book did the author intend to find in the library when he was nine years old?
A.A book teaching people how to make a coin disappear.
B.The second book of The Lord of the Rings.
C.A book on how to become a magician.
D.A book of real magic.
2.The underlined word “muffle” probably means ______.
A.clean B.punish
C.lower D.kill
3.What did the author learn from his dad playing the piano?
A.Without music, life is of no value. B.Practice makes perfect.
C.Great liars are also great magicians. D.No pains, no gains.
4.Which of the following is not mentioned as a magician trick?
A.Carrying out skillful hand moves.
B.Using real magic to create miracles.
C.Hiding some stage tools inside the coat.
D.Guiding the audience to focus on something unimportant.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Maps Special Edition, £25
This book was already popular in our children’s department and has been made even better with this special edition, which includes 16 new maps. The collection of 68 maps takes you through 58 countries and six continents. It is packed with illustrated information, which includes famous historical figures, local dishes, festivals, wild animals and landmarks. Each page is a work of art to revisit, because each time you look you will notice something new.
Doodle World Map Pillowcase, £14.99
This 100% cotton, machine-washable world map pillowcase features lots of wonderful illustrations, including animals, the seven wonders of the modern world and interesting facts, such as the first solo round the world hot air balloon, the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the world record migration of the humpback whale. It comes with wash-out pens so you can wash off the old design and colour it in all over again, and again. Perfect for sleepovers.
Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures: Step Into a Prehistoric World, £20
Palaeontology meets cartography in this atlas (地图册) that is perfect for any dinosaur-obsessed child. It is by the award-winning team behind Atlas of Animal Adventures and Lucy Leather land’s inky illustrations, which makes the book a joy to look at. It covers the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and includes maps on the shifting continents and fossil finds. On every page you meet a different creature and discover its behaviours, hunting techniques, defence tactics and migration patterns.
Usborne Atlas and Jigsaw Europe, £9.99
You get two gifts in one here. This 300-piece jigsaw of Europe comes with a 32-page picture atlas, so you can see and discover the continent in more detail with the maps and learn more about the countries as you are building the puzzle. Beautiful illustrations of animals, landmarks and attractions cover every centimetre of the jigsaw, making it challenging (but not too hard) to put together for children age 5+.
1.All the four superbly illustrated atlases are perfect presents for ______ .
A.geologists B.children
C.adults D.parents
2.If a kid is obsessed by the remote past, what may he be interested in?
A.Maps Special Edition B.Doodle World Map Pillowcase
C.Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures D.Usborne Atlas and Jigsaw Europe
3.Which of the following is TRUE about these atlases?
A.All of them serve to explore the world.
B.All of them contain widely acknowledged landmarks.
C.They all have multiple purposes.
D.They are all made of unique materials.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析