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As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information an the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1.The passage begins with two questions to ________.
A. introduce the main topic B. show the author’s altitude
C. describe how to use the Interne D. explain how to store information
2.What can we learn about the first experiment?
A. Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer.
B. The two groups remembered the information equally well.
C. The first group did not try to remember the formation.
D. The second group did not understand the information.
3.In transactive memory, people ________.
A. keep the information in mind
B. change the quantity of information
C. organize information like a computer
D. remember how to find the information
4.What is the effect of the Internet according to Sparrow's research?
A. We are using memory differently.
B. We are becoming more intelligent.
C. We have poorer memories than before.
D. We need a better way to access information.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
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The Nutcracker
Time: May 5
Place: Wuhan Theater
Enjoy a fairy tale come to life with this amazing production, presented by the famous Russian State Ballet. The ballet tells the story of a little girl who receives a nutcracker as a present on Christmas Eve. Suddenly, it transforms into a little prince, and he takes the girl on a voyage through the Land of Snow. This production is a superb performance which lived up to the mystery of the charming Russian classic.
Hello Sadness
Time: Ongoing until May 1
Place: Shanghai Art Theater
This play is adapted from the 1954 French novel Bonjour Tristesse, written by Francoise Sagan when she was only 18. The story is about a 17-year-old girl, Cecile, who lives with her father Raymond. When Raymond finally decides to settle down with a woman, Cecile worries about how her life will change, and she tries to destroy the marriage. Be prepared for a sad ending.
Rain Zone
Time: Ongoing until June 19
Place: Zhujiang Party Pier Beer Culture & Art Zone, Guangzhou
If you have wondered what it is like to walk in the rain without getting wet, this is an exhibition you shouldn’t miss. This artistic equipment allows visitors to walk through falling water, but sensors make sure that the water stops falling wherever a person is standing. The experience will provide you with the interesting feeling that you’re controlling the rain.
Claude Monet
Time: May 1 to Aug 31
Place: Beijing World Art Museum
If you are an art fan who also enjoys modern technology, you should make time for this multimedia exhibition. The high-tech art show displays about 400 copies of Claude Monet’s work and records the life of the artist himself. The exhibition takes you through Monet’s artistic career. With the help of 3-D technology, visitors can also travel to Monet’s hometown to see how his masterpieces were created.
1.Which place may satisfy a dance fan in May?
A. Wuhan Theater.
B. Shanghai Art Theater.
C. Zhujiang Party Pier Beer Culture & Art Zone.
D. Beijing World Art Museum.
2.What can we learn about the play Hello Sadness?
A. It’s produced by a teenager. B. Cecile’s father treats her badly.
C. It’s an adaptation from a novel. D. Cecile’s family live in harmony.
3.Which can you still enjoy in July?
A. Hello Sadness. B. The Nutcracker.
C. Rain Zone. D. Claude Monet.
4.What do the last two events have in common?
A. They are exhibitions of paintings.
B. They depend on modern technology.
C. They are held in memory of different artists.
D. They allow visitors to control the equipment.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that th
e book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”
Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Peterson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.
1.Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?
A. To explain what they are.
B. To introduce BookCrossing.
C. To stress the importance of reading.
D. To encourage readers to share their ideas.
2.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2refer to?
A. The book. B. An adventure.
C. A public place. D. The identification number.
3.What will a BookCrosser do with a book after reading it?
A. Meet other readers to discuss it. B. Pass it on to another reader.
C. Keep it safe in his bookcase. D. Mail it back to its owner.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. Online Reading: A Virtual Tour
B. Electronic Books: A new Trend
C. A Book Group Brings Tradition Back
D. A Website Links People through Books
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.
Frank Hurley's pictures would be outstanding—undoubtedly firstrate photojournalism—if they had been made last week.In fact，they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck(海难), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival.Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegianbuilt threemaster that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all，to the southernmost shore of Antarctica's Weddell Sea.From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled (雪橇) across the continent.The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done.Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and wellresearched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort.Scott's last journey，completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world's imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds.Shackleton, a onetime British merchantnavy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography.Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic，was hired to make the images, most of which have never before been published.
1.What do we know about the photos taken by Hurley?
A. They were made last week.
B. They showed undersea sceneries.
C. They were found by a cameraman.
D. They recorded a disastrous adventure.
2.Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?
A. Frank Hurley.
B. Ernest Shackleton.
C. Robert Falcon Scott.
D. Caroline Alexander.
3.What does Alexander think was the purpose of the 1914 voyage?
A. Artistic creation. B. Scientific research.
C. Money making. D. Treasure hunting.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
e book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds