Loneliness hurts. It is psychologically distressing and so physically unhealthy that being lonely increases the likelihood of an earlier death by 26 percent. But psychologists think it hurts so much because, like hunger and thirst, loneliness acts as a biological alarm bell.
On March 26, just as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology posted a report on bioRxiv. It is the first study in humans to show that both loneliness and hunger share signals deep in a part of the brain that governs very basic impulses for reward and motivation. So, our need to connect is apparently as fundamental as our need to eat.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain responses to loneliness and hunger. 40 adult participants underwent a 10-hour session depriving (剥夺) them of food and another 10-hour session denying them social contact. Both sessions served as a control (对照) condition for each other.
The social-isolation condition was challenging to arrange. Some people are lonely in a crowd, while others enjoy solitude To induce(l t)not just objective isolation but subjective feelings of loneliness, the researchers had the participants spend their time from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. in a room at the laboratory without phones, laptops or even novels in case fictional characters provided some social support. Puzzles were allowed, as was preapproved nonfiction reading or writing.
Researchers then focused on a midbrain region called “the substantia nigra”, a center of dopamine (多巴胺) release involved with motivation and desire. The dopaminergic response shows a strong wanting. In the scanner, participants saw images of their preferred forms of social interaction and of their favorite foods, as well as a control image of flowers. It was then found that the substantia nigra responded only to cues of what they had been deprived of. The magnitude of the response correlated with the subjects’ self-reports of how hungry or lonely they were, though the feelings of hunger were consistently stronger.
Finally, the researchers used machine learning to confirm their findings. A software classifier trained to recognize neural patterns during fasting (斋戒) proved able to recognize similar neural patterns from the social-isolation condition even though it had never “seen” them. So there seems to be an underlying shared neural signature between the two states.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, an obvious next question for the work was whether different forms of social media could satisfy the need for social connection. Those researchers were never able to get funding for such a study. But now it seems they will.
1.The report posted on March 26 ________.
A.is based on the social-isolation condition during the pandemic
B.is the first study on the effect of loneliness on human beings
C.reflects the similarity between loneliness and hunger
D.shows human need for reward and motivation
2.What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?
A.Why inducing feelings of loneliness was challenging
B.How loneliness was created among participants
C.Why participants were denied access to phones
D.How researchers compared brain responses
3.We can infer that participants’ substantia nigra showed ________ response(s) to the image of flowers.
A.little B.various
C.strong D.consistent
4.What does the underlined “it” in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A.The neural signature. B.Fasting.
C.Machine learning. D.The classifier.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题
Loneliness hurts. It is psychologically distressing and so physically unhealthy that being lonely increases the likelihood of an earlier death by 26 percent. But psychologists think it hurts so much because, like hunger and thirst, loneliness acts as a biological alarm bell.
On March 26, just as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology posted a report on bioRxiv. It is the first study in humans to show that both loneliness and hunger share signals deep in a part of the brain that governs very basic impulses for reward and motivation. So, our need to connect is apparently as fundamental as our need to eat.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain responses to loneliness and hunger. 40 adult participants underwent a 10-hour session depriving (剥夺) them of food and another 10-hour session denying them social contact. Both sessions served as a control (对照) condition for each other.
The social-isolation condition was challenging to arrange. Some people are lonely in a crowd, while others enjoy solitude To induce(l t)not just objective isolation but subjective feelings of loneliness, the researchers had the participants spend their time from 9 A.M. to 7 P.M. in a room at the laboratory without phones, laptops or even novels in case fictional characters provided some social support. Puzzles were allowed, as was preapproved nonfiction reading or writing.
Researchers then focused on a midbrain region called “the substantia nigra”, a center of dopamine (多巴胺) release involved with motivation and desire. The dopaminergic response shows a strong wanting. In the scanner, participants saw images of their preferred forms of social interaction and of their favorite foods, as well as a control image of flowers. It was then found that the substantia nigra responded only to cues of what they had been deprived of. The magnitude of the response correlated with the subjects’ self-reports of how hungry or lonely they were, though the feelings of hunger were consistently stronger.
Finally, the researchers used machine learning to confirm their findings. A software classifier trained to recognize neural patterns during fasting (斋戒) proved able to recognize similar neural patterns from the social-isolation condition even though it had never “seen” them. So there seems to be an underlying shared neural signature between the two states.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, an obvious next question for the work was whether different forms of social media could satisfy the need for social connection. Those researchers were never able to get funding for such a study. But now it seems they will.
1.The report posted on March 26 ________.
A.is based on the social-isolation condition during the pandemic
B.is the first study on the effect of loneliness on human beings
C.reflects the similarity between loneliness and hunger
D.shows human need for reward and motivation
2.What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?
A.Why inducing feelings of loneliness was challenging
B.How loneliness was created among participants
C.Why participants were denied access to phones
D.How researchers compared brain responses
3.We can infer that participants’ substantia nigra showed ________ response(s) to the image of flowers.
A.little B.various
C.strong D.consistent
4.What does the underlined “it” in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A.The neural signature. B.Fasting.
C.Machine learning. D.The classifier.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Loneliness is like a disease, and what's worse, it's contagious.It can spread from one person to another, according to the recent research that stresses the power of one person's emotions to affect even people he doesn’t know.
The new analysis, involving 4,793 people who were interviewed every two years between 2005 and 2015, showed that a friend of a lonely person was 52% more likely to develop feelings of loneliness by the time of the next interview.A friend of that person was 25% more likely, and a friend of a friend of a friend was 15% more likely.
“Loneliness is not just the property of an individual.It can be transmitted across people—even people you don't have direct contact with,” said John T.Cacioppo, a psychologist of the University of Chicago who led the study published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Loneliness has been linked to medical problems, including depression, sleep problems and generally poorer physical health.Identifying some of the causes could help reduce the emotion and improve health, experts said.
Although the study did not examine how loneliness spreads, Cacioppo said another research has provided clues.“Let's say for whatever reason you get lonely.You then interact with other people in a more negative fashion.That puts them in a negative mood and makes them more likely to interact with other people in a negative fashion and they minimize their social ties and become lonely,” Cacioppo said.
According to Cacioppo, loneliness spread more easily among women than men, perhaps because women were more likely to express emotions.
Lonely people become less and less trusting others.This makes it more and more difficult for them to make friends-and more likely that society will reject them.Therefore, it is important to recognize and deal with loneliness.Cacioppo emphasizes people who have been pushed to the edges of society should receive help to repair their social networks.
1. It can be concluded from the first paragraph that ______.
A. Loneliness is actually a kind of disease.
B. More and more people are suffering from loneliness.
C. Loneliness spreads in social networks.
D. Emotions are only transmitted between friends.
2.According to Cacioppo, lonely people________.
A. will probably be deserted by society
B. are more likely to trust others
C. are less likely to be rejected by friends
D. rely heavily on others
3.The word “minimize” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to “________”.
A. increase B. keep
C. create D. reduce
4.Which should lonely people do to get rid of loneliness?
A. Refuse the help given by others.
B. Admit and try to solve it.
C. Interact with others more negatively.
D. Express emotions more often.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
“It hurts me more than you” and “This is for your own good” — these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it as all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who speaks of her students “so passive” and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children’s passivity. “We’re talking about a generation of kids who've never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying 'go and look it up’, you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.”
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It's time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it's for their own good. It's time to start telling them no again.
1.Children are becoming more inactive in study because _______.
A.they watch TV too often | B.they have done too much homework |
C.they have to fulfill too many duties | D.teachers are too strict with them |
2.By “permissive period in education” (L.1, Para. 2) the author means a time _______.
A.when everything can be taught at school |
B.when every child can be educated |
C.when children are permitted to receive education |
D.when children are allowed to do what they wish to |
3.The main idea of the passage is that _______.
A.parents should leave their children alone |
B.kids should have more activities at school |
C.it's time to be more strict with our kids |
D.parents should always set a good example to their kids |
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
“It hurts me more than you,” and “This is for your own good.” There are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the “permissive period in education” in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school.The schools and the educators made it easy on us.They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy.We stopped making our children do homework.We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake.One such teacher is Sharon Clomps who says of her students—“so passive” —and wonders what has happened.Nothing is demanded of them, she believes.Television, says Clomps, contributes to children’s passivity.“We’re talking about a generation of kids who’ ve never been hurt or hungry.They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying ‘go and look it up’, you tell them the answer.It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.
Yes, it does.It takes energy and it takes work.It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work.It’ s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it’ s for their own good.It’s time to start telling them no again.
1.We learn from the passage that the author’s mother used to lay emphasis on(强调:重视)_______.
A.natural development B.education at school
C.discipline (磨炼,纪律) D.learning Latin
2.Children are becoming more inactive in study because _______.
A.they watch TV too much B.they have to fulfill too many duties
C.they have done too much homework D.teachers are too strict with them
3.By “permissive period in education” the author means a time _______.
A.when everything can be taught at school
B.when children are permitted to receive education
C.when children are allowed to do what they wish to
D.when every child can be educated
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
“It hurts me more than you”, and “This is for your own good”—these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who says of her students “so passive” and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children’s passivity. “We’re talking about a generation of kids who’ve never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying ‘go and look it up’, you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.”
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It’s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it’s for their own good. It’s time to start telling them no again.
1.We learn from the passage that the author’s mother used to lay emphasis on(强调)________.
A.his learning a foreign language
B.his ability to control behavior
C.his natural development
D.his school education
2.According to the author, “the permissive period” in Paragraph 2 means a time________.
A.when children are allowed to do what they wish to
B.when everything can be taught at school
C.when every child can be educated
D.when children are permitted to receive education
3.What is the main idea of the passage?
A.Parents should leave their kids alone
B.Kids should have more activities at school.
C.It’s time to be stricter with our kids.
D.Parents should set a good example to their kids.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Loneliness has been linked to depression(抑郁) and other health problems. Now, a study says it can also spread. A friend of a lonely person was fifty-two percent more likely to develop feelings of loneliness. And a friend of that friend was twenty-five percent more likely to do the same.
Earlier findings showed that happiness, obesity(肥胖) and the ability to stop smoking can also spread like infections within social groups. The findings all come from a major health study in the American town of Framingham, Massachusetts.
The study began in 1948 to investigate the causes of heart disease. Since then, more tests have been added, including measures of loneliness and depression.
The new findings involved more than five thousand people in the second generation of the Framingham Heart Study. The researchers examined friendship histories and reports of loneliness. The results established a pattern that spread as people reported fewer close friends.
For example, loneliness can affect relationships between next-door neighbors. The loneliness spreads as neighbors who were close friends now spend less time together. The study also found that loneliness spreads more easily among women than men.
The average person is said to experience feelings of loneliness about forty-eight days a year. The study found that having a lonely friend can add about seventeen days. But every additional friend can decrease loneliness by two and a half days.
Lonely people become less and less trusting of others. This makes it more and more difficult for them to make friends—and more likely that society will reject(排斥) them.
John Cacioppo at the University of Chicago led the study. He says it is important to recognize and deal with loneliness. He says people who have been pushed to the edges of society should receive help to repair their social networks.
1.As an average person, if you make 2 more common friends, how many days a year might you suffer from loneliness?
A. 48 days B. 43 days C. 65 days D. 17 days
2.What can we infer from the passage about lonely people?
A. They can overcome loneliness themselves
B. They will decrease loneliness day by day.
C. They need help to get back to normal social life
D. They can help others to repair their social networks
3.What's the best way to help lonely people according to this passage?
A. Bring them together. B. Make friends with them.
C. Help them stop smoking. D. Help them lose weight
4.Which of the following would be the topic of the passage?
A. Loneliness and social network B. Social Networks and friendship
C. Loneliness and diet. D. Help A Lonely Person
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
It's no surprise that sports can greatly benefit a child physically, psychologically, and socially. A 2008 Women's Sports Foundation Research Report concluded that children’s athletic participation is also associated with increased levels of family satisfaction, great achievement in study, and an overall better quality of life for children. And a study published in last month’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that kids who are active at age 5 wind up with less body fat at ages 8 and 11.
But one hotly debated discussion focuses on the kinds of sports kids should play, with parents mistakenly thinking, "Lizzie is so quiet, we should let her join in basketball and soccer to try to get her to open up." But increasingly, experts are suggesting the healthier instinct (直觉) might be, "Lizzie is so quiet. Maybe we should see if she likes playing with a big team like softball or if she likes ballet or swimming, where she can work more on her own terms."
“Participation in any sport is going to provide kids with life skills----the ability to focus and to concentrate, the ability to handle pressure in tough situations, the ability to stay calm when things aren't going just right,’’ explains Orlando-based youth sports psychology expert Patrick Cohn. Those lessons will carry over into future, non-sports attempts.
Team sports certainly offer benefits not as easily obtained via individual activities, as players leant how to communicate and work with others, and there’s the potential to develop leadership abilities. Team sports also help kids develop their social identity. Our sense of worth is developed through what we achieve and a sense of belonging.
Individual sports offer unique advantages, too, like developing a child’s sense of independence. “Hero, you don’t depend upon teammates," says Cohn. "You take full responsibility, whether you do well or perform poorly." Many of Cohn’s young clients complain about pressure from team mates or coaches to make zero mistakes or carry more of the team than they may want to; these kids may enjoy a solo sport like tennis or gymnastics.
Individual activities keep kids away from comparing themselves to the best players on the team, a habit that does little to help confidence levels. Instead, it encourages them to compare their skills to their own past performances. With individual sports like swimming or track, it’s easier for the child to participate on his own, at his leisure(闲暇), without having to round up a bunch of like-minded peers.
Above all, while some children enjoy the excitement of competition, others are more likely to benefit from the freedom of individual sports, and finding the right balance can be necessary for children’s enjoyment. What parents think is encouragement, children often consider as pressure. So try to understand what they want from sports.
Title | Team sports and individual sports |
Sports benefit children | • Sports can greatly benefit children physically, psychologically, and socially. • Sports are associated with increased levels of family satisfaction, 1. achievement and better quality of life for children. |
2. ideas | • Parents usually want their children to lake part in the team sports which don’t 3.their children’s character. • Experts think that any sport will 4. children to focus, handle pressure, stay calm when things are going 5.. |
Team sports | • Children can learn how to communicate and work with others. • Children will have the potential to develop leadership abilities. • Children will develop their social 6.. |
Individual sports | • Individual sports may help develop children’s sense of independence and 7.. • Children tend to compare their skills to their own past performances and are likely to 8. comparing themselves with the best players. • Individual sports also seem to be more 9. to children. |
Conclusion | • Finding the right balance is a 10. for children’s enjoyment. • Parents should try to understand what their children really want from sports. |
高二英语任务型阅读困难题查看答案及解析
—Well,I do think the ipod is smart, convenient and intelligent.
—________.
A.So it is B.So is it C.So does it D.So it does
高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
—Well, I do think the ipad is smart, convenient and intelligent.
—________.
A. So it is B.So is it C. So does it D.So it does
高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Although the U.S. is so big and its people have so many different ethnic (racial) backgrounds, it is in some ways less varied than Europe. The English language is used almost everywhere in its American form. The American way of speaking has developed independently of England and is on the whole closer to what can be heard in Ireland.
American instance of uniformity(一致性) is in habits and ways of living. From Boston to Los Angeles it is as far as from France to Central Asia, and from east to west there are five time zones; but everywhere people get up and go to bed at about the same time, eat the same kind of food, buy in the same kind of shops, work and rest at the same times of the day and have the same pattern of holidays. In most of the things that matter there is less difference between rich people and ordinary people, or between town and country, than in any single European nation.
Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs, its people are by now almost entirely an urban society. Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture, and most of the rest live in or around towns, large and small. Here the traditional picture is changing; most Americans do not live in small towns any more. Half the population now live in some thirty metropolitan(大城市的) areas.
The fact that the United states has always been a single economic unit has contributed to uniformity. Modern industry favors large organizations, and it is no accident that the world’s biggest commercial firms are American. The people can choose between the products of competing manufacturers, but the products are all much alike.
1.In describing the uniformity in the U.S. the author does not mention that
A. the American people get up and go to work at the same time.
B. the American people spend their holidays in the same pattern.
C. the American people buy and eat the same kind of food.
D. the American people have more or less the same income.
2.What can we learn from the passage about the U.S. agriculture?
A. The American farmers need more land than before.
B. More and more Americans are interested in farming.
C. It is quite modernized.
D. It is now going backward.
3.What is the feature of the U.S. modern industry according to the last paragraph?
A. The production scale and the organizational scale are very big.
B. It is a single economic unit that manufactures the same kind of products.
C. There are more and more competing manufacturers.
D. There are always a variety of products to choose from.
4.What does “most of the things” in the second paragraph refer to?
A. food, clothing and houses.
B. Cars, computers and TV sets.
C. Their wealth and income.
D. Land, housing and bank savings.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析