Curiosity is the engine of intellectual achie...

Curiosity is the engine of intellectual achievement—it’s what drives us to keep learning, keep trying and keep pushing forward. But how does one stimulate(激发) curiosity in oneself or others?

"Curiosity arises," Loewenstein, a professor of psychology, wrote, "when attention becomes focused on a gap(缺口) in one’s knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation(剥夺) 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 great motivator: it’s not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that drives us forward.

A scientist called Daniel Willingham notes that teachers are often so eager to get to the answer that they do not devote enough tune to developing the question. Being told an answer stops curiosity before it can even get going. Instead of starting with the answer, begin by asking the students a question that interests them—one that opens an information gap.

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 excited 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.

Language teachers usually use a similar idea 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 some pictures showing the beginning of the story, while the student’s partner is given some pictures showing how that same story ends. Only by speaking with each other can the students fill in each other’s information gaps.

1.When one notices a gap in his or her knowledge, the curious person_______.

A. desires to fill it

B. tends to give it up

C. may be unwilling to admit it

D. will ignore it and move forward

2.Which of the following is Daniel Willingham’s opinion?

A. Answers are more important than questions.

B. Teachers know how to stimulate students’ curiosity.

C. Interesting questions can help stimulate students’ curiosity.

D. Teachers should allow students to ask more questions in class.

3.What do we know about curiosity in Paragraph 4?

A. It is of importance.

B. It needs more knowledge.

C. It is excited when we learn more.

D. It increases with growing knowledge.

4.What may be the best title for the text?

A. The Importance of Curiosity

B. How to Stimulate Curiosity

C. Curiosity and Language Learning

D. How to Teach Foreign Languages

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The basics of infrastructure design

It is rightly pointed out various intellectuals that the lifestyle of today is vastly different from that of the earlier times especially in terms of its pace. Lifestyle of today is remarkably fast paced and so in order to catch up with such a pace of life, the adoption of smart and time saving methods is of real significance. Well, the highways have certainly contributed in this direction and have made our lives a lot easier. Thanks to the modern flyovers and expressways, a single route can be accessed by twice the number of vehicles at the same time.

These facilities and supplies have made our lives double free but it needs to be realized that designing and constructing it is a very complex and a long process. You have to hold fast to the various rules of designing, government standards and most importantly, their safety and usability for the people. In the end it is a joint effort of a number of skilled engineers, scientists and statisticians. The material that is used in the construction is finalized after it undergoes certain tests for evaluating their qualities like hardness, roughness, thickness and all that is required.

Some of the points you have to take care of while laying an infrastructure design are as follows:

The basic layout (布局) of the road — At this level of planning, various civil engineers have meetings to figure out the basic requirements of the road like thickness of the asphalt (沥青), the size of lanes, distance to be covered, degree of curves and much more. These fundamental points help them decide the further line of action.

The prior steps — Before any work is stated over the basic plan layout, there are various preparations to be made like placing road signs, the removal of trees that may prove to be dangerous in the event of a storm or other natural causes, the positioning of fire hydrants (消防栓) based on special designs to be useful when required, etc.

Inclusion of safety barriers — The safety barriers are placed on almost all roads and highways that are made over or near to rivers and cliffs. These barriers keep the vehicles from moving into the traffic in instances of accidents. These should also be designed in advance of placing them on a road and the design should be such that it makes minimum impact upon the people sitting in the car. These include supplies like side rails and light poles.

Asphalt pavement marking — It is the process of using a reflective material to indicate various important points on the road like lanes, turns, passing areas, two way and one way roads.

Though the smooth and wide highways constructed in big cities seem to be very attractive for the drivers, the ease of use is also the cause of accidents. Cars rushing at extremely high speeds and insecure change of lanes are a common sight on the highways. With the help of novel infrastructure design engineers, we can make the best possible use of highways. If these are designed properly and sign boards are placed at the required points, a number of road accidents can be avoided.

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