I was in my room, unwilling to head to the community theatre with “my brother” Henry. He was just adopted by my parents recently. I was not in the mood for being onstage with him.
“Kristie, come here,” my mom called. Following her voice, I found her outside the bathroom, holding a wet book. She gave the book a shake. “Henry’s book was in the bathtub. Did you put it there?” She glared at me—something she never did before Henry came to our home. I didn’t wet his book on purpose. Tears of hurt clouded my eyes. Worse still, she promised to buy him a new copy. My heart ached. Henry was stealing my mother’s love. He was ruining my life.
Meanwhile, Henry was just nearby, absorbed in working on a complicated rope knot (绳结) as usual. Why did a boy like him do the girly work? Far from manly!
Soon, it was time to have to set off for the community theatre. As Henry walked ahead of us to the car, my mom took me aside and said in a low voice, “It’s the first time for Henry to be onstage. Be kind to him, Honey.” I nodded but sighed. Being kind didn’t use to be hard. But after Henry moved in, everything felt different. The theatre used to be a special place for my parents and me. With Henry involved, it didn’t seem so special any more.
Finally, it was our stage time. My heart beat wildly. I forgot my annoyance at Henry for a while. As we kids lined up, ready to act out our short play, I realized how loosely I had tied the drawstring (束带) on my skirt. Sure enough, my skirt began to drop. Laughter from the audience could be heard, and even though I was wearing shorts under my skirt, I could feel my face burst into flames. However, my hands were full. If only someone could help me out!
Right then, Henry sensed my embarrassment.
After the performance, I found Henry and tapped him on the arm gratefully.
When we walk the “path of life”, social life is very important. More often than not, close friendships can help us smooth out the sometimes rock y road that we are meant to travel.
The first fruit is that they can comfort the heart, because the peace comes from having someone with whom we share our joy, sadness, success and failure. Here, friendship has a double advantage-happiness takes on a greater meaning and a trouble shared becomes a trouble halved! Naturally, this kind of openness results from a close friendship. With true friends, we feel free to share our joy and sadness in full measure. We know that our friends will both respect our feelings and treasure these moments of closeness.
The second one is
The third one is that they can help us achieve the goals we set for ourselves
Finally, it should be pointed out that enjoying the company of a crowd is not the same as being with friends. If we want to better walk the “path of life” with the comfort, advice and help from our trusted friends,
| A．However, when we seek to be alone, we must be careful that we do not always escape into our own world. |
| B．because friends may offer help in many different ways. |
| C．In general, close friendships have three main “fruits”. |
| D．we should choose friends and develop relationships carefully. |
| E．Indeed, the human heart depends on such opportunities for comfort and protection. |
| F．that they can advise the head because we may have better understanding and judgement that are achieved through conversations with well-meaning and wise friends. |
| G．quiet periods of reflection can lead to personal improvement. |
As far back as I can remember, the large pickle (泡菜) jar sat on the floor beside the dresser in my parents’ bedroom. When he got ready for bed, Dad would empty his pocket and toss his coins into the jar. As a small boy I was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar. They landed with a merry jingle to a dull thud (沉闷声) as the jar was filled. I used to kneel down on the floor in. front of the jar and admire the copper and silver circles that shone like a pirate’s treasure when the sun poured through the bedroom window.
When the jar was filled, Dad would take it to the bank. Stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coins were placed between Dad and me on the seat of his old truck. Each and every time, Dad would look at me hopefully. “Those coins are going to keep you put of the textile mill, son. You are going to do better than me. ” Also, each and every time, as he slid the box of rolled coins across the counter at the bank towards the cashier, he would grin proudly. “These are for my son’s college fund; He’ll never work at the mill all his life like me.”
We would always celebrate each deposit by stopping for an ice-cream cone. I always got chocolate. Dad always got vanilla. When the clerk at the ice-cream parlor handed Dad his change, he would show me the few coins nestled in his palm. “When we get home, we’ll start filling the jar again.”
He always let me drop the first coins into the empty jar. As they rattled around with a brief, happy jingle, we grinned at each other. “You’ll get to college on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters,” he said. “But you’ll get there. I’ll see to that.”
Years later, I finished college, landed a job in a big city, met my wonderful wife Susan and had our daughter Jessica.
Once, when we visited my parents, I led Susan into the bedroom.
Looking at the jar with the shining coins, Susan’s eyes were misted with tears.
In a recent study of 19-month-olds, University of Chicago doctoral student Lauren Howard found that children who heard various languages in their neighborhoods were more receptive to people who spoke languages other than their parents ‘language.
“We measured imitation. At this age, that’s how they show us their willingness to learn, ”explained Howard. The lead author of the report titled Neighborhood Linguistic Diversity Predicts Infants' Social Learning. The experiments tested how well the babies could learn new tasks from a non- English speaker.
The study, which included 82 children from the Chicago and Washington areas, was in the November issue of Cognition.
“Babies are not only affected by parents and caregivers--- previous studies proved that --but also by people they hear at the store or on the bus, "Howard said. “Incidental exposure matters.”
The study indicates that kids in diverse communities may grow up to have open minds. Good news for families living in such neighborhoods--- but can other families do something to increase children's cultural exposure？
Cultural diversity can be within reach, even in unlikely areas. Although she grew up in not very diverse"， Julie, 23， said she picked up much knowledge about other languages and cultures from the many students her family hosted through the AFS-USA international student exchange program.
“It’s the little differences that make you more understanding and less judgmental, ”Julie said “Yuilya from Kazakhstan, for example, was very disciplined because she couldn't go to college unless her grades were good. Matias from Paraguay wasn't used to being on time because his culture is more laid-back. ”
For families unable to host a student for a whole year, AFS-USA offers other volunteer opportunities, such as being “welcome families ”to ease students ’ transitions（过渡）.
But there are countless ways to expose kids to other countries, said Lucas, author of “Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be at Home in the World.”
Just a few of her tips: Take the kids to foreign films. Try exotic restaurants. Put a world map on the wall. Help your children’s teachers make global classrooms. Encourage the kids to invite friends of other cultures for dinner. “They’ll thank you later, "Lucas said.
1．What does Howard stress by saying "Incidental exposure matters"？| A．Babies are also influenced by people outside their home |
| B．Parents fail to realize the importance of incidental learning |
| C．Parents and caregivers have more influence on babies |
| D．Babies learn little knowledge at the store or on the bus. |
| A．She frequently volunteered in some welcome families |
| B．She lived in neighborhoods with various language learn |
| C．She was a member of the AFS-USA program |
| D．She learned from the foreign students living in her home |
| A．Curious | B．Happy |
| C．Tolerant | D．anger |
| A．How to improve children’s behavior |
| B．How to teach children foreign languages |
| C．How to better communicate with children. |
| D．How to help children seek diversity |
| A．getting | B．going | C．growing | D．coming |
| A．schoolboys | B．kids | C．adults | D．graduates |
| A．instruction | B．example | C．order | D．inspiration |
| A．obvious | B．clear | C．reasonable | D．hidden |
| A．failed | B．refused | C．tried | D．managed |
| A．imagined | B．promised | C．believed | D．suggested |
| A．experience | B．matter | C．event | D．accident |
| A．later | B．sooner | C．latter | D．late |
| A．restaurant | B．hospital | C．school | D．plant |
| A．calmed | B．wrote | C．let | D．put |
| A．exciting | B．worrying | C．busy | D．happy |
| A．meetings | B．parties | C．menus | D．orders |
| A．break | B．show | C．go | D．set |
| A．quarrel | B．laziness | C．relaxation | D．tension |
| A．eventually | B．regularly | C．obviously | D．thankfully |
| A．breakfast | B．lunch | C．opening | D．closing |
| A．influenced | B．interested | C．inspired | D．impressed |
| A．when | B．why | C．whether | D．where |
| A．important | B．impressive | C．interesting | D．small |
| A．works | B．counts | C．shows | D．studies |
Serving Up Hope
Food allergies have been on the rise. In the US, it is now estimated that over 10 percent of the adult population has an allergy to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food. In the UK, the past three decades have seen hospital admissions for food allergies rise fivefold. Thankfully, we are building up the armory needed to reverse this trend so that, one day, such potentially deadly reactions become a thing of the past.
The most common types of food allergies are triggered by antibodies that we make called immunoglobulin (免疫球蛋白) E or IgE. These antibodies were discovered in the mid-1960s and kick-started an era of allergy research that is still going strong today. The early findings have spawned thousands of studies that paint an intricate (复杂的) picture of how allergies work, suggesting ways in which we can prevent and treat them.
When someone has a food allergy, IgE is involved in triggering a response when the immune system comes into contact with that food. Essentially, the body sees that part of your meal as an enemy, releasing histamine (组织胺) and other inflammatory chemicals in an attempt to deal with it. This causes symptoms ranging from itchiness and sneezes to wheezing (喘气) and anaphylactic shock (过敏性休克). The result can be anything from a mild inconvenience to death.
The old saying "prevention is better than the cure" holds true for food allergies. My colleagues and I use the so-called six Ds as a guide to preventative measures during childhood: diet, dirt, dogs, dry skin, detergents (清洁剂) and vitamin D. Studies have found that people have a lower risk of developing an allergy when, as youngsters, they eat a diverse diet and do so often, have healthy vitamin D levels, live in a home with a dog, avoid dry skin and are exposed to dirt, allowing them to develop a good microbiome (微生物组). The use of harsh detergents has also been associated with an increase in IgE.
Clearly, for many people that have food allergies, such early life prevention is no longer an option. However, other approaches are taking shape.
Most of the interventions we currently use target the immune system in an effort to retrain its response to allergens. One technique, known as allergen immunotherapy (免疫疗法), involves slowly building up exposure to a problem food. By starting in very small doses, the body appears to be able to be retrained to no longer see it as a threat. However, immunotherapy needs regular exposure to allergens, which can cause side effects.
Allergy vaccines are another option. These work by reshaping the body's immune response to a particular food so it doesn't end in illness.
As we gain evidence and experience with each of these approaches, we are moving closer to being able to treat all food allergies.
1．From the first two paragraphs, we can tell that __________.| A．one in ten people in UK is allergic to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food |
| B．immunoglobulin E only takes effect when we have food allergies |
| C．the research of allergies hasn't been conducted until recent years |
| D．more people in the UK now suffer from food allergies than it was 30 years ago |
| A．arouse readers' curiosity about the food allergies |
| B．assure readers of his unique method in the fight against food allergies |
| C．discuss the effectiveness of this potential method for curing food allergies |
| D．support the belief that the prevention of an allergy is more important than the cure |
| A．people are likely to get rid of food allergies through gradual adaptation to the specific problem food |
| B．some early prevention methods like the six Ds are no longer helpful in the curing of food allergies |
| C．immunotherapy brings more harm than good as it needs regular exposure to the specific problem food |
| D．since our body's immune response can be reshaped, a vaccine can be a very safe method for the curing of food allergies |
| A．objective | B．optimistic |
| C．skeptical | D．critical |
A crucial period for learning the rules and structure of a language lasts up to around age 17 or 18, say psychologist Joshua Hartshorne of MIT and his colleagues.
Previous research had suggested that grammar-learning ability developed in early childhood before hitting a dead end around age 5. However, Hartshorne’s team reports online in Cognition that people who started learning English as a second language in an English-speaking country by age 10 to 12 ultimately mastered the new tongue as well as folks who had learned English and another language at the same time from birth. Both groups, however, fell somewhat short of the grammatical fluency displayed by English-only speakers. After ages 10 to 12, new-to-English learners reached lower levels of fluency than those who started learning English at younger ages because time ran out when their grammar-absorbing ability fell starting around age 17.
Aiming for a sample of tens of thousands of volunteers, Hartshorne began by contacting friends on Facebook to take an online English grammar quiz, which used a person’s responses to guess his or her native language and dialect (方言) of English. Then volunteers filled out a questionnaire asking where they had lived, languages they had spoken from birth, the age at which they began learning English and the number of years they had lived in an English-speaking country.
In the end, the researchers analyzed responses of 669,498 native and nonnative English speakers. Statistical calculations focused on estimating at what ages people with varying amounts of experience peaking English reached peak grammar ability.
Researchers who study language learning regard the new study as fascinating, but exploratory. According to psycholinguist David Barner of the University of California, San Diego, Hartshorne’s team can’t yet say that language skill develops along a single timeline. Different elements of grammar, such as using correct word order or subjects and verbs that agree with one another, might be learned at different rates, Barner says. It’s also unclear whether the responses of volunteers to an online, 132-item grammar test reflect how well of poorly they actually speak English, he says.
What’s more, language learning involves more than a crucial period for acquiring grammar, cautions linguist David Birdsong of the University of Texas at Austin. For instance, growing up speaking two languages at once puts still poorly understood burdens on the ability to grasp grammar, he says.
In the new study, people who were bilinguals from birth fell short of peak English grammar scores achieved by English-only speakers. That’s consistent with evidence that bilinguals cannot easily turn off one language while speaking another, Birdsong says. Interactions between tongues spoken by one person may slightly depress how much can be learned about both languages, even if bilingual communication still reaches high levels, he suggests.
1．Hartshorne and his colleagues found that____ .| A．one reaches a higher level of fluency at age 10 |
| B．one learns a second language fastest at about age 12 |
| C．one gets a good grasp of English grammar before age 5 |
| D．one’s ability to master grammar declines at around age17 |
| A．social media |
| B．experiments in the lab |
| C．literature review |
| D．face-to-face interviews |
| A．language skill develops along a single timeline |
| B．online volunteers do not cover a wide enough range |
| C．different grammar items may be acquired at different paces |
| D．the quiz in the new study does not include enough questions |
| A．They can achieve a perfect grammar score. |
| B．Grammar learning is the biggest burden for them. |
| C．They are able to make a swift shift between languages. |
| D．Speaking two languages affects their language acquisition. |
Why does rain seem to make you sleepy?
This spring on the east coast of the US, it feels like we’ve lost touch with the sun. In Washington, DC, 14 of the first 17 days of May were rainy.
First, there's what we see-or rather, what we don't.
Rain sounds are also comforting. The rhythmic pattern of rain hitting a roof, umbrella, or the ground below is called "pink noise." Pink noise is a category of background noise that has all of the frequencies that human can hear and has lower volumes at higher frequencies. According to some research, it may improve our quality of sleep by decreasing our brain activity.
The difficulty in waking up, the fresh, earthy scents, and the peace of the rain tapping on windows are enough to make anyone want to go back to bed for the day. Sadly, none of this evidence is enough to justify doing so; but it can at least explain why you may feel a little sleepy on these cloudy days.
| A．Noises can make us feel sleepier during the daytime. |
| B．The others have been cloudy and dull for at least part of the day. |
| C．That earthy smell of rain can make you feel calm and comfortable. |
| D．It makes it easier for us to wake up from our sleep the night before. |
| E．Sunlight causes our bodies to stop producing what makes us sleepy at night |
| F．And you'll also smell that when you are in your garden turning over your soil |
| G．You can listen to an hour of rain on a window here, if you intend to test it out |
| A．By shouting at the waiter. |
| B．By nodding to the waiter. |
| C．By ringing a bell. |
| A．She chatted online. |
| B．She ate out. |
| C．She took a walk. |
| A．They just waved at each other. |
| B．They talked for a long time. |
| C．They walked back home together. |
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