A new study done by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario （HEQCO） show

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A new study done by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario （HEQCO） shows that it doesn"t make much of a difference that parents reward their children with cash for their better marks.
Many parents have offered cash to their children in the hope that it would improve marks and possibly raise their children"s interest in achieving higher marks．
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto （UT） and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology （MIT） to learn more about the potential for financial encouragement as motivation for improved marks, involved first and second year students receiving financial aid in 2008-2009 at the University of Toronto Scarborough．
The top students participating in the study who said they were "very concerned" about having enough money to complete their degrees were to receive $100 for getting a grade of 70 per cent for each one-semester course, plus $20 for every percentage point beyond that．It was imaginable that a student could earn as much as $700 for achieving 100 percent in a course．
Harvey Weingarten, president and CEO of HEQCO said, "In its efforts to help disadvantaged students by exploring the idea of paying them to attend school, the Toronto District School Board （TDSB） is asking the same question many other districts are asking about how to improve student participation and performance．Our study and others to date indicate that this practice has little effect if any in those situations where it has been tested．"
The authors of the study suggest that ineffective study habits may be a barrier to academic achievement and that the real problem may be more a lack of academic preparation than a lack of effort or motivation．They note that the availability of peer （同伴） advising does not appear to have helped greatly．They conclude that other potential avenues to improving performance, or other approaches of teaching, are needed at the high school and postsecondary levels．
小题1:If a student gets a grade of 85% in a course, he will get _____．

A．$100

B．$300

C．$400

D．$700

小题2:The underlined words "this practice" in Paragraph 5 refer to _____．

A．improving student participation

B．seeking help from different districts

C．paying disadvantaged students to attend school

D．testing student performance in the same district

小题3:The real problem with student participation and performance is most probably a lack of____．

A．academic preparation	B．effort or motivation
C．teaching methods	D．peer advising

小题4:What is mainly discussed in the passage?

A．Many parents have offered cash to their children．

B．Many first and second year students receive financial aid．

C．Ineffective study habits lead to poor academic achievement．

D．Rewarding students with cash for good grades has little effect

答案

小题1:C
小题2:C
小题3:A
小题4:D

解析

文章讲述的是奖励学生钱对学生的成绩影响不大。
小题1:计算题。根据第三段第三行plus $20 for every percentage point可知超过70分多一分多20元，那么85分比70多了15分，奖励300元再加上用来的100元，一共是400元。
小题2:推理题。这一段就是指付钱给那些成绩不是很好的学生以激励他们提高成绩。
小题3:细节题。根据最后一段第二行may be more a lack of academic preparation than a lack of effort or motivation可知A正确。
小题4:主旨大意题。根据主题段第一段内容可知文章涉及的是奖励学生钱对学生的成绩影响不大。

举一反三

In a few years，you might be able to speak Chinese，Korean，Japanese，French，and English-and all at the same time. This sounds incredible，but Alex Waibel，a computer science professor at US"s Car-negie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany"s University of Karlsruhe，announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application，called Lecture Translation，can easily translate a speech from one language into an-other. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Us-ers also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another machine can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what languagethey speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you，”Waibel said
Prefer to read? So- called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal display(LCD) screen.
Then there"s the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech.The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person"s face，according to research-ers.
During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU"s Pittsburgh campus，a Chinese student named Sang Jun had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks，neck and throat. Then he mouthed-without speaking aloud- a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later，the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”
This particular instrument，when fully developed，might allow anyone to speak in any number of lan-guages or，as Waibel put it，“to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the universi-ty"s prototypes is to create"good enough" bridges for cross- cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world，”Waibel said.
With spontaneous(自发的) translators，foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio; tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people;leaders of different coun-tries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.
小题1:What can"t be learned from the text?

A．The spontaneous translators will help us a lot.

B．There is no Muscle Translator in the world now.

C．Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth.

D．A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily.

小题2:What does the underlined word mean?

A．happening at at the same time.	B．happening by itself.
C．similar in size.	D．Similar in quality.

小题3:What"s the final destination of inventing the language translators?

A．To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier.

B．To help students learn foreign languages more easily.

C．To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably.

D．To help people learn more foreign languages in the future.

小题4:What can be inferred from the seventh paragraph?

A．The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need.

B．The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge.

C．With the help of the translator，you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all.

D．The translator needs to be improved before being put into market.

小题5:Where can we probably find this passage?

A．A newspaper.	B．A magazine on science.
C．A fairy tale.	D．A scientific fantasy book.

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How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others’ lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”.
A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents.
小题1:The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para. 1) means “_______”.

A．in a different family environment

B．in a different family tradition

C．in different family crises

D．in different families

小题2:In terms of language development, later-borns ________.

A．get their parents’ individual guidance

B．learn a lot from their elder siblings

C．experience a lot of difficulties

D．pick up words more quickly

小题3:What was found about fights among siblings?

A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.

B．Siblings in some families fought frequently.

C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.

D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights.

小题4:The word “feminine” (in Para. 4) means “_______”.

A．having qualities of parents

B．having qualities of women

C．having defensive qualities

D．having extraordinary qualities

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Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the morning. You jump out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with hardly a moment to think. A stressful journey to work gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disasters. In that sort of mood, who can get down to work, particularly some creative, original problem-solving work?
The way most of us spend our mornings is exactly opposite to the conditions that promote flexible, open-minded thinking. Imaginative ideas are most likely to come to us when we’re unfocused. If you are one of those energetic morning people, your most inventive time comes in the early evening when you are relaxed. Sleepy people’s lack of focus leads to an increase in creative problem solving. By not giving yourself time to tune into your wandering mind, you’re missing out on the surprising solutions it may offer.
The trip you take to work doesn’t help, either. The stress slows down the speed with which signals travel between neurons (神经细胞), making inspirations less likely to occur. And while we all should read a lot about what’s going on in the world, it would not make you feel good for sure, so put that news website or newspaper aside until after the day’s work is done.
So what would our mornings look like if we wanted to start them with a full capacity for creative problem solving? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead. We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, stopping thinking about tasks in favor of a few more minutes of relaxation. We’d take some deep breaths on our way to work, instead of complaining about heavy traffic. And once in the office—after we get a cup of coffee—we’d click on links not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer.
小题1:According to the author, we are more creative when we are _______.

A．focused

B．relaxed

C．awake

D．busy

小题2:What does the author imply about newspapers?

A．They are solution providers.

B．They are a source of inspiration.

C．They are normally full of bad news.

D．They are more educational than websites.

小题3: By “tune into your wandering mind” (in Para. 2), the author means “_______”.

A．wander into the wild

B．listen to a beautiful tune

C．switch to the traffic channel

D．stop concentrating on anything

小题4:The author writes the last paragraph in order to _______.

A．offer practical suggestions

B．summarize past experiences

C．advocate diverse ways of life

D．establish a routine for the future

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Do you know how it is when you see someone yawn and you start yawning too? Or how hard it is to be among people laughing and not laugh yourself? Well, apparently it"s because we have mirror neurons (神经元）in our brains.
Put simply, the existence of mirror neurons suggests that every time we see someone else do something, our brains imitate (模仿)it，whether or not we actually perform the same action. This explains a great deal about how we learn to smile, talk, walk, dance or play sports. But the idea goes further： mirror neurons not only appear to explain physical actions _y they also tell us that there is a biological basis for the way we understand other people.
Mirror neurons can undoubtedly be found all over our brains, but especially in the areas which relate to our ability to use languages, and to understand how other people feel. Researchers have found that mirror neurons relate strongly to language. A group of researchers discovered that if they gave people sentences to listen to ( for example ："The hand took hold of the ball" ) , the same mirror neurons were triggered as when the action was actually performed (in this example, actually taking hold of a ball).
Any problems with mirror neurons may well result in problems with behavior. Much researeh suggests that people with social and behavioral problems have mirror neurons which are not fully functioning. However, it is not yet known exactly how these discoveries might help find treatments for social disorders.
Research into mirror neurons seems to provide us with ever more information concerning how humans behave and interact(互动）.Indeed, it may turn out to be the equivalent (相等物）for ncurosciencc of what Einstein"s theory of relativity was for physics. And the next time you feel the urge to cough in the cinema when someone else does--well，perhaps you"ll understand why.
小题1:Mirror neurons can explain .

A．why we cry when we are hurt

B．why we cough when we suffer from a cold

C．why we smile when we see someone else smile

D．why we yawn when we see someone else stay up late

小题2:The underlined word "triggered" in the third paragraph probably means “ ”

A．set off

B．cut off

C．built up

D．broken up

小题3:We can learn from the passage that mirror neurons .

A．relate to human behavior and interaction

B．control human physical actions and feelings

C．result in bad behavior and social disorders

D．determine our knowledge and language abilities

小题4:What is the passage mainly about?

A．Ways to find mirror neurons.

B．Problems of mirror neurons.

C．Existence of mirror neurons.

D．Functions of mirror neurons.

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You may think that sailing is a difficult sport, but it is really not hard to learn it. You do not need to be strong. But you need to be quick. And you need to understand a few basic rules about the wind.
First, you must ask yourself, “Where is the wind coming from? Is it coming from ahead or behind or from the side?” You must think about this all the time on the boat. The wind direction tells you what to do with the sail.
Let’s start with the wind blowing from the behind. This means the wind and the boat are going in the same direction. Then you must always keep the sail outside the boat. It should be at a 90° angle (角度) to the boat. Then it will catch the wind best.
If the wind is blowing from the side, it is blowing across the boat. In this case, you must keep the sail half way outside the boat. It should be at a 45° angle to the boat. It needs to be out far enough to catch the wind, but it shouldn’t flap (摆动). It shouldn’t look like on a flagpole. If it is flapping, it is probably out too far, and the boat will slow down.
Sailing into the wind is not possible. If you try, the sail will flap and the boat will stop. You may want to go in that direction. It is possible, but you can’t go in a straight line. You must go first in one direction and then in another. This is called tacking. When you are tacking, you must always keep the sail inside the boat.
小题1:What should you consider first while sailing?

A．Sailors’ strength.	B．Wave levels.
C．Wind directions.	D．Size of sails.

小题2:What does the word “It” underlined in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The boat.

B．The wind.

C．The sail.

D．The angle.

小题3:What do you have to do when sailing against the wind?

A．Move in a straight line.	B．Allow the sail to flap.
C．Lower the sail.	D．Tack the boat.

小题4:Where can you probably find the text?

A．In a popular magazine.	B．In a tourist guidebook.
C．In a physics textbook.	D．In an official report.

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