D. The Magic of Electricity
C
Throughout history, people who like to think of themselves as high-minded have looked
down on the masses for wasting their time on “mindless entertainment”. The definition of
“mindless” keeps changing: not so long ago, novels were considered a mind-destroying waste;
then television took their place, and novel-reading became something that high-minded people did. For years, I told myself I wasn’t like the “Average Person” who watched four hours of TV a day, because I was doing something much more intelligent: surfing the internet. Recently, largely thanks to social media, It’s become impossible to ignore the fact that this is often mindless, too. So now I try to stay off social media, and feel slightly superior about it. And what do I do instead,
since I’m far too smart to waste my life on rubbish? Now, I listen to podcasts(播客).
So, naturally, I was fascinated by a recent essay in New York magazines, by Sirena Bergman: “I listen to 35 hours of podcasts every week. Is that?bad?”Her conclusion: yes, partly. The brain needs silence, and the trouble with audio— like podcasts— is that it doesn’t simply replace other forms of entertainment; rather, it leaks into the gaps (travelling to work, housework, exercise) that you might previously have used to be alone with your thoughts. Podcasts improve my daily life immensely and I’ve zero intention of abandoning them; but Bergman draws attention to an important truth about the content we continuously consume: it’s quite possible to get addicted to stuff that seems educational and intellectual, as well as to brainless nonsense. Indeed, for a certain kind of person, it’s probably easier. You know it’s a distraction (分心) to frequently seek updates on the latest reality TV shows or pop music programs. It’s harder to remember that political news, or fascinating tales of science ,might be serving the same distracting function.
The point is that what makes something a distraction isn’t necessarily that it’s
stupid or silly. It’s the role it’s playing in your life. If it’s helping you switch off your brain, or delay important but scary tasks, or avoid asking tough questions about how you’re spending your time, it’s a problem, whatever the details. Seemingly productive work can easily be a distraction, if it’s not the work that counts. Even deeply meaningful activities can be distractions. That’s the logic behind a suggestion attributed to the investor Warren Buffett: first, write down your top 25 goals for life; then identify the most important five, focus on them, and avoid the other 20 — because they will distract you from what is most important.
From this perspective, “mindless entertainment” really isn’t the main danger. Yes, obviously, it’s a waste of time to watch four hours of television a day. But that very obviousness means it’s hard to do by accident. It’s when you catch yourself feeling smug that you’re not affected by that sort of thing that you really need to start worrying.
28.Why does the author feel ‘slightly superior’ about his social media habits? A. He feels he is now using his time in a more productive way. B. He feels he is more skilled at using social media than others. C. He thinks he can find higher quality information on the internet. D. He gets to communicate with amore intellectual group of people. 29. What do the writer and Sirena Bergman have in common? A. They are both experts in technology. B. They both enjoy listening to podcasts.
C. They both think the internet is a waste of time.
D. They both have recently changed their social media habits. 30.What effect did Bergman’s essay have on the writer? A. He has reduced his use of social media.
B. He listens to fewer podcasts on the way to work. C. He is more selective about what podcast she listens to. D. He has become less self-satisfied about his internet habits.
31. Based on the information provided in paragraph 3,which of the following would Warren Buffet agree with?
A. The important things in life are usually obvious. B. You must be optimistic about what you can achieve. C. Seemingly important things are often only a distraction. D. The more ambitious you are the more successful you will be.
D
Baby bats learn language from peers (同伴) in their social group, and will adopt the group’s
dialect, or accent, instead of their mother’s ,researcher said on Tuesday.
The findings shed new light on crowd-learning of language, a skill thought to be long mainly to humans and just a few other mammals. It also shows that bats are different from songbirds, which tend to learn songs by copying one of their parents. “The ability to copy vocalizations (发 音) from others is extremely important for speech learning in humans, but it’s believed to be rare among animals”, said lead author Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University.
For the study, researchers captured 14 pregnant Egyptian fruit bats. They separated them into three different bat social groups, where they raised the young bats with their mothers. Each bat
group was exposed to a different recording of bat vocalizations.
“The baby bats all adopted the manner of vocalizing of the group they heard, not their
mothers. The difference between the vocalizations of the mother bat and those of the group is
comparable to the difference in a London accent and ,say,a Scottish accent,” Yovel said.
“The babies heard their mothers’ London dialect, but also heard the Scottish dialect
Produced by many dozens of Scottish bats. The babies eventually adopted a dialect that was more
Similar to the local Scottish dialect than to the London accent of their mothers.”
Researchers hope to conduct future studies to examine how bats’ dialects change
when they
leave their social groups, and if it affects how they integrate with others. 32.What are the latest findings about bats?
A. Bats’ accents are influenced by their peer’s accents. B. Bats are born to adopt their mother’s dialect. C. Bats can understand peers with different dialects.
D. Bats pick up language quickly with their peers’ accompany. 33.Why are London and Scottish accent mentioned? A. To indicate the birthplace of baby bats. B. To explain why bat produce different sounds.
C. To show the differences in dialects among social groups. D. To compare how the two accents influenced understanding. 34.In paragraph 3,what does the underlined word they refer to? A. Accents. B. Baby bats. C. Researchers. D. Mother bats. 35.What will the future study most probably focus on?
A. How bats adopt a new dialect after entering a new social group. B. Whether bats leave their social group if they change their accents. C. Why some bats fail to be accepted in a new group after they are born. D. What changes might occur to bats’ accent after entering a new social group. 第二节 (共5 小题;每小题2 分，满分10 分)
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余 选项。
Growing up in a rural village in eastern Nepal, Mira Rai, 29, had dreams that went far
beyond the conventional expectations for Nepali women. “As a girl, I would constantly be told to know my place and act in a certain manner,” she says.“ 36 ”
As the eldest daughter of five children, she was expected to fetch water, tend crops and
livestock, and help out at home. By age 12, she had stopped regularly attending school to haul
相关推荐：
杳然