Andy rode slowly on his way to school, day-dreaming about the fishing trip that his father had promised him. He was so busy dreaming about all the fish he would catch that he was unaware of everything else around him.

He rode along until a strange sound drew him to the present. He came to a stop and looked curiously up to the heavens. What he saw shocked and terrified him. A huge swarm of bees filled the sky like a black cloud and the buzzing mass seemed to be heading angrily towards him.

With no time to waste, Andy sped off in the opposite direction, riding furiously—but without knowing how to escape the swarm. With a rapidly beating heart and his legs pumping furiously, he sped down the rough road. As the bees came closer, his panic increased. Andy knew that he was sensitive to bee stings(蜇). The last sting had landed him in hospital—and that was only one bee sting! He had been forced to stay in bed for two whole days. Suddenly, his father’s words came to him. “When you are in a tight situation, don’t panic. Use your brain and think your way out of it.”

On a nearby hill, he could see smoke waving slowly skywards from the chimney of the Nelson family home. “Bees don’t like smoke,” he thought. “They couldn’t get into the house.” Andy raced towards the Nelson house, but the bees were gaining ground. Andy knew he could not reach the house in time. He estimated that the bees would catch up with him soon.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted a small dam used by Mr. Nelson to irrigate his vegetable garden. Off his bike and into the cool water he lived, disappearing below the surface and away from the savage insects. After holding his breath for as long as he could, Andy came up for air and noticed the bees had gone. Dragging himself out of the dam, he struggled up the hilly slope and rang the doorbell. Mrs. Nelson took him inside and rang his mother.

“You’ll really need that fishing break to help you recover,” laughed his mother with relief. “Thank goodness you didn’t panic!” But Andy did not hear her. He was dreaming once again of the fish he would catch tomorrow.

1.Why did Andy fail to notice the swarm of bees earlier?

A. He was riding to school.

B. He was listening to a strange sound.

C. He was going fishing with his father.

D. He was lost in the thought of the fishing trip.

2.Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the swarm of bees in the passage?

A. They crowded like a black cloud.

B. They shocked and terrified Andy.

C. They tried to attack Andy in a mass.

D. They made Andy stay in hospital for two days.

3.How did Andy avoid the bees in the end?

A. He rode off in the opposite direction.

B. He asked Mr. Nelson for help.

C. He hid himself under the water.

D. He rushed into the Nelson house.

4.Which of the following can best describe Andy’s escape from the bees?

A. No pains, no gains.

B. In time of danger, one’s mind works fast.

C. Once bitten, twice shy.

D. Where there is a will, there is a way.

The language we use affects the decisions we make, according to a new study. Participants made more reasonable decisions when money-related choices were given in a foreign language that they had learned in a classroom setting than when they were asked in a native tongue.

To study how language affects reasoning, University of Chicago psychologists looked at a well-known phenomenon: people are more risk-taking when a decision irrelevant to their own feelings (such as which medicine to give to a sick elephant) is presented in terms of a potential gain than when it is framed as a potential loss even when the outcomes are the same. In the study, native English speakers who had learned Japanese, native Korean speakers who had learned English and native English speakers studying French in Paris all showed the expected tendency when they were asked the question in their native tongue. In their foreign language, however, the tendency disappeared.

A second set of experiments tested another cognitive (認知的) prejudice –we expect a personal loss will be more painful than the same amount of gain will be pleasant, so the benefit of winning must be disproportionately large for us to take a bet(打賭) (such as gambling with our own money). Again, the foreign-language effect was obvious in two different experiments, one with native Korean speakers and one with native English speakers. The Koreans took more theoretical bets in English than Korean, and the native English speakers took more real bets in Spanish than they did in English.

“When people use a foreign language, their decisions tend to be less prejudiced, more analytic, more systematic, because the foreign language provides psychological distance,” lead author Boaz Keysar suggests. Cognitive prejudices are rooted in emotional reactions, and thinking in a foreign language helps us disconnect from these emotions and make decisions in a more economically reasonable way. This study did not consider, however, the cases in which emotional engagement improves, rather than prevents, our choices: “We have an emotional system for a good reason,” Keysar says.

1.What is the foreign language effect discussed in this passage?

A. People make more reasonable decisions in a foreign language than in their native tongues.

B. Foreign languages play more important roles in making decisions than native languages do.

C. Emotional engagement can prevent reasonable decision makings but improve them as well.

D. Cognitive prejudices are more likely to appear in a foreign language than in a native tongue.

2.What does the underlined sentence mean?

A. People need to win a large sum of money before they decide to take a bet.

B. People are advised not to take a bet if they are not ready for the pain of losing.

C. People don’t take a bet unless they would win much more than they would lose.

D. People will feel more pleasant winning a bet than winning a large sum of money.

3.According to Keysar, what is the reason of the foreign language effect in this research?

A. Foreign languages have great effect on decision makings.

B. People are less prejudiced when thinking in a foreign language.

C. People are more risk-taking in a foreign language environment.

D. Personal feelings have little influence in foreign language thinking.

Jim suffered heart problems. In conversation he expressed little joy and it seemed that his life was drawing to a close.

When his heart problems led to operation, Jim went through it successfully, and a full recovery was expected. Within days, however, his heart was not beating properly. Jim was rushed back to operation, but nothing was found to explain the cause of his illness. He died on the operating table on the day before his 48th birthday.

Dr. Bruce Smoller, a psychologist (心理學(xué)家), had had many conversations with him, and the more he learned, the stranger he realized Jim’s case was. When Jim was a child, his father, a teacher, suffered a heart attack and stayed home to recover. One morning Jim asked his father to look over his homework, promising to come home from school at noon to pick it up. His father agreed, but when Jim returned his father had died. Jim’s father was 48.

“I think all his life Jim believed he killed his father,” Dr. Smoller says. “He felt that if he had not asked him to look at his homework, his father would have lived. Jim had been troubled by the idea. The operation was the trial (判決) he had expected for forty years. “Smoller believes that Jim willed himself not to live to the age of 48.

Jim’s case shows the powerful role that attitude plays in physical health, and that childhood experiences produce far-reaching effect on the health of grown-ups. Although most cases are less direct than Jim’s, studies show that childhood events, besides genes, may well cause such midlife diseases as cancer, heart disease and mental illness.

1.Jim was sent back to operation because ________.

A. his heart didn’t work well B. he expected a full recovery

C. his life was drawing to a close D. the first one wasn’t well performed

2.What made Dr. Smoller feel strange about Jim’s case?

A. Jim died at a young age.

B. Jim died on the operating table.

C. Both Jim and his father died of the same disease.

D. Jim’s death is closely connected with his father’s.

3.From Smoller’s words, we can infer that ________.

A. Jim’s father cared little about his study

B. Smoller agreed that Jim did kill his father

C. Jim thought he would be punished some day

D. Smoller believed Jim wouldn’t live to the age of 48

4.Which of the following could have strong effect on one’s physical health according to the text?

a. One’s genes. b. One’s life in childhood. c. One’s physical education.

d. The date of one’s birthday. e. The opinions one has about something.

A. a, b, d B. a, b, e C. a, c, e D. b, c, d

How to Write an Effective Summary

The goal of writing a summary of an article, a chapter, or a book is to offer as accurately as possible the full sense of the original, but in a more condensed(縮減的) form. A summary restates the author’s main point, purpose, intent, and supporting details in your own words.1.

Read the passage carefully.

Determine its structure. Identify the author’s purpose in writing. After you finish reading, write down in one sentence the point that is made about the subject. 2.

Reread, label and underline.

Once you clearly understand the writer’s major point(or purpose) for writing, read the article again, underline the major points supporting the thesis. 3. In addition, underline key transitional(過渡的) elements which show how parts are connected. Omit specific details, examples, description, and unnecessary explanations.

Write, revise and edit

Now begin writing your summary. 4.Then write your summary, omitting nothing important, eliminating repetition, disregarding minor details, or generalizing them, using as few words as possible to convey the main ideas and striving for overall coherence through appropriate transitions. Conclude with a final statement reflecting the significance of the article.

Revise your summary. After you’ve completed a draft, read your summary and check for accuracy. Keep in mind that a summary should generally be no more than one-fourth the length of the original.

5.Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, looking particularly for those common in your writing. Write a clean draft and proofread for copying errors.

A. Edit your summary.

B. Do not insert your own opinions or thoughts.

C. A suitable thesis may already be in the original passage.

D. Writing an effective summary requires you to focus on the series of steps.

E. These should be words or phrases here and there rather than complete sentences.

F. In other words, write down a thesis statement which expresses the central idea.

G. Start with a sentence naming the writer and article title and stating the essay’s main idea.