A new study has found that the best way to make yourself feel happier is to think of something good that happened to you the day before.

Volunteers who were asked to remember a pleasant event from past 24 hours began to feel happier right away. Other activities such as saying “Thank you” and smiling also made volunteers feel happier, but not as much.

Professor Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University planned the study. He got 26,000 people to go online to try out a few different activities to make them feel happier. They were told to be nice, remember a pleasant event from the day before, give thanks or smile for 15 seconds twice a day. The volunteers did these activities for one week.

The result showed that thinking about one good thing that had happened the day before worked the best for making people happier.

The text may probably be taken from _____.

A. a personal anecdote(轶事)   B. sports news   

C. a history novel              D. brief news

Volunteers who _____ began to feel happier right away.

A. thought of something good that happened the day before

B. were asked to remember a pleasant event from the past 24 hours

C. did other activities like saying “thank you” and smiling

D. went online to try out a few different activities

From the text we know that Richard Wiseman is a(an) _____.

A. worker           B. artist           C. professor        D. director

The volunteers gave thanks or smile _____ a week.

A. 15 seconds       B. 3.5 seconds  C. 15 minutes   D. 3.5 minutes

A new study has found that the best way to make yourself feel happier is to think of something good that happened to you the day before.

Volunteers who were asked to remember a pleasant event from past 24 hours began to feel happier right away．Other activities such as saying “Thank you” and smiling also made volunteers feel happier, but not as much.

Professor Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University planned the study．He got 26,000 people to go online to try out a few different activities to make them feel happier．They were told to be nice, remember a pleasant event from the day before, give thanks or smile for 15 seconds twice a day．The volunteers did these activities for one week.

The result showed that thinking about one good thing that had happened the day before worked the best for making people happier.（146 words）

1.The text may probably be taken from _____.

A．a personal anecdote(轶事)	B．sports news
C．a history novel	D．brief news

2.Volunteers who _____ began to feel happier right away.

A．thought of something good that happened the day before

B．were asked to remember a pleasant event from the past 24 hours

C．did other activities like saying “thank you” and smiling

D．went online to try out a few different activities

3.From the text we know that Richard Wiseman is a(an) _____.

A．worker

B．artist

C．professor

D．director

4.The best title may probably be _____.

A．Thinking about yesterday’s happiness to be happy today

B．Making a study to make people happier and younger

C．Letting out a secret to live a longer life

D．Doing experiments to make people happier

 

A new study has found that the best way to make yourself feel happier is to think of something good that happened to you the day before.

Volunteers who were asked to remember a pleasant event from past 24 hours began to feel happier right away．Other activities such as saying “Thank you” and smiling also made volunteers feel happier, but not as much.

Professor Richard Wiseman of Hertfordshire University planned the study．He got 26,000 people to go online to try out a few different activities to make them feel happier．They were told to be nice, remember a pleasant event from the day before, give thanks or smile for 15 seconds twice a day．The volunteers did these activities for one week.

The result showed that thinking about one good thing that had happened the day before worked the best for making people happier.

The text may probably be taken from _____.

       A．a personal anecdote(轶事)          B．sports news   

       C．a history novel                    D．brief news

Volunteers who _____ began to feel happier right away.

       A．thought of something good that happened the day before

       B．were asked to remember a pleasant event from the past 24 hours

       C．did other activities like saying “thank you” and smiling

       D．went online to try out a few different activities

From the text we know that Richard Wiseman is a(an) _____.

       A．worker     B．artist C．professor  D．director

The best title may probably be _____.

       A．Thinking about yesterday’s happiness to be happy today

       B．Making a study to make people happier and younger

       C．Letting out a secret to live a longer life

       D．Doing experiments to make people happier

Face masks are commonly used in ceremonies and performances. They not only hide the real face of the mask wearer but they often evoke powerful emotions in the audience—danger, fear, sadness, joy. You might think, because so many things vary cross-culturally, that the ways in which emotions are displayed and recognized in the face vary too. Apparently they do not. Recent research on masks from different cultures supports the conclusion that masks, like faces, tend to represent certain emotions in the same ways. We now have some evidence that the symbolism used in masks is often universal.

The research on masks builds on work done by anthropologists, who used photographs of individuals experiencing various emotions. These photographs were shown to members of different cultural groups who were asked to identify the emotions displayed in the photographs. Emotions were identified correctly by most viewers, whatever the viewer’s native culture.

Coding schemes were developed to enable researchers to compare the detailed facial positions of individual portions of die face (eyebrows, mouth, etc.) for different emotions. What exactly do we do when we scowl? We contract the eyebrows and lower the corners of the mouth; in geometric terms, we make angles and diagonals (斜线) on our faces. When we smile, we raise the corners of the mouth; we make it curved.

Psychologist Joel Arnoff and his colleagues compared two types of wooden face masks from many different societies—masks described as threatening versus masks associated with nonthreatening functions. As suspected, the two sets of masks had significant differences in certain facial elements. The threatening masks had eyebrows and eyes facing inward and downward and a downward-facing mouth. In more abstract or geometrical terms, threatening features generally tend to be angular or diagonal and nonthreatening features tend to be curved or rounded, a face with a pointed beard is threatening; a baby's face is not. The theory is that humans express and recognize basic emotions in uniform (一致的) ways because all human faces are quite similar, skeletally and muscularly.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. The techniques for comparing facial expressions across cultures.

B. The photography of faces.

C. Cultural variations in mask.

D. The uniformity of facial expressions in revealing emotions.

2.According to the passage, masks are used in performances to _______.

A. disguise the real emotions of the performers

B. cause members of the audience to have strong emotions

C. remind the audience that an illusion is being created

D. identify the cultural background of the performers

3.What does the author mean by stating, "the symbolism used in masks is often universal"?

A. Masks are sometimes used to hide emotions.

B. Performers often need help conveying emotions to an audience.

C. Not all societies use masks in their rituals.

D. People from different cultures generally express certain emotions in similar ways.

4.The passage mentions "baby’s face" in the last paragraph as an example of a _______.

A. typical human face

B. source of inspiration in the creation of masks

C. nonthreatening face

D. face that expresses few emotions

 

“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.
The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist （植物学家）Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained.He says that women have a greater range of pitch and tone（音高和音色）which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.
The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(听力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “listened” to female voices grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.
【小题1】What does the passage talk about?

A．Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.

B．A science experiment in a museum.

C．Voice’s influence on plant growing.

D．Strange findings at Royal Horticultural Society.

【小题2】What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Plants need sound as well as rain and light.

B．Sound is basic for the plant to grow.

C．Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.

D．Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light.

【小题3】What can we learn from the passage?

A．The experiment ended in May.

B．Scientist can explain the findings clearly.

C．Plants enjoy listening to the passages from famous works.

D．The findings are of great importance to human beings.