专题13阅读理解（词义猜测题）
一
异议的意思是什么
When John was growing up, other kids felt sorry for him. His parents always had him weeding the garden, carrying out the garbage and delivering newspapers. But when John reached adulthood, he was better off than his childhood playmates. He had more job satisfaction, a better marriage and was healthier. Most of all, he was happier. Far happier.
The are the findings of a 40-year study that followed the lives of 456 teenage boys from Boston. The study showed that tho who had worked as boys enjoyed happier and more productive lives than tho who had not. “Boys who worked in the home or community gained competence (能力) and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society,” said George Vaillant, the psychologist (心理学家) who made the discovery. “And becau they felt good about themlves, others felt good about them.”
Vaillant’s study followed the males in great detail. Interviews were repeated at ages 25, 3
1 and 47. Under Vaillant, the rearchers compared the men’s mental-health scores with their boyhood-activity scores. Points were awarded for part-time jobs, houwork, effort in school, and ability to deal with problems.
The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was surprisingly sharp. Tho who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed. The rearchers also found that IQ and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out. Working— at any age — is important. Childhood activities help a child develop responsibility, independence, confidence and competence — the underpinnings (基础) of emotional health. They also help him understand that people must cooperate and work toward common goals. The most competent adults are tho who know how to do this. Yet work isn’t everything. As Tolstoy once said, “One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one’s work.”
1. What do we know about John?
辉县西沟
A. He enjoyed his career and marriage.
B. He had few childhood playmates.
C. He received little love from his family.
D. He was envied by others in his childhood.
2. Vaillant’s words in Paragraph 2 rve as _____.
A. a description of personal values and social values
B. an analysis of how work was related to competence
C. an example for parents’ expectations of their children
契诃夫作品>uasb工艺D. an explanation why some boys grew into happy men
3. Vaillant’s team obtained their findings by _____.
A. recording the boys’ effort in school
B. evaluating the men’s mental health
C. comparing different ts of scores
D. measuring the men’s problem solving ability
4. What does the underlined word “sharp” probably mean in Paragraph 4?
A. Quick to react. B. Having a thin edge.
优秀学员发言稿
C. Clear and definite. D. sudden and rapid.
5. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
帽子的英语A. Competent adults know more about love than work.
B. Emotional health is esntial to a wonderful adult life.
C. Love brings more joy to people than work does.
D. Independence is the key to one’s success.
二
Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Advances肚子右侧疼, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化). New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of entering the world.
This educational method was first obrved in 2012 by Sonia KIeindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia, and her colleagues. Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs. When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that rved as their regular “feed me!” call.
To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,基数词变序数词 the rearchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching. Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.
It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition, the team t up a parate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most cloly imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.
This obrvation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological (神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need? ”KIeindorfer asks.” Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”
