TV dramas need creative touch
A Korean wave is sweeping across China, with many Chinese women worshipping South Korean actors Kim Soo-hyun and Lee Min-ho as demigods. Chinese netizens have always been divided over South Korean TV dramas, but there is no doubt that programs from the neighboring country are now enjoying a new round of popularity in China. And a big part of the credit for that goes to You Who Came From The Star, the South Korean TV series which is on the air now.
Top South Korean actors Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun recently earned a popularity rating of 24.8 percent in their country, considered strong by Nielsen Korea. You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs have been subjects of hot online discussions throughout Asia. Besides, the book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, read by the hero in You Who Came From The Star was a hard-to-get item on Amazon for a while.
The two TV programs have several common elements: a tall, handsome, and rich hero who loves the heroine blindly and always protects her, and an equally handsome man madly in love with the same woman. Both programs portray the purity of love, which is expressed through a kiss or a warm hug. Perhaps that's the secret of their success; perhaps people are still fascinated by Cinderella-type stories.
The widening wealth gap is a matter of social concern both in South Korea and China, and the challenges that young people face in their quest for a better life might have prompted many ordinary girls to dream of marrying rich, caring men. This is precisely what the popular South Korean TV dramas portray. In fact, South Korean TV dramas are tailored to meet the market's demands.
In contrast, Chinese TV screens are flooded by knock-off and/or poorly made soap operas. Most of the Chinese TV dramas either distort the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which is a distortion of history, or blindly copy foreign programs. The lack of good stories has of late resulted in loads of TV series on time travel or fights in the harems of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors. These, in short, are the bane of Chinese TV productions.
In contrast, South Korean TV dramas have re-invented themselves. In fact, 2013 could be said to be the year of rebirth of South Korean TV dramas. Shortly after the enormous craze generated by Great Jang-Geum in 2003,
South Korean dramas lost much of their popularity in other Asian countries thanks partly to better produced works from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Many netizens even said at the time that South Korean TV dramas had become pass because of their stereotyped themes: traffic accidents, and cancer and other incurable diseases. But all that has changed with the success of You Who Came From The Star and The Heirs, which Chinese directors can use as examples, as well as inspiration, to improve their productions.
The resurgence of South Korean TV dramas can be attributed to the joint efforts of the country's government and TV series makers. The South Korean government implemented a policy to help TV productions back in the late 1990s, when the first wave of popular dramas emerged from the country to capture the imagination of the people in the rest of Asia. Just before the turn of the millennium, the South Korean government issued regulations saying at least 80 percent of the TV programs had to be domestically produced. It also fixed the minimum number of homemade TV series to be broadcast in the country. That not only helped South Korean TV productions gain a firm foothold in the domestic market, but also laid the foundation for their successful foray into overseas markets.
Recent years have seen great innovations in South Korean TV productions in terms of themes and narrative patterns. Take You Who Came From The Star as an example. Although aliens visiting Earth is an oft-used theme, You Who Came From The Star's script remains logical and fast-paced. It mixes the plot with romance and murder and keeps the audience guessing about how the story will unfold. When it comes to love stories, the new South Korean teleplays no longer use the distress card; instead, they intersperse them with whimsy and romantic punch lines.
The three TV stations, SBS, KBS and MBC, control the majority of South Korean TV market, each specializing in a different area and catering to people of different ages. The productions are sleek and use advanced technologies such as high-speed photography and computer-generated effects, creating a real-life visual impact.
Moreover, the shooting for South Korean productions generally starts when the scripts are just one-third ready. Many popular productions have their own websites, where scriptwriters post part of the finished scripts, inviting viewers to leave messages, discuss the plot and come up with suggestions for future episodes. This not only keeps viewers' interest in the TV dramas alive, but also helps scriptwriters and directors make changes to the storylines to suit the audience's demand.
Hopefully, the innovation-induced success of South Korean TV programs will prompt Chinese TV drama makers to think up new ideas and abandon their bad practice of copying foreign productions in order to attract more viewers at home, and possibly abroad.
?worship['w?:?ip] n. 崇拜；礼拜；尊敬vt. 崇拜；尊敬；爱慕vi. 拜神；做礼拜
?demigod['demiɡ?d] n. 受崇拜的人，英雄人物；半神半人；小神
?fascinate['f?sineit vt. 使着迷，使神魂颠倒vi. 入迷
?distort[dis't?:t t. 扭曲；使失真；曲解vi. 扭曲；变形
?harem['hɑ:ri:m n. 为一个雄性动物所控制的许多雌性动物；闺房里的妻妾群；闺房（伊斯兰教教徒的）
Apple's iPhone loses the New York Times' selfie smackdown自拍神器大赛，苹果iPhone垫底
"Selfies are great," says the New York Times' Molly Wood (rhymes with
Hollywood), "but the front-facing cameras on cellphones are terrible."
"Selfies taken on most major smartphones," she writes in Thursday's issue, "are almost uniformly of poor quality. They're unfocused, pixelated, dark,
blown-out, backlit, grainy and worst of all, distorted (I swear, I have a normal size nose!)."
Some may be more terrible than others, however. So Wood, deputy tech editor for the Times' business section, set out for Times Square to shoot some
pictures of herself with what she describes as "arguably, the four best camera phones in the U.S. market."
"The big surprise," she says in a video posted on the Times' website, "is that I have to say I'm not very impressed with the iPhone's front-facing camera."
She's surprised because the 5S has, in her words, "one of the best smartphone cameras available, and is easily capable of replacing a snapshot camera
entirely."
But the iPhone's selfies were a disappointment: "Its focus was inconsistent, colors tended to appear washed out, and its lens produced the most distortion of the bunch (once again: My nose does not look like that in real life)."
As for the rest ...
? "The HTC One produced the best selfies. They were consistently in focus and had rich, true colors, and the camera performed better in low light than the competition."
? "Th e Nokia Lumia 1020 was a close second, despite its lower resolution, but indoor shots were worse than outdoor shots."
? "The Samsung Galaxy S4 suffers from focus issues, so its selfies were
inconsistent, and any bright lights in the background resulted in badly
blown-out images."
But none of the phones were good enough for Wood. She blames the pressure on manufacturerers to make every new generation of smartphones thinner than the old -- a design priority she lays at Apple's feet.
But there may be a larger issue issue for Apple.
Selfies, like Facebook and Twitter, are a major social media phenomenon. The word "selfie," Wood points out, was the Oxford Dictionaries' neologism of the year. And "#me" is the third-most-common tag on Instagram.
With 184 million selfies on Instagram, how could Apple miss it?
?grainy['ɡreini] adj. 粒状的；多粒的；有纹理的
?distorted[dis't?:tid] adj. 歪曲的；受到曲解的v. 扭曲（distortasd的过去式和过去分词）
?snapshot['sn?p??t] n. 快照，快相；急射，速射；简单印象vt. 给…拍快照vi. 拍快照
?resolution[,rez?'lu:??n, -,lju:-] n. [物] 分辨率；决议；解决；决心
?neologism[ni:'?l?d?iz?m, ni-] n. 新词；新义；
Dim lighting helps people make better decisions,
scientists claim
Dim lighting is usually associated with relaxation, and winding down after work.
But scientists now claim that by harnessing the subduing effect on emotions caused by dim lights.
Therefore, by dimming the lights, people become more rational, negotiate
better and are therefore able to make better decisions.
Alison Jing Xu, assistant professor of management at University of Toronto Scarborough and Aparna Labroo of Northwestern University, made the
findings by examining the link between lighting and human
emotion,PsychCentral reported.
Participants in the study were asked to rate under different lighting settings subjects including the spiciness of chicken-wing sauce, how aggressive a
fictional character was being, how attractive someone was and the taste of two juices.
All of their reactions were intensified in bright light, a phenomena which
Professor Xu attributes to the body perceiving light as heat, which can trigger emotions.
"Bright light intensifies the initial emotional reaction we have to different kinds of stimulus including products and people," she said.
In fact, they found that bright light intensifies feelings so dramatically that
people prone to depression “actually become more depressed” on sunny days, according to Professor Xu.
Professor Xu said: ‘Marketers may also adjust the lightening levels in the retail environment, according to the nature of the products on sale.
?"‘If you are selling emotional expressive products such as flowers or engagement rings it would make sense to make the store as bright as
possible," she said.
?
?
dim [dim] adj. 昏暗的；悲观的，怀疑的vt. 使暗淡，使失去光泽；n. 笨蛋，傻子
subdue [s?b'dju:] vt. 征服；抑制；减轻
depression [di'pre??n]n. 沮丧；洼地；不景气；忧愁
Samsung's Galaxy S5: Why it matters Investors are bullish on Samsung after the Korean giant unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. Shares for the company were up slightly after a 13% drop over the last year -- a big deal when the company's market cap hovers around $182 billion.
The device, which will be available in April, isn't a huge step forward. Its
camera has grown from 13 megapixels to 16; its battery is promised to last 20% longer. It will have a fingerprint sensor like Apple's (AAPL) flagship model, which went on sale in September. Its 5.1-inch active-matrix organic
light-emitting diode -- AMOLED for short -- display is rated for full high
definition. It has a leather-like feel, which business customers may enjoy. It has a built-in heart rate monitor. And, perhaps most notably, it is said to
withstand dust and 30 minutes in shallow water, a welcome improvement for slippery-fingered humans everywhere.
Water resistance aside, much of these updates are incremental and expected.
This is the nature of the war waged at the premium end of the smartphone market: It's no longer a single "killer" feature that moves units, but rather a superior experience. That the Galaxy S5 has a fingerprint sensor, for example, is a matter of relief to buyers who do not prefer Apple's iPhone; the feature won't encourage people to switch who are otherwise happy with their device.
The dynamic is a blessing and a curse for Samsung. On one hand, it means the mature smartphone market in Western markets has evolved to the point where a single feature won't shift fortunes -- good news in a market in which competing companies share suppliers. On the other, it means that the
company is burdened to tie those components -- from the plastic shell to the screen to the software -- together in a way that is distinctive and preferred.
The dynamic in emerging markets is different -- particularly in China, where Samsung leads the pack and Apple believes it can find growth. There,
Samsung's challengers include Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, and Xiaomi. The
biggest pressure is economic: Low-priced phones have begun to flood the market, pressuring high-end models to join the race to the bottom. A soft
economic outlook for the country complicates things, reducing the number of buyers willing to upgrade to a premium device. Indeed, most of Samsung's growth in China has been with low-end devices -- but the aspirational aura around Samsung's brand is attributed to some of that success.
Samsung spent considerable sums of money on marketing and advertising on behalf of its previous flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. (According to some estimates, it spent four times more than Apple and two times more than
Microsoft (MSFT) in 2012.) At the time, the company was criticized for
drumming up too much hype. This time, with the Galaxy S5, it may need only to ride that goodwill and keep the top end of its portfolio stable as it wages a far more vicious battle below.
?bullish ['buli?adj. 看涨的；上扬的；似公牛的
?flagship ['fl?ɡ?ip n. 旗舰；（作定语）一流；佼佼者
?fingerprint['fi?ɡ?print] n. 指纹；手印vt. 采指纹
?resistance [ri'zist?ns] n. 阻力；电阻；抵抗；反抗；抵抗力
?aspirational [,?sp?'rei??n?l] adj. 有雄心壮志的；（生活形态等）梦寐以求的n. 成功指南；处世自助手册
性格测试到底靠不靠谱
When Frank Parsons opened the world's first career guidance center in Boston in 1908, he began by asking prospective clients 116 penetrating questions about their ambitions, strengths, and weaknesses (and how often they bathed). But then he did something more unusual: He measured their skulls.
Parsons was a committed believer in phrenology. If you had a large forehead, he might recommend you become a lawyer or engineer. But if your skull was more developed behind the ears, you were of the "animal type" and best suited to manual work.
Career advice has, thankfully, come a long way since then. But now, instead of measuring the outside of people's heads, it has become common to measure the inside using psychometric tests. Personality testing has grown into a major industry and is standard procedure in leadership and management courses, as part of job-interview processes, and, increasingly, in career counselling. But should we really trust such tests to deliver scientific, objective truth?
I have some bad news for you: Even the most sophisticated tests have considerable flaws. Take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the world's most popular psychometric test, which is based on Jung's theory of personality types. Over two million are administered every year. The MBTI places you in one of 16 personality types, based on dichotomous categories such as whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, or have a disposition towards being logical or emotional (what it calls "thinking" and "feeling").
The interesting -- and somewhat alarming -- fact about the MBTI is that, despite its popularity, it has been subject to sustained criticism by professional psychologists for over three decades. One problem is that it displays what statisticians call low "test-retest reliability." So if you retake the test after only a five-week gap, there's around a 50% chance that you will fall into a different personality category compared to the first time you took the test.
A second criticism is that the MBTI mistakenly assumes that personality falls into mutually exclusive categories. You are either an extrovert or an introvert, but never a mix of the two. Yet most people fall somewhere in the middle. If the MBTI also measured height, you would be classified as either tall or short, even though the majority of people are within a band of medium height.
The consequence is that the scores of two people labelled "introvert" and "extrovert" may be almost exactly the same, but they could be placed into different categories since they fall on either side of an imaginary dividing line.
One other thing, and this matters especially for anybody who thinks
personality tests can guide them to a perfect career. According to official
Myers-Briggs documents published by its exclusive European distributor, the test can "give you an insight into what kinds of work you might enjoy and be successful doing." So if you are, like me, classified as INTJ (your dominant traits are being introverted, intuitive, and having a preference for thinking and judging), the best-fit occupations include management consultant, IT
professional, and engineer.
?dominant['d?min?nt] adj. 显性的；占优势的；支配的n. 显性
?reliability[ri,lai?'bil?ti] n. 可靠性
?skull[sk?l] n. 头盖骨，脑壳
?trait[trei, treit] n. 特性，特点；品质；少许
?flaw[fl?:] n. 瑕疵，裂纹；缺点；一阵狂风vt. 使无效；使破裂，使有缺陷vi. 生裂缝，变的有缺陷
?criticism['kriti,siz?m] n. 批评；考证；苛求
?insight['insait] n. 洞察力；洞悉
?distributor[di'stribjut?] n. 经销商；[电] 分配器；分配者；散布者；[
4 steps to delivering really bad news
Dear Annie: I've been following your columns about promotions over the past year or so, and I finally got one. The trouble is, it comes with some nasty
conditions. The person who had this job before me let my department's
performance slide to an unacceptable low, mainly because he didn't want to fire anybody -- even though there are a few people here who haven't done any real work in years. These same people have also influenced other team
members, so their productivity has fallen too.
So now what I have to do is "turn things around," my boss said, by letting a few people go and giving shape-up-or-ship-out evaluations to some others. I have no experience with giving this kind of bad news, and I really dread these conversations. Do you or your readers have any advice on how to do this, or how not to? -- Management's Messenger
Dear M.M.: "If you were hoping for a way around the unpleasant emotions that accompany the delivery of bad news, I'll have to disappoint you, because there isn't one," says Geoffrey Tumlin, who heads Austin-based
communications firm Mouthpeace Communications and wrote a new book
called Stop Talking, Start Communicating: Counterintuitive Secrets to Success in Business and in Life.
Tumlin gets where you're coming from. He is often called in when managers have put off doing the inevitable for so long that whole teams and departments have crashed. "It's amazing to see how problems can cascade through an organization because no one wants to get rid of a problem employee," he says. At the same time, he understands why bosses like your predecessor procrastinate: "Firing people is hard."
Nothing can make it easier, but Tumlin offers four tips for getting it done:
1. Get straight to your core message. "Your core message is easy to identify, because it's always the thing you don't want to say -- whether it's 'We're switching vendors' or 'We have to let you go' or 'We should stop seeing each other,'" Tumlin says. So get straight to the point. "Trying to sugarcoat it won't help, and may even confuse the other person, which just makes it harder for them," he notes.
2. Stick to your guns. If you've ever been talked out of a decision, you already know how tough this one can be. "People will say things like, 'But we've worked together for 15 years! You're not really letting me go, are you?'" notes Tumlin. "Or they will try to talk about the reasons. But resist the temptation to get pushed, cajoled, or charmed off your message."
3. Explain yourself, but not too much. Tumlin recommends fitting the message and the reason for it into a single sentence -- for instance, "We're letting you go because we're taking this whole department in a different direction." If you want to say more, that's okay, "but do it by repeating the point. Don't add any new information, or you'll encourage the discussion to drift away from what you need to say."
4. Get out of the conversation. Letting the discussion drag on is usually a mistake, Tumlin says. "Naturally you can answer factual questions like,
'When's my last day?' or 'What happens to my 401(k)?' or offer to get any practical answers you don't have," Tumlin says. "But beware of trying to answer any speculative or probing questions, again because they can confuse the issue and drag you away from your point."
In this situation, Tumlin adds, "It's a simple formula: Be clear, be concise, and be gone." The not-so-hot evaluations you'll have to deliver are, however, a different story. "An evaluation, even a negative one, is really the opposite of firing someone," he notes. "That's because it should be an ongoing discussion, not a one-time event, and because you're hoping to keep the people you'll be speaking with, assuming they can get better at their jobs."
With that in mind, Tumlin advises you get the firings over with first, and then wait a bit before giving feedback, for two reasons. First, firing someone -- say, an employee who's a known slacker -- is a form of feedback to the whole team, he points out. "Everyone will be watching, of course, so give it a couple of
weeks and see how that percolates through," he says. "You may find that some people's behavior changes for the better." If so, you'll have one less tough topic to tackle.
Second, Tumlin says, evaluations that make a difference require specific
examples of the behavior you want to change. "The least effective feedback is always too general, like 'You're not good with clients.' That doesn't tell the
other person anything useful, and it's too easy to dismiss," Tumlin says.
Instead, a particular example -- "You talked over Client A in that meeting last Tuesday" -- tells exactly where an employee needs to focus her efforts.
"You're new in this job, so maybe you don't have an example yet. But if you want these evaluations to matter, wait until you do," says Tumlin. "It shouldn't take long."
Talkback: If you've ever been fired or had to fire someone, what made the bad news more (or less) bearable? What was the most useful evaluation you ever got? Leave a comment below.
?nasty['nɑ:sti, 'n?s-] adj. 下流的；肮脏的；；n. 令人不快的事物；
?productivity[,pr?d?k'tiv?ti, ,pr?u-] n. 生产力；生产率；
?predecessor['pri:dises?, 'pre-] n. 前任，前辈
?vendor['vend?:] n. 卖主；小贩；[贸易] 自动售货机
The Power of Parents Who Say 'No'
I grew up in an affluent area. Most kids owned multiple Cabbage Patch dolls
and Gear bags and pairs of Jordache jeans (not to mention the beloved Atari 2600). I certainly had enough, but it felt like all of my peers possessed more. I wanted Benetton sweaters and a cool bike. I wanted to take trips to Mexico over Christmas break and come back with a bronze tan. I wanted to impress people with a fancy car, not the red Datsun 510 parked in our driveway.
As I got older, I didn't merely crave material items-I wanted freedom. On
weekends, my friends' parents left them alone in their apartments while they went elsewhere. I was never left unattended until I went to college. My friends had no curfew. I had to be home by midnight. Plus, my mom watched me like
a hawk.
As a teenager, I felt humiliated, uncool, and angry. Why couldn't my mom just be like the other parents? In my world, one was popular if she had the right haircut and could stay out late. My mom, however, refused to budge. She stuck to her guns, and I begrudged her throughout my adolescence.
Fast-forward some 25 years. Now I'm the parent and I get to decide the rules. Do I buy Uggs for my preschooler? Should my fifth grader get the new iPhone 5? Will I allow my daughter to walk home from school with the other kids? Is she old enough to roam the mall solo?
It isn't especially hard for my husband and I to decide what we think are the right choices for our children. No, the challenge is having to deal with the unhappy child when he/she doesn't get what he/she wants, especially when the other kids do.
As a parent, this battle has been going on a long time. In her pre-school class, several of my daughter's little friends wore Ugg boots. When I got a
hand-me-down knock-off pair, my daughter turned up her nose. 'These aren't Uggs, ' she snapped. '
'Huh?' I said.
Her response floored me. 'Real Uggs have the name on the back. The kids in school told me mine aren't real.'
This was hardly an aberration. Were I to record a montage of my children's responses after hearing the word 'No, ' it would sound something like this:
'But why can't we watch YouTube videos? Why can't I have a cell phone? Why can't I have my fifth dessert? Why can't we drink soda, have a video game, stay up later, join the country club, ... ' Inevitably the response to my retort is, 'But all the other kids are allowed.'
When my kids were young, it was a manageable backlash. But now, as they age, the pressure to fit in grows exponentially and so does the parenting pressure. Sometimes I just want to take the easy route. I want to give in. Parenting is exhausting and why fight the little stuff? But then I realize, not being able to stand my ground on soda will make it so much harder to hang tough about the bigger issues like Internet safety and dating.
Although I couldn't see it as a child, I now realize how amazing my mom was all those years ago. She knew what she thought was best and she didn't care if I hated her for it. That's strong parenting.
My childhood disappointments and restrictions actually taught me valuable life lessons that I am trying to pass on to my kids.
Not getting every fad item taught me to work to afford what I wanted. I also learned to budget my money. Often once my mom said no, I realized I didn't really want the item that badly. As an adult, I still don't need a lot of 'in' things.
I much prefer to save my money for something I really want or need.
I learned that even though some kids had all the stuff and freedoms I craved,
they came at a price. People sometimes make poor choices with money. They buy things they can't really afford and run up large debts so they can fit in.
Lastly, I learned that having every desired item doesn't me one happy. There are other ways for me to be fulfilled. I am gratified by working, helping a
neighbor, being a good friend, cooking, drawing with chalk in the driveway, and playing the piano beside my daughter. I think this kind of happiness was learned in childhood.
The peer pressure your child encounters in school to have the 'in' item or the latest technology or the most freedom turns into parenting peer pressure.
What is hardest for me is that I know how my children will feel when I say no.
It hurts. They won't understand it. They will be angry and will direct that at me.
I just have to remind myself that sometimes the best lessons are the most
painful.
?budget['b?d?it] n. 预算，预算费vt. 安排，预定；把…编入预算vi. 编预算，做预算adj. 廉价的
?driveway['draivwei] n. 车道
?soda['s?ud?] n. 苏打；碳酸水
?bronze[br?nz] n. 青铜；adj. 青铜色的；青铜制的vt. 镀青铜于vi. 变成青铜色，被晒黑
?roam[r?um] vi. 漫步；流浪n. 漫步流浪
?bigger[big?] adj. 更大的（big的比较级）
?snap[sn?p] vt. 突然折断；猛咬；啪地关上vi. 咬；厉声说；n. 猛咬；劈啪声；突然折断adj. 突然的
?encounter[in'kaunt?] vt. 遭遇，邂逅；n. 偶然碰见vi.
?crave[kreiv] vt. 渴望；恳求
?fulfil[ful'fil] vt. 履行；完成；实践；满足
Passage 1 There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom. But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of student. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools. You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to. 1.Open education allows the students to ____. A.grow as the educated B.be responsible for their future C.develop their own interests D.discover subjects outside class 2. Open education may be a good idea for the students who ____. A.enjoy learning B.worry about grades C.do well in a traditional classroom D.are responsible for what they do in life 3. Some students will do little in an open classroom because ____. A.there are too few rules B.they hate activities C.open education is similar to the traditional education D.they worry about the rules 4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?____ A.Some traditional teachers do not like it.
小学英语阅读理解的常见题型设置及解题技巧 在小学阶段，阅读理解题型灵活多样，但主要有以下题型： 一、读一读，然后选一选。 这种题型的特点是在短文后给出若十个不完整的句子或若干个根据短文内容提出的问题，针对每一题都提供三到四个备选的答案，要求同学们在正确理解短文内容的基础上，从选项中选出一个正确的答案。这类试题的问题一般是紧扣短文内容编排的，既会涉及文章中的细节内容，如文中出现的人物、时间、地点、事件的前因后果等；也会涉及文章中某个词或某个句子的含义以及文章的主旨、大意和标题等。 The big day comes at last! Mrs Jones' third grade students are waiting quietly for her to come into the classroom. Today Amy brings some cakes, Joy brings some napkins, Carlos brings some soda water and Kate brings some cups. Everyone wants the party to he a surprise. Mrs Jones doesn't know the children have known today is her birthday. When she comes into the classroom, the children shout,“Happy birthday, Mrs Jones!”And then the children get a surprise,too. Mrs Jones brings everyone a party hat and an ice cream! 阅读短文，选择最佳答案。 ( ) 1. Mrs Jones' grade students are waiting for her. A. three B.third C.No.3 D.the third ( )2. Carlos brings some _____ ． A. cola B.napkins C.soda water D.cups ( )3．_____ brings some cakes. A. Amy B.Carlos C.Joey D.Kate 分析 题1短文的第二句话告诉我们是琼斯老师的三年级的学生们正静静地等候她的到来。在年级前面应该用序数词来表示，如果是在年级后面就应该用基数词表示。如：the third grade,=Grade Three.同时因为前面有定语Mrs Jones'，所以这里也应该不要the。 题2.3 短文介绍了几个同学分别带了一些东西。卡洛斯带了soda water （汽水），艾米带了蛋糕。 正确答案：1.B 2.C 3. A 二、读一读，然后判断句子正误。 该题型的特点是在短文后给出若干个句子，要求同学们根据短文内容，判断所给的句子意思是否与原文相符。做这类题应该联系短文内容进行发挥，主要是考查对意思相近或相反的几个句子进行鉴别、判断，或是变换词语、句子结构来测试同种意思的不同表达。 There are some public numbers. Do you know when to use these numbers? 110 is a number for calling policeman when you have meet some illegal things. 119 is a number using for a fire accident.
Motion sickness The upchuck wagon How not to feel queasy in a self-driving motor car EXPECTATIONS are high, among those boosting the idea of self-driving cars, that people will be able to do other things, such as reading, working on a laptop or having a nap, when riding in such a vehicle. But for many that is an unlikely prospect. Apart from those who have no intention of even getting into an autonomous car, which currently amounts to some 23% of Americans, another 36% would be willing to ride but would not take their eyes off the road, according to a study published in 2014 by the University of Michigan. Some of those people will be looking out of the window because it helps to avoid nausea, dizziness and vomiting, particularly if they are among the 5-10% of the population who regularly experience the unpleasant symptoms of motion sickness. Help, though, is at hand. The selfsame authors of the Michigan study, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle, who both work for the university’s Transportation Research institute, have just been awarded a 晕动病 “令人作呕”的车 乘坐自动驾驶汽车时怎样才 能不犯恶心 那些致力于推动自动驾 驶汽车这一理念的人热切期 望，人们在乘坐这种车时还 可以做别的事，比如看书、 用笔记本电脑工作，或者打 个盹。但对很多人来说这不 大可能实现。根据密歇根大 学于2014年发布的一项研 究，除去那些根本就无意乘 坐自动驾驶汽车的人——目 前约占美国人的23%，还有 36%的人虽然愿意乘坐，但不 会把眼睛从道路移开。这之 中有些人会望向窗外，因为 这能帮助避免头晕、恶心或 呕吐。尤其如果他们属于人 们中常出现晕动病不适症状 的那5-10%，就更会往窗外看 了。 不过，帮助近在眼前。上述 研究的作者、供职于密歇根 大学交通研究所的迈克 尔·西瓦克和布兰登·索特 尔发明的一种设备刚刚获得 了专利，可能成为晕车的解 1.upchuck英[??pt??k]美[??p?t??k] vb 呕出；吐出 ■If you upchuck, food and drink comes back up from your stomach and out through your mouth. 2.queasy英[?kwi:zi]美[?kwizi] adj ■likely to vomit 要呕吐，恶心的 I started to feel queasy as soon as the boat left the harbour. Just the thought of blood makes me queasy. 3.prospect ■the idea of something that will or might happen in the future 前景； 展望；设想 The prospect of spending three days with her fills me with horror. I’m very excited at the prospect of seeing her again. We face the prospect of having to start all over again. 4.nausea英[?n?:zi?]美[?n?zi?, -??, -si?, -??] ■when you feel as if you are going to vomit 恶心，呕吐感 Signs of the illness include fever, nausea and vomiting 5.vomit英[?v?m?t] 美[?vɑ:m?t] ■to empty the contents of the stomach through the mouth 呕吐 He came home drunk and vomited all over the kitchen floor. She was vomiting (up) blood. 6.self-same adj ■exactly the same 完全一样的，同一的 The self-same car has been parked outside three times this week. 7.patent nc 英[?p?tnt]美[?p?tnt] ■the official legal right to make o r sell an invention for a particular number of years 专利权 In 1880 Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent on an apparatus for signaling and communicating called a Photophone.亚历山大·格 拉汉姆·贝尔发明了一个可用来发送和传输讯号，称为“光线电话”的装
最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！ 洛基英语，免费体验全部在线一对一课程：https://www.doczj.com/doc/491745948.html,/wenkxd.htm（报名网址）Passage 14 Attention to detail is something everyone can and should do-especially in a tight job market. Bob Crossley, a human-resources expert notices this in the job applications that come cross his desk every day. “It’s amazing how many candidates eliminate themselves,”he says. “Resumes arrive with stains. Some candidates don’t bother to spell the company’s name correctly. Once I see a mistake, I eliminate the candidate, ”Crossley concludes. If they cannot take of these details. “Why should we trust them with a job?” Can we pay too much attention to detail? Perfectionists struggle over little things at the cost of something larger they work toward. “To keep from losing the forest for the trees,”says Charles Garfield, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, “we must constantly ask ourselves how the details we’re working on fit into the larger picture they don’t, we should drop them and move to something else.” Garfield compares this process to his work as a computer scientist at NASA. “The Apollo II moon launch was slightly off-course 90 percent of the time,”says Garfield. “But a successful landing was still likely because we knew the exact coordinates of our goal. This allowed us to landing was still likely because we knew the exact coordinates of our goal. This allowed us to make adjustments as necessary.”Knowing where we want to go helps us judge the importance of every task we undertake. Too often we believe what accounts for other’s success is some special secret or a lucky break. But rarely is success so mysterious. Again and again, we see that by doing little things within our grasp well, large rewards follow. 66. According to the passage, some job applicants were rejected________ A) because of their carelessness as shown in their failure to present a clean copy of a resume B) because of their inadequate education as shown in their poor spelling in writing a resume C) because they failed to give a detailed description of their background in their applications D) because they eliminated their names from the applicants list themselves 67. The word “perfectionists”(Line 1, Para 3)refers to those who________ A) demand others to get everything absolutely right B) know how to adjust their goals according to the circumstances C) pay too much attention to details only to lose their major objectives D) are capable of achieving perfect results in whatever they do 68. Which of the following is the author’s advice to the reader? A) Although too much attention to details may be costly, they should not be overlooked B) Don’t forget details when drawing pictures
三年级英语阅读补充材料30篇 Passage 1 Tom and John are good friends. Tom is 12. John is 13. They are good students. They like hamburgers. Miss White is their English teacher. 阅读短文，判断正（T）误（F） ( )1. Tom and John are good friends. ( )2. Tom is 12. ( )3. John is 12. ( )4. They like eggs. Passage 2 Hi, my name is Tom. I’m 9. I like English very much. My sister is Amy. She’s 5. My father is 39. My mother is 37. They love me. I love my family. 阅读理解并选择合适的选项 ( )1. My name is _______ . A. Amy B. Tom ( )2. My sister is ______ . A . 9 B .5 ( )3. My mother is _______. A. 39 B. 37 ( )4. I like _______. A. English B. Chinese
Passage 3 I have a friend, Kate. She’s a girl. She’s American.(美国人) Her father is a teacher. Her mother is a nurse.(护士) 阅读理解并选择合适的选项 ( )1. Kate is a . A.boy B.girl ( )2. She’s . A.American B.China ( )3. Her father is a . A.teacher B.nurse ( )4. Her mother is a . A.teacher B.nurse Passage 4 Hello. I’m Tom. I’m at the zoo（动物园）. Look at the tiger. This is a small tiger. It has a long nose. Who’s singing? Oh, it’s the bird in the tree. 阅读短文，判断正（T）误（F） ( )1. I’m at the zoo. ( )2. This is a big tiger. ( )3. It has a long nose. ( )4. The bird in the sky is singing.
全新版大学英语视听阅读-Unit-文字材料
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Unit 1 Watching video SCRIPT Narrator: The cheetah. With an astonishing ability to sprint from zero to eighty kilometers per hour in just three seconds, it’s the fastest animal on land. At full speed, it can reach almost 100 kilometers per hour. Nothing can escape a cheetah at full sprint. Unfortunately, this beautiful, shy animal is in serious danger of becoming extinct. In order to help, National Geographic is sending a team into the Moremi Wildlife Reserve of Botswana. Their goal is to help save these magnificent creatures by capturing them on film. The city of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the final stop befor e the team’s journey into the wilds of Africa. Heading the expedition is Chris Johns, a photographer for more than 25 years. Chris has been planning this trip for a long time, and accompanying him is guide Dave Hamman. Dave has lived in southern Africa most of his life and knows the region well. His knowledge will be useful as the two men head more than 800 kilometers north into Botswana and the wonderful Okavango Delta. The Moremi Reserve is a truly magical place. It seems that Africa’s entire animal king dom resides in the region. Zebras, buffaloes, and elephants are easily viewed from the rough dirt road. Even a giraffe makes an appearance. Chris and Dave continue their drive into the evening. They need to be far into the wilderness to begin their task: finding cheetahs. Narrator: The next day, they’re up early to begin their search. Chris Johns, National Geographic Photographer: “You can’t just drive out there and order up a cheetah. It doesn’t happen like that. You know that it could take days, weeks.” Narrator: But then something incredibly unexpected occurs . . . Dave Hamman: “I don’t believe this.” Narrator: It’s a female and five of her young. Hamman: “This is just not normal.” Narrator: During all of his years in the bush, Dave has never located so many cheetahs this quickly. This is exactly what they had been hoping for. The discovery is especially promising for Chris. Johns: “Cheetahs are a metaphor for some of Africa’s conservation problems. Because cheetahs need range, and they’re a good wa y to explain to people that loss of habitat means the potential loss of species. And it’s possible that in my lifetime cheetahs could become extinct in the wild, and that’s —to me —a tragedy that’s unspeakable.” Narrator: The Moremi Wildlife Reserve has offered Chris one of the last windows into the natural world of the cheetah. It will take a while for the cheetahs to trust Chris, but if he succeeds, he knows he’ll be able to take the photographs he really wants: a shot of a cheetah pursuing and k illing its prey, or a “kill sequence.” Johns: “We know there are certain things that a cheetah story has to have. One of the most important things it has to have—which is an incredibly difficult thing to get—is a kill sequence, and you’re always looking for that picture.” Narrator: Cheetahs are capable of tremendous bursts of speed, and have the capacity to gain speed more quickly than a sports car.
Passage 1 Exchange a glance with someone, then look away. Do you realize that you have made a statement? This type of stare often produces hostile feelings. 1. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that___. A) every glance has its significance 2. If you want to be left alone on an elevator, the best thing to do is___. B) to avoid eye contact with other passengers 3. By "a dimming of the lights" (Line 13,Para.1 )Erving Goffman means___. C) ceasing to glance at others 4. If one is looked at by a stranger for too long, he tends to feel___. B) uneasy 5. The passage mainly discusses___. D) the role of eye contact in interpersonal communication. Passage 2 Geraldo Rivera is well known for his compassionate investigative reports on WABC-TV Eyewitness News. But I’m not just in the business of making people cry. I’m in the business of chang e.” 6. Geraldo Rivera is working as a(n)______. B. investigative reporter for a special TV program 7. How many awards did Rivera receive for his work? D. Five 8. Rivera’s inves tigation and expose on the conditions at WillowbrookStateSchool led to _____. D. all of the above
每日英语学习阅读材料(A4打印版) 双语美文：为什么你存不下钱？ Don’t save what is left after spending. But spend what is left after savings. 不要把花剩下的钱拿来存，而是把存剩下的钱拿来花。 Wanting to save money is not enough. Anyway, there are a lot of things which didn’t xxe true although you wanted them to. 想存钱是远远不够的，毕竟你希望发生的事情并不一定就能发生。 Saving is a technique . It’s simple. It’s just not easy. 存钱是一门技术，这门技术很简单，只是不容易实现。 If you only xxe to think about saving after you spend, there is no chance for you to accumulate a considerable fortune, because spending is always irrational. 如果你总是在消费之后才想着应该存钱，那你肯定存不下钱，因为任何消费都是非理性的。 The way that works is to make plans in advance. 真正可行的方法，是事先计划好自己的消费方式。 Would it be too much to use 40% of my inxxe to rent
an apartment 每个月用收入的40%租房子会不会太多？ Is it really enough to save just 20% every month 每个月只存收入的20%会不会太少？ Only by making it clear how much you want to save can you xxe to know how much you can actually spend. 你只有先计划好要存多少钱，才能知道自己实际上可以花多少钱双语美文：巴菲特最睿智的一句话 Warren Buffett is the current richest investor in the world. And he ranks 1 / 14 among the world’s billionaires. 沃伦巴菲特是目前世界上最有钱的投资人，也是全球第2富有的富翁。 But, xxpared to his money, it’s those famous quotes of his that attract the public’s attention. 不过，与他的钱相比，他的名言往往才是大众关注的重点。 Though most people now see his words as jokes or anti chicken soup for the souls. 虽然现在很多人都把他的话当做笑谈，或者是毒鸡汤。But I find his words really inspiring. 但我觉得，他说过的很多话真的很有道理。
Iron and the Effects of Exercise Sports medicine experts have observed for years that endurance athletes, particularly females, frequently have iron deficiencies. Now a new study by a team of Purdue University researchers suggests that even moderate exercise may lead to reduced iron in the blood of women. "We found that women who were normally inactive and then started a program of moderate exercise showed evidence of iron loss," says Roseanne M. Lyle, associate professor at Purdue. Her study of 62 formerly inactive women who began exercising three times a week for six months was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. "Women who consumed additional meat or took iron supplements were able to bounce back," she notes. "But the new exercisers who followed their normal diet showed a decrease in iron levels." Iron deficiency is very common among women in general, affecting one in four female teenagers and one in five women aged 18 to 45, respectively. But the ratio is even greater among active women, affecting up to 80 percent of female endurance athletes. This means, Lyle says, that "too many women ignore the amount of iron they take in";. Women of child-bearing age are at greatest risk, since their monthly bleeding is a major source of iron loss. Plus, many health-conscious women increase their risk by rejecting red meat, which contains the most easily absorbed form of iron. And because women often restrict their diet in an effort to control weight, they may not consume enough iron-rich food, and are liable to experience a deficiency. "The average woman takes in only two thirds of the recommended daily allowance for iron," notes another expert. "For a woman who already has a poor iron status, any additional iron loss from exercise may be enough to tip her over the edge into a more serious deficiency," notes the expert. Exercise can result in iron loss through a variety of mechanisms. Some iron is lost in sweat, and, for unknown reasons, intense endurance exercise is sometimes associated with bleeding of the digestive system. Athletes in high-impact sports such as running may also lose iron through a phenomenon where small blood vessels in the feet leak blood. There are three stages of iron deficiency. The first and most common is having low iron reserves, a condition that typically has no symptoms. Fatigue and poor performance may begin to appear in the second stage of deficiency, when not enough iron is present to form the molecules of blood protein that transport oxygen to the working muscles. In the third and final stage, people often feel weak, tired, and out of breath — and exercise performance is severely compromised. "People think that if they're not at the third stage, nothing is wrong, but that's not true," says John L. Beard, who helped design the Purdue study. "You're not stage 3 until your iron reserves go to zero, and if you wait until that point, you're in trouble." However, most people with low iron reserves don't know they have a deficiency, because traditional methods of calculating the amount of iron in blood (by checking levels of the blood protein that transports oxygen) are not sufficient, Beard states. Instead, it's important to check levels of a different compound, which indicates the amount of storage of iron in the blood. While active, child-bearing age women are most likely to have low iron stores, he notes, "Men are not safe, especially if they don't eat meat and have a high level of physical activity." (An estimated 15 percent of male long distance runners have low iron stores.) Beard and other experts say it's advisable for people in these groups to have a yearly blood test to