概要写作1.Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.Parents, teachers, and anyone who regularly deals with teenagers know how difficult the adolescent years can be. Adolescents have always been known to do wild — even dangerous — thing. Now, brain-imaging technology allows scientists to study the physical development of the brain in more detail than ever before. Their discoveries have led to a new theory of why teens act the way they do.Recently, scientists discovered that though our brains are almost at their full size by the age of six, they are far from fully developed. Only during adolescence do our brains truly “grow up”. During this time, they go through great changes, like a computer system being upgraded. This “upgrade” was once thought to be finished by about age 12. Now, scientists have concluded that our brains continue to change until age 25. Such changes make us better at balancing our impulses (冲动)with the need to follow rules. However, a brain that is still developing does this awkwardly. The result, scientists claim, is the unpredictable behavior seen in teenagers.The studies confirm that teens are more likely to take risks and behave in extreme ways. Fortunately, the news isn’t all negative. As brain scientist B.J. Casey points out, the teen brain inspires such behavior in order to help teenagers prepare for adult life.One way the brain does this is by changing the way teens view risks and rewards. Researchers found that when teens think about rewards, their brains release more of the chemicals that create pleasure than an adult brain would. Researchers believe this makes the rewards seem more important than the risks and makes teens feel the excitement of new experiences more keenly than adults do.Research into the structure of the teen brain also found that it makes social connections seem especially rewarding. As such, teens have an intense need to meet new people. It, therefore, connects social rewards with even more pleasure. In this way, the brain encourages teens to have a wide circle of friends, which is believed to make them more successful in life._______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____2.Directions: Read the following three passages. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.Your child’s brain on math: Don’t bother?Parents whose children are struggling with math often view intense tutoring as the best way to help them master crucial skills, but a new study released on Monday suggests that for some kids even that is a lost cause.According to the research, the size of one key brain structure and the connections between it and other regions can help identify the 8- and 9-year olds who will hardly benefit from one-on-one math instruction.“We could predict how much a child learned from the tutoring based on measures of brain structure and connectivity,” said Vinod Menon, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, who led the research.The study, published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to use brain imaging to look for a connection between brain attributes and the ability to learn arithmetic. But despite its publication in a well-respected journal, the research immediately drew criticism.Jonathan Moreno, professor of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, fears that some parents and teachers might “give up now” on a math-challenged child. “If it gets into the popular consciousness that it’s wise to have your kid’s brain checked out.” before making decisions about academic options, he said, “that raises huge issues.”Menon and his fellow scientists agree that their research shouldn’t lead to conclusions immediately. They are exploring whether any interventions might change the brain in such a way that children who struggle with math can benefit more from tutoring.Just as learning to juggle increases the amount of gray matter in the area of adult brains that is responsible for spatial attention, said Menon, maybe something could pump up regions relevantto learning arithmetic before a child begins math tutoring.Until then, he said “it’s possible” that parents will interpret the new study as saying some kids cannot benefit from math tutoring, “and give up before even trying. How this plays out is far from clear.”_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ 3.Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as much as possible.Until 1964 most forms of gambling were illegal in the United States. Since then, however, more and more states have legalized gambling in order to raise income. Most states in the United States now depend on incomes from state lotteries(博彩)and use them for good causes, such as improving public education, maintaining state parks, and developing environmental programs.Although there are many advantages to legalized gambling, there has also been a good deal of criticism of state-supported gambling. As states increase their support of state lotteries, they seem to encourage commercial gambling in all its forms. More than 5 million Americans suffer from gambling addiction. Those most at risk of becoming addicted include the poor, young people between twelve and eighteen years old, and women over the age of fifty, who are looking for some entertainment. As a result, many of them will end up in prison or even homeless. The promise of winning big fortune has created big problems.Perhaps the most important concern is the moral issue of legalized gambling. The lottery is the only form of gambling that is essentially a government control. Critics ask whether gambling is a proper function of government. Should the government be the spokesman for the expansion of gambling? Critics say state advertising of lotto emphasizes luck over hard work, instant happiness over careful planning, and entertainment over savings.In 1996, Congress created a commission to conduct a legal study of the social and economic impacts of gambling in the United States. After two years of study, the Commission recommended an end to the expansion of legalized gambling. Some feel this will severely hurt the gamblingindustry. Others fear that it is not enough and are asking the government to take a tough stand against gambling._______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ 4.Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize in no more than 60 words the main idea of the passage and how it is illustrated. Use your own words as far as possible.How We Find Our DirectionPsychologists have found that there are two main ways that successful travelers use to navigate (确定位置) their environment.The first is to follow a fixed route from here to there. Cognitive (认知的) psychologist Barbara Tver sky describes route navigation as a series of paths and choice points that is basically selfcentered: it is constructed for the purpose of reaching one particular goal from a fixed starting point, and the entire journey is explained from the point of view of the traveler.The second navigational strategy involves a bird’s-eye view — a map of the general area. Maps are overviews, “surveys of a space of possibilities,”that lay out a variety of possible paths. Maps almost always rely on cardinal directions (基本方位), usually east-west and north-south, that anchor them to a larger space. When we use a map to get somewhere, it is up to us to figure out the most proper route, or the alternatives, for ourselves.So how does this work out in the real world? In her 2019 book, Mind in Motion, Tversky acknowledges that most of us do not carry a file drawer of maps in our heads. Instead, we use a combination of methods to get where we are going: part tum-by-tum directions, part bird’s-eye view, and part general map-like information(it’s somewhere near the center of town; we’ll be traveling toward Omaha; the mid-day sun is on our left, so we are still heading west) and helpful landmarks. For this reason, Tversky refers to our way finding plans not as “cognitive maps” but as “cognitive collages (拼贴画)”.But it is important to note that most navigational directions of moderate complexity dependin part on the ability to understand a map perspective. Sometimes maps just make for better directions, but they are essential if we make a mistake and have to figure out how to correct our course._______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________5.阅读下面短文,根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。