Children whose minds wander might have sharper brains, a research suggests. A study has found that people who appear to be often distracted have more "working memory", giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and control it cleverly. Children at school need this type of memory on a daily basis for a variety of tasks, such as following teachers' instructions or remembering dictated sentences. During the study, volunteers were asked to perform one simple task during which researchers kept asking if their minds were wandering. At the end, volunteers measured their working memory capacity by their ability to remember a series of letters mixed with simple maths questions. Daniel Levinson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, said that those with higher working memory capacity reported "more mind wandering during these simple tasks", but their performance did not _ . The results, published online in the journal Psychological Science, appear to confirm former research that found working memory allows humans to deal with multiple thoughts at the same time. Dr Jonathan Smallwood, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science in Leipzig, Germany, said, "What this study seems to suggest is that, when surroundings for the task aren't very difficult, people with additional working memory capacity use them effectively to think about other things besides what they're doing." Working memory capacity is also associated with general measures of intelligence, such as reading comprehension and IQ scores. Dr Smallwood added: "Our results suggest the sorts of planning that people do quite often in daily life - when they are on the bus, when they are cycling to work, when they are in the shower - are probably supported by working memory." During the study, the researchers asked the volunteers to _ . A) solve some difficult maths problems B) retell some dictated sentences C) follow the teacher's instructions D) carry out one simple task
D
(Question)
We all know that when leaves fall to the ground they die and become food for worms. When worms pass the leaves, their waste can help to make the soil rich, from which the plants use to get their nutrition. The plants grow and provide food for animals. When the animals eat the plants, their waste goes back into the soil. It's a perfect cycle. But at the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, Northern Thailand, they are using elephant waste for something more--to make 100% natural, beautiful color1ful paper products! 100 years ago over 100,000 elephants in prefix = st1 /Thailandworked on farms, building sites and even in the army. However, only 6,000 remain there today because of advances in technology that have made elephants' old word less necessary. Elephants are doing new jobs now, including entertaining tourists by painting and playing football, and now by helping in the paper making industry. And their keepers, called Mahouts, can earn a living for their families and help their elephants by using elephant waste, also called "dung" to make beautiful, natural, paper products without any bad smell. Every day an adult elephant eats about 200kg of plants like bamboo, grass and watermelon seeds. His body system breaks the plants into 50kg of fibers, which can produce 115 sheets of fibrous paper. The first step to make this special natural paper is to collect the fiber rich "dung" from the elephant. The next step is to wash it and boil it for five hours to kill bacteria. (The water the use in this process is reused to water plans at the Centre, which, in turn, feed the elephants). After it's boiled, they cut fibers up. During the cutting process, they add in the desired color1 of the paper. For the fourth step, they take the mixture and make balls of 300g. Each ball is then speeds lightly over bamboo frames to dry into one large sheet of paper. After a few hours in the sun, the sheets are dry enough to remove. The result is a wonderful, 100% natural, recycled paper. People around the world are getting... Why are there few elephants in Thailandtoday than before? A) Because they don't have enough food. B) Because they were killed in the war. C) Because they technology develops very fast. D) Because they Mahouts don't want to keep them.
(Answer)
C
Ques: Once it was possible to define male and female roles easily by the division of labor. Men worked outside the home and earned the income to support their families, while women cooked the meals and took care of the home and the children. These roles were firmly fixed for most people, and there was not much opportunity for women to exchange their roles. But by the middle of last century, men's and women's roles were becoming less firmly fixed. In the 1950s, economic and social success was the goal of the typical American. But in the 1960s a new force developed called the counterculture. The people involved in this movement did not value the middle-class American goals. The counterculture presented men and women with new role choices. Taking more interest in childcare, men began to share child-raising tasks with their wives. In fact, some young men and women moved to communal homes or farms where the economic and childcare responsibilities were shared equally by both sexes. In addition, many Americans did not value the traditional male role of soldier. Some young men refused to be drafted as soldiers to fight in the war in Vietnam. In terms of numbers, the counterculture was not a very large group of people. But its influence spread to many parts of American society. Working men of all classes began to change their economic and social patterns. Industrial workers and business executives alike cut down on "overtime" work so that they could spend more leisure time with their families. Some doctors, lawyers, and teachers turned away from high paying situations to practice their professions in poorer neighborhoods. In the 1970s, the feminist movement, or women's liberation, produced additional economic and social changes. Women of all ages and at all levels of society were entering the work force in greater numbers. Most of them still took traditional women's jobs as public school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. But some women began to enter traditionally male occupations: police work, banking,... In the passage the author proposes that the counterculture _ . A) destroyed the United States. B) transformed some American values. C) was not important in the United States. D) brought people more leisure time with their families.
Ans: B
In a book called Magnificent Obsession, by Lloyd C. Douglas, a description is given of people helping others but doing it secretly. When difficult problems worried an individual , friends nearby would meet to discuss possible solution without the individual knowing their actions. When a solution was agreed upon, one or two of the friends would carry out the plan and solve the problem secretly, to the great delight of the worried individual. The helpers would stand by privately , content with their success. No reward was given to the problem solvers, not even a sincere "thank you", because they were never known. This concept is popular today but in a different way. The phrase _ is now used when one person helps another. However, the person helped may not be able to repay the person or group that helped them. So rather than return the favor to their helpers, they are supposed to help someone else in the future, which means they pay it forward. It is a sense of responsibility which makes us want to give back in equal measure to the one who has helped us. But, in this case, the responsibility turns to helping someone in the future. Suppose your elderly grandmother pays part of your schooling. She may tell you there is no need to repay her because it is a gift from someone who loves you very much. Nothing would please her more than to have you use her money to get a good education. You may never be able to repay her for such a gift. However, she not only gave you some money, but she provided you with an example that you should also help other people who need it. People with serious needs are everywhere. Many are children who need better clothes, more books and even better schools. Some are elderly people who can't afford their medicine or a doctor's care. Consider how you can "pay it forward" rather than pay money back to your grandmother. From the passage we know _ . A) everybody needs help B) more children need help than elderly people C) it costs a lot of money to "pay it forward" D) nowadays many people help others without being repaid
D