Do you often feel lonely? What do you do when you feel that way? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around? You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared -- that it's just one of your various moods. That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake. Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental health problems such as depression, stress and reduce confidence. "Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, but it's not about being mentally alone," Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. And there's growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well. In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC. The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system , which protects the body from diseases. Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system. "Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor -- a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time, " explained Jaremka, who led the study. The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done.... We can conclude from the article that _ . A) loneliness has become the No. 1 killer in the world B) loneliness is increasing due to advanced technologies C) websites must be set up to help people deal with loneliness D) much more work needs to be done to fight loneliness
D
(Question)
Community service is an important component of education here at our university. We encourage all students to volunteer for at least one community activity before they graduate. A new community program called "One On One" helps elementary students who've fallen behind. Your education majors might be especially interested in it because it offers the opportunity to do some teaching, that is, tutoring in math and English. You'd have to volunteer two hours a week for one semester. You can choose to help a child with math, English, or both. Half-hour lessons are fine, so you could do a half hour of each subject two days a week. Professor Dodge will act as a mentor to the tutors-he'll be available to help you with lesson plans or to offer suggestions for activities. He has office hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. You can sign up for the program with him and begin the tutoring next week. I'm sure you'll enjoy this community service...and you'll gain valuable experience at the same time. It looks good on your resume, too, showing that you've had experience with children and that you care about your community. If you'd like to sign up, or if you have any questions, stop by Professor Dodge's office this week. Whom do you think the speaker talks to? _ A) Teachers. B) Students. C) Residents. D) Parents.
(Answer)
B
Ques: A man came home from work late, tired, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, how much money do you make each hour?" "If you must know, I make $20 each hour." "Oh," the little boy answered, with his head down. He thought for a moment, looked up and said, "Daddy, could you lend me $10?" The father was _ , "If you asked f or the money to buy a toy or some other rubbish, the go straight to your room and think about why are you so selfish !" The little boy went to his room no words and shut the door. After a short while, the father calmed down, and started to think, "Maybe he really needs to buy something and he didn't really ask for money very often." So he went to the little boy's room. "Sorry!Maybe I was too hard on your just now." said the man, "Here's $10." "Oh, thank you Daddy!" he said happily. Then the boy took out some coins. When the father found that the boy already had money, he got angry again. "Why do you want more money since you already have some?" the father shouted angrily. "Because I didn't have enough, but now I do." The little boy replied, "Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy one hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you. " From the passage, we can infer that the boy's father _ . A) often played with his son B) spent little time with his son C) didn't lovehisson at all D) often camehomeearly
Ans: B
The snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro, famous in literature and beloved by tourists, initially formed some 11,000 years ago, but will be gone in two decades, according to researchers who say the ice fields on Africa's highest mountain shrank by 80 percent in the past century. Lonnie G. Thompson,one professor from Ohio State University, said measurements using modern navigation satellites show that the oldest ice layers on the famous mountain were deposited during an extremely wet period starting about 11,700 years ago.The mountain appears in literature, most notably Ernest Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and some ancient beliefs in Africa hold the mountain to be a sacred place. But a temperature rise in recent years is destroying the 150-foot-high blocks of ice that gave Kilimanjaro its unique white cap."The ice will be gone by about 2030," said Thompson. The disappearing ice already has reduced the amount of water in some Tanzanian rivers and the government fears that when Kilimanjaro is bald of snow the tourists will stop coming. "Kilimanjaro is the number one foreign currency earner for the government of Tanzania," said Thompson. "It has its own international airport and some 20,000 tourists every year. The question is how many will come if there are no ice fields on the mountain." Africa was not alone in the global drought. Thompson said other records show that civilizations during this period collapsed in India, the Middle East and South America. Researchers put markers on the ice field blocks in 1962 and Thompson said measurements using satellites show the summit of the ice has been lowered by about 56 feet in 40 years. The _ of the ice also has moved back more than six feet in the past two years, much smaller than before. "That's more than two meter's worth of ice lost from a wall 164 feet (50 meters) high," said Thompson. "That's an enormous amount of ice." According to Thompson, the disappearing of the snow may mainly influence _ . A) the local water supply B) the local tourism C) the weather in the surrounding areas D) the government foreign currency exchange
B