Does handwriting matter? Not very much, according to many educators. However, scientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting is not important. New evidence suggests that the link between handwriting and educational development is deep. Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they are also better able to create ideas and remember information. In other words, it's not only what we write that matters -- but how. A study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, gave support to _ . A group of children, who had not learned to read and write, were offered a letter or a shape on a card and asked to copy it in one of three ways: draw the image on a page but with a dotted outline , draw it on a piece of blank white paper, or type it on a computer. Then the researchers put the children in a brain scanner and showed them the image again. It was found that when children had drawn a letter freehand without a dotted outline or a computer, the activity in three areas of the brain were increased. These three areas work actively in adults when they read and write. By contrast, children who chose the other two ways showed no such effect. Dr. James attributes the differences to the process of free handwriting: Not only must we first plan and take action in a way but we are also likely to produce a result that is variable. Those are not necessary when we have an outline. It's time for educators to change their mind and pay more attention to children's handwriting. Which is NOT the children's task in the experiment? A) Copy the image on a page but with a dotted outline. B) Draw the image on a piece of blank white paper. C) Type the image directly on a computer. D) Put a brain scanner and show the image again.
D
Humans are well-equipped for life on Earth. But in space, it is different. Low or _ changes how the blood flows and causes motion sickness, muscle loss and tiredness. Weightlessness can also cause bone loss. But scientists are experimenting with little worms to better understand how space travel affects astronauts. The millimeter-long worm is called C. elegans. The see-through worm is often used in medical studies because its life is only about two weeks long. Seventy percent of its DNA is the same as human DNA. Sabanayagam is a scientist, who built a micro-gravity simulator to test how C. elegans would perform in the actual zero gravity of space. Scientists put the worms into the simiulator full of water. After a week they take out the worms. They look for changes in the worms' epigenome,which are chemical markers that tell the DNA in the cells how to perform. The epigenome can be changed by the environment. And those changes pass from one generation of worms to the next. "When the worms are in a liquid environment, some epigenomic marks remain even when we take the animal out of the liquid environment and put it back into normal ground conditions. So its offspring keeps this epigenomic memory of the parents' liquid environment or microgravity environment." The information the scientists have gathered suggests that the epigenomic marks appear during the early part of a worm's life. Mr. Sabanayagam says he thinks scientists can find genes in the human similar to those in the worms that responded to microgravity and scientists could possibly observe those genes closely when astronauts travel in space. Sabanayagam expects C. elegans to visit the International Space Station within two years. He says he hopes information gathered from the worm studies can be used to develop simple, low-cost and quick tests to measure an astronaut's health. Which section of a newspaper can you find the passage? A) Education. B) Science. C) Advertisement. D) Entertainment.
B
Q: A man once had a dream about the Black Forest in Germany. In his dream he was walking in the forest when two men ran out and tried to throw him to the ground. He ran off as fast as he could, but they followed him. He reached a place where he saw two roads in front of him, one to the right and the other to the left. Which road should he take? He heard the two men behind him, getting nearer, and at the same time he heard a voice in his ear. It told him to go to the right, and he did so. He ran on and soon came to a small hotel. He was received there kindly and given a room, and he was saved from the two men. That was the dream. Twenty years later he was really in the Black Forest and, as happened in the dream long ago, two men ran out and tried to throw him down. He ran off, and came to a place with two roads, like in the dream. He took the road to the right without thinking. He soon reached a small hotel, was taken in, and so was safe. His dream of twenty years before had saved his life. The story tells us that _ . A) the man knew something about The Black Forest before he went there B) the man had a good memory but bad luck C) people should not believe their dreams because they never come true D) people should believe dreams because they always can save their lives
A: A
Q: Many rural areas in the United States have no doctor. Some medical schools are trying different ways to treat the problem . One idea is to educate doctors in smaller communities and hope they stay. Dr. William Cathcart-Rake heads a new program at the University of Kansas in the Midwest. "We need more doctors. There's somewhere like a quarter of all of our physicians in Kansas who are sixty years of age or older. So we need to be replacing physicians, too."Says Dr. William Cathcart. He also says medical students from rural areas now typically study in Wichita or Kansas City, two of the biggest cities in Kansas. They say, "You know, I really have every intention of coming back to rural Kansas,"but they meet a soul mate, they get married, their soul mate happens to be from a big city and we never see them again. They get captured in the big city. Hopefully, if we train them in smaller communities, they can meet the future _ here , they can network here, and they have those connections which can hopefully be lifelong. The program is based in Kansas' tenth largest city , Salina, home to about fifty thousand people. Salina is about a three-hour drive from Kansas City, past fields of corn, soybeans and cattle. Student Claire Hinrichsen grew up in a town of about six hundred people. She attended the University of Kansas, or KU, as an undergraduate. One reason why the chose the Salina program is because of the size. There are only eight students--the smallest medical school in the country. Classes are taught by professors in Salina or on a video link from Kansas City or Wichita. Students who complete the four year program will then do their residency training in a small community in the surrounding area. One place a resident might work is the Clay Center Clinic, where Dr. Kerry Murphy is a family physician. Rural doctors generally serve older, poorer patients. Going into a specialty in a big city can mean better working hours and more money to pay off student loans. The Salina program will pay tuition for each year... What is the purpose of the passage? A) To make it known that it lacks doctors very much in rural Kansas. B) To introduce a program handling the lack of doctors in rural Kansas. C) To train students to become doctors for rural Kansas. D) To meet the demands of doctors for many rural towns in Kansas.
A: B