Fast reading 1Food-as-Medicine Movement Is Witnessing ProgressA) Several times a month, you can find a doctor in the aisles of Ralph’s market in Huntington Beach, California, wearing awhite coat and helping people learn about food. On one recent day, this doctor was Daniel Nadeau, wandering the cereal aisle with Allison Scott, giving her some idea on how to feed kids who persistently avoid anything that is healthy. “Have you thought about trying fresh juices in the morning?” he asks her. “The frozen ora nges and apples are a little cheaper, and fruits are really good for the brain. Juices are quick and easy to prepare, you can take the frozen fruit out the night before and have it ready the next morning.”B) Scott is delighted to get food advice from a physician who is program director of the nearby Mary and Dick Allen Diabetes Center, part of the St. Joseph Hoag Health alliance. The center’s “Shop with Your Doc” program sends doctors to the grocery store to meet with any patients who sign up for the service, plus any other shoppers who happen to be around with questions.C) Nadeau notices the pre-made macaroni (通心粉)-and-cheese boxes in Scott’s shopping cart and suggests she switch to whole grain macaroni and real cheese. “So I’d have to make it?”she asks, her enthusiasm fading at the thought of how long that might take, just to have her kids reject it. “I’m not sure they’d eat it. They just won’t eat it.”D) Nadeau says sugar and processed foods are big contributors to the rising diabetes rates among chi ldren. “In America, over50 percent of our food is processed food,” Nadeau tells her. “And only 5 percent of our food is plant-based food. I think we should try to reverse that.” Scott agrees to try more fruit juices for the kids and to make real macaroni and cheese. Score one point for the doctor, zero for diabetes.E) Nadeau is part of a small revolution developing across California. The food-as-medicine movement has been around for decades, but it’s making progress as physicians and medical institutions make food a formal part of treatment, rather than relying solely on medications (药物). By prescribing nutritional changes or launching programs such as ‘Shop with your Doc’, they are trying to prevent, limit or even reverse disease by changing what patients eat. “There’s no question people can take things a long way toward reversing diabetes, reversing high blood pressure, even preventing cancer by food choices,”Nadeau says.F) In the big picture, says Dr. Richard Afable, CEO and president of ST. Joseph Hoag Health, medical institutions across thestate are starting to make a philosophical switch to becoming a health organization, not just a health care organization. That feeling echoes the beliefs of the Therapeutic Food Pantry program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which completed its pilot phase and is about to expand on an ongoing basis to five clinic sites throughout the city. The program will offer patients several bags of food prescribed for their condition, along with intensive traini ng in how to cook it. “We really want to link food and medicine, and not just give away food,” says Dr. Rita Nguyen, the hospital’s medical director of Healthy Food Initiatives. “We want people to understand what they’re eating, how to prepare it, the role food plays in their lives.”G) In Southern California, Loma Linda University School of Medicine is offering specialized training for its resident physiciansin Lifestyle Medicine — that is a formal specialty in using food to treat disease. Research findings increasingly show the power of food to treat or reverse diseases, but that does not mean that diet alone is always the solution, or that every illness can benefit substantially from dietary changes. Nonetheless, physicians say that they look at the collective data and a clear picture emerges: that the salt, sugar, fat and processed foods in the American diet contribute to the nation’s high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, 80 percent of deaths from heart disease and stroke are caused by high blood pressure, tobacco use, elevated cholesterol and low consumption of fruits and vegetables.H) “It’s a different paradigm(范式) of how to treat disease,” says Dr. Brenda Rea, who helps run the family and prev entivemedicine residency program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. The lifestyle medicine specialty is designed to train doctors in how to prevent and treat disease, in part, by changing patients’ nutritional habits. The medical center and school at Loma Linda also has a food cupboard and kitchen for patients. This way, patients not only learn about which foods to buy, but also how to prepare them at home.I) Many people don’t know how to cook, Rea says, and they only know how to heat things up. That means depending onpackaged food with high salt and sugar content. So teaching people about which foods are healthy and how to prepare them, she says, can actually transform a patient’s life. And beyond that, it might transform the health and lives of that patient’s family. “What people eat can be medicine or poison,” Rea says. “As a physician, nutrition is one of the most powerful things you can change to reverse the effects of long-term disease.”J) Studies have explored evidence that dietary changes can slow inflammation(炎症), for example, or make the body inhospitable to cancer cells. In general, many lifestyle medicine physicians recommend a plant-based diet — particularly for people with diabetes or other inflammatory conditions.K) “As what happened with tobacco, this will require a cultural shift, but that can happen,” says Nguyen. “In the same way physicians used to smoke, and then stopped smoking and were able to talk to patients about it, I think physicians can have a bigger voice in it.”36. More than half of the food Americans eat is factory-produced.37. There is a special program that assigns doctors to give advice to shoppers in food stores.38. There is growing evidence from research that food helps patients recover from various illnesses.39. A healthy breakfast can be prepared quickly and easily.40. Training a patient to prepare healthy food can change their life.41. One food-as-medicine program not only prescribes food for treatment but teaches patients how to cook it.42. Scott is not keen on cooking food herself, thinking it would simply be a waste of time.43. Diabetes patients are advised to eat more plant-based food.44. Using food as medicine is no novel idea, but the movement is making headway these days.45. Americans’ high rates of various illnesses result from the way they eat.Fast reading 2The start of high school doesn’t have to be stressfulA）This month, more than 4 million students across the nation will begin high school. Many will do well. But many will not. Consider that nearly two-thirds of students will experience the "ninth-grade shock," which refers to a dramatic drop in a student's academic performance. Some students cope with this shock by avoiding challenges. For instance, they may drop difficult coursework. Others may experience a hopelessness that results in failing their core classes, such as English, science and math.B)This should matter a great deal to parents, teachers and policymakers. Ultimately it should matter to the students themselvesand society at large, because students' experience of transitioning (过渡) to the ninth grade can have long-term consequences not only for the students themselves but for their home communities. We make these observations as research psychologists who have studied how schools and families can help young people thrive.C)In the new global economy, students who fail to finish the ninth grade with passing grades. in college preparatory coursework are very unlikely to graduate on time and go on to get jobs. One study has calculated that the lifetime benefit to the local economy for a single additional student who completes high school is half a million dollars or more. This is based on higher earnings and avoided costs in health care, crime, welfare dependence and other things.D)The consequences of doing poorly in the ninth grade can impact more than students' ability to find a good job. It can also impact the extent to which they enjoy life. Students lose many of the friends they turned to for support when they move from the eighth to the ninth grade. One study of ninth-grade students found that 50 percent of friendships among ninth graders changed from one month to the next, signaling striking instability in friendships.E)In addition, studies find the first year of high school typically shows one of the greatest increases in depression of any year over the lifespan. Researchers think that one explanation is that ties to friends are broken while academic demands are rising. Furthermore, most adult cases of clinical depression first emerge in adolescence (青春期) . The World Health Organization reports that depression has the greatest burden of disease worldwide, in terms of the total cost of treatment and the loss of productivity.F)Given all that's riding on having a successful ninth grade experience, it pays to explore what can be done to meet the academic, social and emotional challenges of the transition to high school. So far, our studies have yielded one main insight: Students' beliefs about change-their beliefs about whether people are stuck one way forever, or whether people can change their personalities and abilities-are related to their ability to cope, succeed academically and maintain good mental health. Past research has called these beliefs "mindsets (思维模式)," with a "fixed mindset" referring to the belief that people cannot change and a "growth mindset" referring to the belief that people can change.G)In one recent study, we examined 360 adolescents' beliefs about the nature of "smartness"-that is, their fixed mindsets about intelligence. We then assessed biological stress responses for students whose grades were dropping by examining their stress hormones (荷尔蒙) . Students who believed that intelligence is fixed-that you are stuck being "not smart" if you struggle in school-showed higher levels of stress hormones when their grades were declining at the beginning of the ninth grade. If students believed that intelligence could improve-that is to say, when they held more of a growth mindset of intelligence-they showed lower levels of stress hormones when their grades were declining. This was an exciting result because it showed that the body's stress responses are not determined solely by one's grades. Instead, declining grades only predicted worse stress hormones among students who believed that worsening grades were a permanent and hopeless state of affairs.H)We also investigated the social side of the high school transition. In this study, instead of teaching students that their smartness can change, we taught them that their social standing-that is, whether they are bullied or excluded or left out-can change over time. We then looked at high school students' stress responses to daily social difficulties. That is, we taught them a growth mindset about their social lives. In this study, students came into the laboratory and were asked to give a public speech in front of upper-year students. The topic of the speech was what makes one popular in high school. Following this, students had to complete a difficult mental math task in front of the same upper-year students.I)Experiment results showed that students who were not taught that people can change showed poor stress responses. When these students gave the speech, their blood vessels contracted and their hearts pumped less blood through the body both responses that the body shows when it is preparing for damage or defeat after a physical threat. Then they gave worse speeches and made more mistakes in math. But when students were taught that people can change, they had better responses to stress, in part because they felt like they had the resources to deal with the demanding situation. Students who got thegrowth mindset intervention (干预) showed less-contracted blood vessels and their hearts pumped more blood-both of which contributed to more oxygen getting to the brain, and, ultimately, better performance on the speech and mental math tasks.J)These findings lead to several possibilities that we are investigating further. First, we are working to replicate (复制) these findings in more diverse school communities. We want to know in which types of schools and for which kinds of students these growth mindset ideas help young people adapt to the challenges of high school. We also hope to learn how teachers, parents or school counselors can help students keep their ongoing academic or social difficulties in perspective. We wonder what would happen if schools helped to make beliefs about the potential for change and improvement a larger feature of the overall school culture, especially for students starting the ninth grade.1.The number of people experiencing depression shows a sharp increase in the first year of high school.2.According to one study, students’ academic performance is not the only decisive factor of their stress response s.3.Researchers would like to explore further how parents and schools can help ninth graders by changing their mindset.4.According to one study, each high school graduate contributes at least 500,000 dollars to the local economy.5.In one study, students were told their social position in school is not unchangeable.6.It is reported that depression results in enormous economic losses worldwide.7.One study showed that friendships among ninth graders were far from stable.8.More than half of students will find their academic performance declining sharply when they enter the ninth grade.9.Researchers found through experiments that students could be taught to respond to stress in more positive way.10.It is beneficial to explore ways to cope with the challenges facing students entering high school.Intensive readingPassage OnePicture this: You’re at a movie theater food stand loading up on snacks. You have a choice of a small, medium or large soda. The small is $3.50 and the large is $5.50. It’s tough decision: The small size may not last yon through the whole movie, but $5.50 for some sugary drink seems ridiculous. But there’s a third option, a medium soda for $5.25. Medium may be the perfect amount of soda for you, but the large is only a quarter more. If you’re like mo st people, you end up buying the large.If you’re wondering who would buy the medium soda, the answer is almost no one. In fact, there’s a good chance the marketing department purposely priced the medium soda as a decoy (诱饵), making you more likely to buy the large soda rather than the small.I have written about this unique human nature before with my friend Ariely, who studied this phenomenon extensively after noticing pricing for subscriptions to Geography. The digital subscription was $59, the print subscription was $125, and the print plus digital subscription was also $125. No one in their right mind would buy the print subscription when you could get digital as well for the same price, so why was it even an option? Ariely ran an experiment and found t hat when only the two “real” choices were offered, more people chose the less-expensive digital subscription. But the addition of the bad option made people much more likely to choose the more expensive print plus digital option.Brain scientist call this effect “asymmetric dominance” and it means that people are attracted toward the choice nearest a clearly inferior option. Marketing professors call it the decoy effect, which is certainly easier to remember. Lucky for consumers, almost no one in the business community understands it.The decoy effect works because of the way our brains assign value when making choices. Value is almost never absolute; rather, we decide an object's value relative to our other choices. If more options are introduced the value equation changes.51.Why does the author ask us to imagine buying food in the movie theater ?A)To illustrate people’s peculiar shopping behavior.B)To illustrate the increasing variety of snacks there.C)To show how hard it can be to choose a drink there.D) To show how popular snacks are among movie fans.52. Why is the medium soda priced the way it is?A)To attract more customers to buy it.B) To show the price matches the amount.C) To ensure customers drink the right amount of soda.D)To make customers believe they are getting a bargain.53. What do we learn from Dan Ariely’s experiment?A)Lower -priced goods attract more customers.B) The Economist's promotional strategy works.C)The Economist's print edition turns out to sell the best.D) More readers choose the digital over the print edition.54. For what purpose is “the bad option(Line 7, Para. 3) added?A)To cater to the peculiar needs of some customers.B)To help customers to make more rational choices.C)To trap customers into buying the more pricey item.D)To provide customers with a greater variety of goods.55. How do we assess the value of a commodity, according to the passage?A)By considering its usefulness.B) By comparing it with other choices.C) By taking its quality into account.D) By examining its value equationPassage TwoBoredom has, paradoxically, become quite interesting to academics lately. In early May, London’s Boring Conference celebrated seven years of delighting in dullness. At this event, people flocked to talks about weather, traffic jams and vending-machine sounds, among other sleep-inducing topics.What, exactly, is everybody studying? One widely accepted psychological definition of boredom is “the distasteful experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity.” But how can you quantify a person’s boredom leveland compare it with someone else’s? In 1986, psychologists introduced the Boredom Proneness Scale, designed to measure an individual’s overall tendency to feel bored. By contrast, the Multidimensional State Boredom scale, developed in 2008, measures a person’s feelings of boredom in a given situation.Boredom has been linked to behavior issues including inattentive driving, mindless snacking, excessive drinking, and addictive gambling. In fact, many of us would choose pain over boredom. One team of psychologists discovered that two-thirds of men and a quarter of women would rather self-administer electric shocks than sit alone with their thoughts for 15 minutes. Researching this phenomenon, another team asked volunteers to watch boring, sad, or neutral films, during which they could self-administer electric shocks. The bored volunteers shocked themselves more and harder than the sad or neutral ones did.But boredom isn’t all bad. By encouraging self-reflection and daydreaming, it can spur creativity. An early study gave participants abundant time to complete problem-solving and word-association exercises. Once all the obvious answers were exhausted, participants gave more and more incentive answers to combat boredom. A British study took these findings one step further, asking subjects to complete a creative challenge (coming up with a list of alternative uses for a household item). One group of subjects did a boring activity first, while the others went straight to the creative task. Those whose boredom pumps had been primed were more productive.In our always-connected world, boredom may be a hard-to-define state, but it is a fertile one. Watch paint dry or water boil, or at least put away your smartphone for a while, and you might unlock your next big idea.46. When are people likely to experience boredom, according to an accepted psychological definition?A) When they don’t have the chance to do what they want.B) When they don’t enjoy the materials they are studying.C) When they experience something unpleasant.D) When they engage in some routine activities.47. What does the author say boredom can lead to?A) Determination B) ConcentrationC) Mental deterioration D) Harmful conduct48. What is the finding of one team of psychologists in their experiment?A) V olunteers prefer watching a boring movie to sitting alone deliberating.B) Many volunteers choose to hurt themselves rather than endure boredom.C) Male volunteers are more immune to the effects of boredom than females.D) Many volunteers are unable to resist boredom longer than fifteen minutes.49. Why does the author say boredom isn’t all bad?A) It stimulates memorization.B) It allows time for relaxation.C) It may promote creative thinking.D) It may facilitate independent learning.50. What does the author suggests one do when faced with a challenging problem?A) Stop idling and think big. B) Unlock one’s smartp hone.C) Look around oneself for stimulation. D) Allow oneself some time to be bored.Section BDirections: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2.How to not be boringA) Humans are creatures of habit. We love to establish a routine and stick with it. Then we often put ourselves on auto-pilot. Routines can be incredibly useful in helping you get things done. However, too much of a routine can also make you incredibly boring. Nevertheless, many people live lives that are boringly predictable, or live a life where everything is outlined or planned.B) To tell the truth, interesting people are more popular among their friends. If you don 't arouse someone's curiosity or brighten someone's day, you probably come across as being a little bit dull. But that doesn't mean your life has ended and you can't do anything to change it. If you find yourself searching for something to say beyond small talk, try these tactics to find more interesting approaches to conversation.C) Recently, I was at a gathering of colleagues when someone turned to me and asked, "So, what's new with you?" Ordinarily, I think I'm a good conversationalist. After all, it's literally my job to talk to people and tell their stories or share their advice. And that's not exactly an unexpected question. Still, the only "new-to-me" topics that came to mind were my daughter's basketball tournament (锦标赛) and my feelings about that morning's political headlines- neither amusing nor appropriate topics at that moment.D) Oh, no, I thought. Have I become boring? But sharing our experiences in an authentic way to connect with other people is what makes us interesting, says associate professor Michael Pirson. The hesitation I felt in not sharing the ordinary things that were happening in my life, and the wild mental search for something more interesting, may have backfired and made me seem less interesting.E) "If someone is making up some conversation that might be interesting, it's probably not going to land well," says Pirson, whose expertise includes trust and well-being, mindfulness, and humanistic management. "It's going to feel like a made-up conversation that people don't necessarily want to tune in to."F) The most interesting people aren't those who 've gone on some Eat, Pray, Love journey to find themselves. Instead, Pirson says, they're those who examine the ordinary. "Often, the 'boring things' may not be boring at all. Maybe they are actually little miracles," he says. Share your observations about the world around you - interesting stories you heard or things you noticed- and you may be surprised by the universal connection they inspire.G) This is essentially how Jessica Hagy starts her day. The author of How to Be Interesting: An Instruction Manual, Hagy spends a lot of time thinking about what's interesting to her. People who are interesting are persistently curious, she says.H) Think about the everyday things around you and ask questions about them. What is that roadside monument I see on my way to work every day? Who built that interesting building in my city? What nearby attractions haven't I visited? Why do people do things that way? Use what you find to ask more questions and learn more about the world around you. "Having thatsort of curiosity is almost like a protective gear from getting into boredom," she says. And when you find things that are truly interesting to you, share them.I) Television veteran Audrey Morrissey, executive producer of NBC's The Voice, is always looking for what will make a person or story interesting to viewers: It's usually a matter of individuality. "Having a strong point of view, signature style, or being a super-enthusiast in a particular field makes someone interesting," she says. That means embracing what is truly interesting or unique about yourself. "Many people are 'not boring' in the way that they can carry a conversation or can be good at a social gathering, etc. To be interesting means that you have lived life, taken risks, traveled, sought out experience to learn for yourself and share with others," she says.J) Of course, it's possible to be a fountain of knowledge and a boring person, says public relations consultant Andrea Pass. Paying attention to the listener is an important part of having a conversation that's interesting to both parties. Talking on and on about what's interesting to you isn't going to make you an interesting person, she says.K) "If the listener is not paying attention, it's your sign to shorten the story or change direction. Make sure to bring the audience into the conversation so that it is not one-sided," Pass says. Be a better listener yourself, and give others opportunities to participate in the conversation by inviting them with questions or requests to share their own experiences or thoughts. (e. g. , "Now, tell me about your favorite book," or "Have you ever been to that attraction?") Questions are a powerful tool, especially when they encourage others to disclose information about themselves. A 2012 study from the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that roughly 40% of the time we are talking, we're disclosing subjective information about our experience. And when we're doing so, our brains are more engaged. So one strategy to leave others with the impression that you 're a sparkling conversation partner is to get others to talk about themselves.L) Being relatable is also essential, Morrissey says. "The best entertainment and storytelling comes from people who are relatable- those who don't shy away from opening up but freely share who they are and what they care about. These are the people viewers most relate to and find interesting. Being authentic, honest, and vulnerable is always interesting."M) I have now come to realize that being boring, in actuality, is not only about who you are as a person, but also how you present yourself. No matter what, make sure you are having fun in life. Because when you are enjoying, people around you will begin to enjoy as well. Show some interest in them and they will definitely show some in you. If you are a very reserved person, this could be a little difficult at first. But with a little effort, you can definitely improve.36. Pirson claims that some ordinary things may often prove to be miraculously interesting.37. To make a conversation interesting, it is important that you listen to the other party attentively.38. A person who is unable to stimulate others' curiosity or make their life enjoyable may appear somewhat boring.39. Interesting people usually possess certain unique qualities, according to a TV program producer.40. Be interested in others and they are sure to be interested in you.41. The author considers himself usually good at conducting conversations.42. Interesting people are always full of curiosity.43. Falling into a routine can tum a person into an utter bore.44. One strategy to be a good conversationalist is to motivate your partner to tell their own stories.45. Interesting as it might appear, a made-up conversation will probably tum out to be dull.。
