Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.

“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you’re feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”

Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication—e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations—found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn’t necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most e-mailed” list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.

Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused (激发) one way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”

1.What do the classic rules mentioned in the text apply to?

A. Private e-mails.

B. Research papers.

C. News reports.

D. Daily conversations.

2.What can we infer about people like Debbie Downer?

A. They’re socially inactive.

B. They’re good at telling stories.

C. They’re careful with their words.

D. They’re inconsiderate of others.

3.Which tended to be the most e-mailed according to Dr. Berger’s research?

A. Science articles.

B. Sports news.

C. Personal accounts.

D. Financial reviews.

4.What can be a suitable title for the text?

A. Sad Stories Travel Far and Wide

B. Online News Attracts More People

C. Reading Habits Change with the Times

D. Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks

Dear Mr. Rupp,

The day I met you was the first day of high school. We liked each other immediately. You gave me a lot of advice over the next four years, like how I should get my ass to Berkeley where I belonged. I’m still there, by the way. I wish you were still around, too.

I remember your laugh, which would start with a rough guffaw(狂笑) and end with a hacking smoker’s cough that would make even the most rebellious (叛逆的) teenager decide to lay off the cigarettes. I remember the way you didn’t lower your standards, yet still refused to give up on us. You were tough on us, and we were tough on you. Love is tough sometimes.

The last time I wrote you a letter, it was 2005—four years after I graduated. I had just become a teacher, like you, and it had given me a new appreciation for the work you did with countless high school students over the years.

It’s hard to say what I’ll miss the most about you. There are simply too many memories to sort through those four years, and it hurts to think you’ll never read this letter. I want to believe that you knew how much you meant to your family, your students, your community, and your colleagues, but that would be a lot of realization to handle, even for you.

You changed the lives of everyone around you. Even now, you are reminding me to cherish life and its brevity and beauty, and to tell the people I love how much they mean to me before it is too late.

Dear teacher, dear mentor, and dear friend—I miss you and all that is about you. God bless you in Heaven.

To infinity and beyond,

Teresea

1.What does the underlined phrase “lay off” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

A. likeB. get intoC. give outD. throw away

2.When did the author meet her teacher—Mr. Rupp?

A. In 1997.B. In 2001.C. In 2005.D. In 2009.

3.Why did the author write a letter to her teacher in 2005?

A. She wanted to tell her teacher that she had become a teacher.

B. She had some difficulties in study and needed her teacher’s help.

C. She wanted to be a teacher and needed her teacher’s instruction.

D. She wanted to borrow some books from her teacher.

4.When the author wrote this letter, her teacher—Mr. Rupp was_______.

A. about to dieB. seriously ill

C. deadD. in good shape

Tom goes everywhere with Catherine Green, a 54-year-old secretary. He moves around her office at work and goes shopping with her. "Most people don't seem to mind Tom," says Catherine, who thinks he is wonderful. "He's my fourth child," she says. She may think of him and treat him that way as her son, buying his food, paying his health bills and his taxes, but in fact Tom is a dog.

Catherine and Tom live in Sweden, a country where everyone is expected to lead an orderly life according to rules laid down by the government, which also provides a high level of care for its people. This level of care costs money.

People in Sweden pay taxes on everything, so aren't surprised to find that owning a dog means yet more taxes. Some people are paying as much as 500 Swedish kronor in taxes a year for the right to keep their dog, money that is spent by the government on dog hospitals and sometimes medical treatment for a dog that falls ill. However, most such treatment is expensive, so owners often decide to offer health and even life premium for their dog.

In Sweden dog owners must pay for any damage their dog does. A Swedish Kennel Club official explains what this means: if your dog runs out on the road and gets hit by a passing car you, as the owner, have to pay for any damage done to the car, even if your dog has been killed in the accident.

1.The money paid as dog taxes is used to ________.

A. provide medical care for dogs

B. pay for damage done by dogs

C. keep a high level of care for the people

D. buy insurance for dog owners

2.The underlined world "premium" possibly means ________.

A. entertainment expenseB. medical check

C. payment for risksD. protection fee

3.If a dog causes a car accident and gets killed, who should pay for the damage done to the car?

A. The government.

B. The owner of the car.

C. The insurance company.

D. The owner of the dog.

4.From the text it can be inferred that in Sweden ________.

A. people care much about dogs

B. keeping dogs means asking for trouble

C. many car accidents are caused by dogs

D. dogs are welcome in public places

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