Have you thanked your grandma today? You might want to consider it. A recent study found that kids live longer when a grandmother takes part in their daily lives.
Most animals die soon after their childbearing years are over. Women, however, often live for many years after they stop having kids.
 To try to understand why, researchers from Finland looked at birth and death records of two communities from the 18th and 19th centuries, one in Finland and one in Canada. In these communities, 537 Finnish women and 3,290 Canadian women were grandmothers who had lived past the age of 50.
For every decade they lived beyond 50, the researchers found that the women ended up with an average of two extra grandkids. It didn’t matter what the differences in health or living conditions were between the two communities or from family to family.
Grandchildren were also more likely to live into adulthood if their grandmothers were alive when they were born. If their grandmothers were younger than 60 at the time, that was even better. The study also found that women had children 2 to 3 years earlier if their own mothers were still alive at that time than those whose mothers had died.
The researchers suggested that grandmothers have provided important assistance in raising their grandchildren for at least the past 200,000 years. As a result, they helped extend everyone’s lifespan.
So, don’t take your grandma for granted!
【小题1】How many women in the survey in the two communities were grandmothers who had lived past the age of 50?

A.537.B.3,290.C.3,827.D.2,753.
【小题2】According to the passage, what influence did it have on a woman if her mother was still alive?
A.She was also more likely to live into adulthood.
B.She had children 2 to 3 years earlier.
C.She ended up with an average of two extra grandkids.
D.It had no influence on her.
【小题3】How did grandmothers help extend everyone’s lifespan?
A.They provided them with better living conditions.
B.They provided assistance in raising their grandchildren.
C.They helped with housework.
D.They made everyone happy.
【小题4】According to the passage, we don’t know that _______.
A.kids live longer when grandmothers take part in their daily lives
B.most animals die soon after their childbearing years are over
C.women often live for many years after they stop having kids
D.grandchildren are less likely to live into adulthood if their grandmothers are alive

We’ve considered several ways of paying to cut in linehiring line standersbuying tickets from scalpers (票贩子)or purchasing line?cutting privileges directly fromsayan airline or an amusement park.Each of these deals replaces the morals of the queue (waiting your turn) with the morals of the market (paying a price for faster service)

Markets and queues—paying and waiting—are two different ways of allocating thingsand each is appropriate to different activities.The morals of the queue“First comefirst served”have an egalitarian(平等主义的) appeal.They tell us to ignore privilegepowerand deep pockets.

The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus stops.But the morals of the queue do not govern all occasions.If I put my house up for saleI have no duty to accept the first offer that comes alongsimply because it’s the first.Selling my house and waiting for a bus are different activitiesproperly governed by different standards.

Sometimes standards changeand it is unclear which principle should apply.Think of the recorded message you hearplayed over and overas you wait on hold when calling your bank“Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.”This is essential for the morals of the queue.It’s as if the company is trying to ease our impatience with fairness.

But don’t take the recorded message too seriously.Todaysome people’s calls are answered faster than others.Call center technology enables companies to“score”incomings calls and to give faster service to those that come from rich places.You might call this telephonic queue jumping.

Of coursemarkets and queues are not the only ways of allocating things.Some goods we distribute by meritothers by needstill others by chance.Howeverthe tendency of markets to replace queuesand other non?market ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we scarcely notice it anymore.It is striking that most of the paid queue?jumping schemes we’ve considered—at airports and amusement parksin call centersdoctors’officesand national parks—are recent developmentsscarcely imaginable three decades ago.The disappearance of the queues in these places may seem an unusual concernbut these are not the only places that markets have entered.

1.According to the authorwhich of the following seems governed by the principle“First comefirst served”

ATaking buses.

BBuying houses.

CFlying with an airline.

DVisiting amusement parks.

2.The example of the recorded message in Paragraphs 4 and 5 illustrates________.

Athe necessity of patience in queuing

Bthe advantage of modern technology

Cthe uncertainty of allocation principle

Dthe fairness of telephonic services

3.The passage is meant to________.

Ajustify paying for faster services

Bdiscuss the morals of allocating things

Canalyze the reason for standing in line

Dcriticize the behavior of queue jumping

 

American is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while—then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

   Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

   Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine (常规). They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

   For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

1.The writer of this passage must be ___________.

A. an American      B. a Chinese      C. a professor      D. a student

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their family.

B. Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C. Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D. Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be _________________.

A. warmly welcomed at the airport      B. offered a ride to his home

C. treated hospitably at his home      D. treated to dinner in a restaurant

4.From the underlined sentence, we can know the Chinese people __________.

A. are strict with time           B. don’t take time seriously

C. don’t know how to use time    D. are willing to spend time for friends

5.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “________________”.

A. Friendships between Chinese

B. Friendships between Americans

C. Americans’hospitality

D. Americans’and Chinese’s views of friendship

 

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