"If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery,a small re?ward like a sticker for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously disliked foods," a UK study said.

  Though it might seem obvious that a reward could encourage young chil?dren to eat their vegetables,the idea was actually controversial,researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "That's because some studies have shown that rewards can backfire and cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked," said Jane Wardle,a researcher at University Col?lege London who worked on the study. Verbal praise,such as "Brilliant!You're a great vegetable taster. ” did not work as well.

  The study found that when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a "tiny taste" of disliked vegetables,it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables— either carrots,celery,cucumber,red peppers,cabbage or sugar snap peas― in laboratory taste tests,the study said.

  Researchers randomly assigned (分派) 173 families to one of these groups. In one,parents used stickers to reward their children each time they took a tiny sample of disliked vegetables. The second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group,where parents used no special vegetablepro?moting methods,served as a "control".

  Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the "target" vegetables every day of 12 days. Soon after,children in the sticker group were giving higher ratings to the vegetables―and were willing to eat more in the re?search lab,going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10        grams af?ter the 12-day experience. The turnaround also seemed to last,with pre?schoolers in the sticker group .still willing to eat more of the once disliked veg?etables three months later.

  Why didn't the verbal praise work? Wardle said the parents' words may have seemed' "insincere" to their children.

1. The purpose of writing the passage is         .

   A. to introduce a practical method of making children eat vegetables

   B. to show the procedure of an experiment on children's diet

   C. to explain why children hate to eat vegetables

   D. to present a proper way of verbal praise to parents

2. The underlined word "backfire" in Paragraph 2 probably means "         ”.

   A. shoot from behind the back

   B. make a fire in the backyard

   C. produce an unexpected result

   D. achieve what was planned

3. How did the researchers get their conclusion from the experiment?

   A. By comparison.

   B. By asking questions.

   C. By giving examples.

   D. By discussion.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

   A. Children like rewards,not verbal praise.

   B. Parents should praise their children in a sincere tone.

   C. Children are difficult to inspire.

   D. Parents should give up verbal praise.

  The future of written English will owe more to Hollywood films than Dickens or Shakespeare,if the findings of a study into children's writing are anything to go by. Researchers who looked at the entries to a national compe?tition found they were increasingly using American words such as garbage,trash can,sidewalk,candy,sneakers,soda,and flashlight.

  The stories,written by pupils aged 7 to 13,show how fairy cakes are re?ferred to as cupcakes and a dinner jacket has become a tuxedo.

  Television also has a powerful influence on children's work,with Lady Gaga and Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi among the famous names from TV cropping up repeatedly.

  But pupils are let down by basic spelling,punctuation and grammar,ac?cording to the study by Oxford University Press (OUP) , which looked at the entries to BBC Radio Two's 500 Words competition.

  Children struggled to correctly spell simple words such as "does" and "clothes" and often failed to use the past tense correctly,frequently writing "rised" instead of "rose" or "thinked" instead of "thought".

  Researchers also found that punctuation was underused,especially semi?colons and speech marks. Some did not know how to use capital letters. How?ever,exclamation marks were overused. Researchers found 35       ,171 examples in total,with some young writers using five at a time !

  Popular US fiction such as the Tvuilight novels and films is thought to be fueling the increasing use of American vocabulary and spelling.Meanwhile,fears that texting was corrupting children's written work were unfounded,they said,with youngsters only using text language when they were referring to a text message.

  Samantha Armstrong from OUP said, "Perhaps we are catching a glimpse of the language of the future. " Chris Evans,whose radio show runs the com?petition,said the results were "fascinating", adding, "Who'd have thought that Messi and Gaga would be some of the most used names?"

1. According to the passage,which of the following is an example of British English?

   A. Sneakers. B. Fairy cakes.

   C. Tuxedo. D. Candy.

2. Which of the following was NOT frequently found in the pupils' stories?

   A. Text message language.

   B. A variety of Americanisms.

   C. Overuse of exclamation marks.

   D. Names of famous TV stars.

3. The underlined word "unfounded" in Paragraph 7 probably means "         ”.

   A. unbearable   B. unnoticeable

   C. not found   D. not based on facts

4. The passage is intended to          .

   A. show that British children have spelling and grammar abilities

   B. share the experience about how to teach written English in a correct way

   C. discuss the noticeable changes and evolution of written English in Britain

   D. criticize the influence of popular US culture on British children's lan?guage use

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