Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. We go fishing, sit in the garden, have a picnic, live in the suburbs or go to the seaside. The most popular leisure activity in Britain is going for a walk. When joggers jog, they don’t run the streets. Every one of them tend to go to the park or the river.

But despite this, our children are growing up nature deprived (剥夺). I spent my boyhood climbing trees. These days, children are robbed of these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and strange new ideas about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.

The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the US: families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD—attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (多动症). Those whose accommodation had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.

ADHD is one of the great problems of modern childhood. One study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.

The life of old people is measurably better when they have access to nature. The increasing concern for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality. Even problems with crime and aggressive behavior are reduced when there is contact with the natural world.

We need the wild world. It is essential to our well-being, our health and our happiness.

1.According to the author, people enjoy ________ to seek nature.

A. jogging on the street

B. sitting in the garden

C. shopping in the supermarket

D. running in the gym

2.From the second paragraph, we can see that ________.

A. adults deprive the children of their rights to approach nature

B. climbing trees will certainly do good to the children

C. children probably spend less time in nature nowadays

D. children tend to be happier as a result of their material satisfaction

3.In what way do people benefit from their contact with nature?

A. Children with ADHD can be cured.

B.A garden nearby improves the quality of old people’s life.

C. Problems with crime and violent behavior will easily be solved.

D. Children’s performance at school is greatly improved.

4.What is the main idea of this passage?

A. Access to nature improves our life.

B. Nature treats children with ADHD.

C. Getting close to nature reduces crime.

D. Man can’t live without natural areas.

The malls were filled with people seeking gifts for their loved ones. Some of the malls remained open around the clock, partly to satisfy our needs to buy gifts.

Behind the materialistic aspect of shopping for gifts lies the idea of caring, being attentive to the desires of special people in our lives. However, to use a well-worn play on words: it is our presence, not our presents, that truly counts. Many of us, unfortunately, can be so inattentive, even in the presence of our loved ones, that we might as well not be there at all.

Attention is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other. Companies around the globe spend billions every year on advertising to catch our attention for just a short moment at a time. Whole industries — media, entertainment, education — rely on the precious gift of our attention for their continued existence. A baby lacking attention for a long time is likely to be psychologically unhealthy.

In earlier times, both diet and attention could be left unregulated (没人管的) without major cause for concern. There were natural checks and balances: limited availability of food meant few got fat, for example. Similarly, in bygone times we might have spent a few hours communicating with the village storyteller; today, watching an entire TV series, while speaking to nobody, is common. In traditional societies, with smaller population, everyone would get a fair deal of attention. On many issues we might go to see Grandma or Grandpa; now we have Google and Wikipedia.

“She just wants attention.” people tend to think little of those doing things simply for attention. But the truth is that human beings need attention, and giving attention to each other is, to a large extent, what human civilization is based upon. This perhaps explains the runaway success of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. While we use such sites for “micro Hogging”, “idea voicing” and “status updates” — the reality is that we are often doing no more or less than fulfilling our basic human drive for attention exchange.

I friend you, you friend me, I retweet you, you retweet me. The charming ease with which we can now get and give attention is why many people appear overly attached to their smart phones. It is also a vicious (恶性的) circle. As ever more people are busy exchanging attention online, there is increasingly less attention to be paid in the real world, which forces more people to seek their attention exchange online, or else risk attention-starvation.

The very nature of attention exchange is being rapidly transformed, and there is a danger that some of us will develop unhealthy practices. Just as eating red meat every day is a bad idea, so it is with too much attention exchange. The biological consequences of our technological advancement in food production are highly visible; heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The consequences of our transformed attention exchanges will be psychological and social, and so may take longer to identify, but they will be equally damaging.

Face-to-face attention is becoming rarer, and therefore more valuable. In a sense it is priceless. And it is a gift that can be given all-year-round.

1.People use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to __________.

A. obtain information

B. give attention to others

C. voice their opinions

D. notice and get noticed

2.What can we infer from Paragraphs 6-7?

A. More people will risk attention-starvation in future.

B. The nature of attention exchange is rarely changed.

C. Technological advancement contributes to all diseases.

D. Transformed attention exchanges do harm to society.

3.The writer’s purpose for writing the passage is to __________.

A. advocate more focus on real life attention

B. analyze the necessity of attention giving

C. give practical tips on attention exchange

D. recommend some social networking sites

完形填空

阅读下面短文,掌握其大意,然后从1--20各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳的选项,并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。

Some people are just born to be failures. That’s the way some adults look at ______ kids. Maybe you've heard the saying, “A bird with a ______ wing will never fly as high.” I'm sure that T. J. Ware was made to ______ this way almost every day. At high school, T. J. was the best-known troublemaker in his town. He was a silent boy, didn’t answer questions and often ______ .

I met T. J. for the first time at an activity aimed at getting students more involved in community charity. When I ______, the community leaders ______ me that T.J. had the longest arrest(拘留) record in the history of town. Actually, I wasn’t the first to hear about T.J.’s darker side as the first words of ______ .

At the start of the activity, T. J. was just ______ outside the circle of students, against the back wall, with a(n) ______ look on his face. He didn’t readily join the discussion groups, and didn’t seem to have much to say. But gradually, the interactive games ______ him in. T. J. shared his great thoughts on ______ . The other students ______ his ideas and were impressed with his passion for helping those in need. ______ , they elected T. J. co-chairman of the group.

After the activity, T. J. started showing up at school and being active in class, which none of his teachers expected. More ______ , two weeks later, T. J. led a group of 70 students in a drive to collect ______ . They collected a school______ : 2,854 cans of food in just two hours, (the shortest time in the history of town) enough to take care of ______ families in the area for 75 days.

T. J. reminds us that a bird with a broken wing only needs ______ . Once it has ______ , it can fly higher than the rest. Now T. J. is ______ quite nicely as a chairman of a nationwide charity organization.

1.A. failed B. troublesome C. annoyed D. worried

2.A. single B. faulty C. burden D. broken

3.A. think B. walk C. feel D. struggle

4.A. fought B. drove C. challenged D. laughed

5.A. looked up B. stood up C. finished up D. turned up

6.A. warned B. suggested C. reminded D. reached

7.A.explanation B. communication C. introduction D.instruction

8.A. standing B. laughing C. hiding D. wandering

9.A. worried B. interested C. indifferent D. puzzled

10.A. allowed B. showed C. drew D. put

11.A. games B. concerns C. school D. charity

12.A. ignored B. welcomed C. doubted D. misunderstood

13.A. However B. Besides C. Anyway D. Therefore

14.A. importantly B. surprisingly C. luckily D. popularly

15.A. money B. rubbish C. cans D. food

16.A. restaurant B. record C. yard D. term

17.A. needy B. lonely C. friendly D. likely

18.A. persuading B. mending C. observing D. teaching

19.A. healed B. noticed C. appeared D. changed

20.A. behaving B. growing C. flying D. achieving

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