题目内容
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We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively(被动地). We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.
We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor(谣言).
Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.
That’s what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping(打上标记)it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.
This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be re-stated as fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.
【小题1】According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______.
A.doing a medical experiment | B.solving a math problem |
C.visiting an exhibition | D.doing scientific reasoning |
A.active learning | B.knowledge | C.communication | D.passive learning |
A.a message may be changed when being passed on |
B.a message should be delivered in different ways |
C.people may have problems with their sense of hearing |
D.people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor |
A.Active learning is less important. | B.Passive learning may not be reliable. |
C.Active learning occurs more frequently. | |
D.Passive learning is not found among scholars. |
For shopoholics, the post-Christmas period means only one thing ---- sales! Across the country, prices are reducing sharply on clothing, electronics and home furniture, but London is the place for serious shopping, and you can certainly pick up some amazing bargains.
The sales start on Boxing Day — 26th December, and continue for the month of January, but the keenest bargain hunters get there early to be first through the doors. In Oxford Street queues formed outside shops ahead of before-dawn openings for the start of their sales. At Brent Cross, in north London, more than 1,000 people were queuing at 3.30 am for the ‘Next’ clothing store’s sale which began at 4 am. Some eager individuals even camped outside the shops to be first in the line.
Consumers who hit the shops were rewarded with discounts of as much as 80% as department stores joined the bargain sales. The shops are very crowded as the sales reached the boiling-point, with more than half a million people gathering on London’s West End.
Famous sales include the biggest, most popular shops such as Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty and John Lewis. Department stores are always a good bet — you’re likely to find everything you need under one roof, including much-needed food and drinks!
It’s a good time to stock up on cheap small tools, and there’s no better time to invest in some designer clothes.
Some people are taking their partners shopping with them, and buying their Christmas presents in the sale----a practical but unromantic way of making sure you get the gift you really want. For a less exciting but less stressful shopping experience, online sellers are also getting in on the act with January sales of their own.
The most organized of all are those who are already doing their present shopping for next Christmas, in the January sales!
1.In the sales, people can buy, at a very low price, all of the following except ______.
A.fashionable clothing |
B.bestseller |
C.TV sets |
D.bookcases |
2. We can learn from the passage that the sales ______.
A.actually start before the end of December |
B.generally last for two months |
C.basically benefit none of the people |
D.are a time to buy Christmas gifts in a romantic way |
3.“Hit the shops” in the third paragraph means to ______.
A.attack the shops |
B.arrive at the shops |
C.affect the shops |
D.find the shops |
4. What is the best title for this passage?
A.January Sales |
B.Sales in London at Christmas |
C.Practical but Unromantic Shopping |
D.Shopping under One Roof |