People who put a smiley face at the end of a message, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air.
I had some bad news this week. My manager informed me of this news via email. It was like hearing about the death of a loved one via pigeon. Bad news should only ever be delivered face to face or voice to voice.
We seem to celebrate our numerous methods of communication, but really there is no communication at all. I talk to my plants more than I talk to my neighbors, I get text messages that take me three hours to read because they’re written like this: “Hi, I ope you av a gr8 day. Call me La8tr.” I had an email from someone this week that read, “Da ut ov 2day are really annoying me!” Ut? I had to say this 20 times before I understood it. Youth has now become ut. Haven’t we taken enough from them—now we have to take their letters?
I had an email recently from a girl who used to live over the road from me as a child. She wrote, “Hi Shazia, howz u? Im sure u used 2 live across the road from me. We sumtimes played tennis 2 gever at the park and you was in your eliment. I am married now wif 3 daughters.” Then, to my horror, she ended the email with: “Im now teachin in Leeds. Luv Clare.”
Teaching? With English like this. It’s like saying you’re a train driver when you’ve never seen a train. It was like reading modern Morse code.
Getting bad news via email makes it seem so much worse than it actually is. Just a few lines, no emotion, no comfort, not really an explanation. Just a few cold hard words. It’s an excuse. Just write a few words and the problem of delivering it is no longer yours. A close friend recently told me she was very happy to announce she was getting married—and made the announcement by email. I don’t know how she didn’t fall off her chair with excitement while writing it. If you are really happy or really sad to announce something important, wouldn’t you like a human reaction? Some euphoria, elation, tears, a punch in the face?
I receive long text messages every day with information and explanations that I don’t bother reading. They’re boring, and annoy me. In the time it took someone to write me three laborious texts, they could have called, spoken to me, made some tea. People who put a smiley face at the end of a sentence, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air, because that’s the one I’d send back.
The telegram has been responsible for reporting world-shattering events when there were very few other options(选择权). Now we have options, and people opt for the least humane one. My mum, in an attempt to get down with the ut of today, asked me to teach her to text. Now she constantly texts me in block capitals, so it looks as if she is still angry and annoyed with me after all these years.
People don’t even write by hand any more. My doctor prints out prescriptions from his computer; even my mechanic prints out a receipt. I get typed Christmas cards and my friends send me emails. I get very excited when hand-written letters come through my door, only because they rarely do.
When I was at school, the girls used to write letters to each other, even though we sat side by side and spoke to one another all day. I think it was a way of expressing private things we were afraid to say when we were 14 and too shy. We used to write things like, “You are my best friend, can’t wait to sit next to you in math.”
I miss the personal method of communication. Once the pen was mightier than the sword, now it seems the keyboard is mightier than the pen.
【小题1】We can learn from paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 that the writer wants to say ________.

A.the spelling mistakes in the messages make her very annoyed
B.only writing letters will bring friends and neighbors much closer
C.she talks to plants more because no one shares her joys and sorrows
D.gestures and the pen can express a lot more than the cold keyboard
【小题2】According to the writer, which of the following can support her opinion?
A.She has been separated from all his classmates many years.
B.No doctors write prescriptions by hand because of computers.
C.In communication, we should write more letters than send messages.
D.Less shy than school girls, boys rarely write letters to their friends.
【小题3】According to the passage, we can conclude that ________.
A.the writer is a person full of emotions and treasures friendship and affections
B.the writer becomes excited when she gets priceless gifts from other people
C.her classmates would write to each other because they couldn’t send messages
D.people put a smiley face at the end of a message just to show they are happy
【小题4】What message is conveyed in the passage?
A.The writer wastes much time in reading many rubbish text messages every day.
B.Few people can write letters well in modern society owing to texting messages.
C.Now people are too busy to communicate with each other face to face often.
D.The writer prefers personal communication rather than electronic equipment.
【小题5】Why does the writer mention the telegram?
A.Because she thinks the annoyance of reading text messages is originated from it.
B.Because we have more options to keep in touch with each other than ever before.
C.Because advanced technology partly takes the blame for lacking the human touch.
D.Because she thinks humans today become colder with the development of society.
【小题6】Which of the following best describe the tone of this passage?
A.Optimistic.B.Critic.C.Sympathetic.D.Pessimistic.

 

The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.

A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(照射) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.

While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.

The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.

"Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. " "I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."

Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. "These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.

1.The underlined word “alleviate” in the fifth paragraph probably means “_________”.

A. cure                B. ease                         C. improve              D. kill

2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?

  A. 4.                     B. 5.                              C. 6.                                       D. 7.

3.Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso’s?

  A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely .

  B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.

  C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.

D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.

4.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?

  A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.             

B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.

  C. More research should be done in the field.          

D. Latest environmental research.  

 

We hear with our ears, right? Yes, but scientists have known for years that we also hear with our eyes. In a study published in 1976, researchers found that people combined both auditory cues(听力提示) and visual ones,like mouth and face movements, when they heard speech.

A new study that looks at a different set of sensory cues adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests such combination is natural. In a paper, Bryan Gick and Donald Derrick report that people can hear with their skin.

The researchers had volunteers listen to spoken syllables. Meanwhile, they connected the volunteers to a device that would blow a tiny puff (气流) of air onto the skin of their hands or necks. The syllables included “ba” and “pa”, which produce brief puffs from the mouth when spoken, and “da” and “ta,” which do not produce puffs. They found that when listeners heard “da” or “ta” while a puff of air was blown onto their skin, they considered the sounds as “ba” or “pa”.

Dr. Gick said the findings were similar to those from the 1976 study, in which visual cues defeated auditory ones — volunteers listened to one syllable but thought it another because they were watching a video of mouth movements corresponding to the second syllable. In his study,he said,cues from sensory receivers on the skin defeated the ears as well. “Our skin is doing the hearing for us,” he said.

Dr. Gick noted that it would normally be rare that someone actually sensed a puff of air produced by another, although people might occasionally sense their own puffs. “What’s so persuasive about this particular effect,” he added. “is that people are picking up on this information that they don’t know they are using.” That supports the idea that combining different sensory cues is natural.

Dr. Gick said the finding also suggested that other sensory cues might be at work in speech perception(知觉) — that, as he put it, “we are these fantastic perception machines that take in all the information available to us and combine it faultlessly.”

1.“Da” or “ta” were considered as “ba” or “pa” when __________.

A. they were spoken quickly

B. puffs of air were blown onto the listener’s skin

C. they were pronounced using a special device

D. they were made with face movements

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Humans combine different sensory cues through experience.

B. Dr. Gick’s new study is more important than the one in 1976.

C. People sometimes can sense their own puffs when speaking

D. Only auditory and visual cues are at work in speech perception.

3.What is the best title of the text?

A. We Can Hear with Our Skin

B. Our Visual Cues Is Doing the Hearing for Us

C. Facial Expressions Are Important

D. We Are Fantastic Machines

 

The research carried out by the University of Bad in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.

     A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology

Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered

most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as

Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(????) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were

viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings

or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced resoonse to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.

      While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients,Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.

      The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that

beaufiful surroundings could aid the healing process.

      "Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist."Beauty boyiously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."

      Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero." These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.

1.The underlined word "alleviate" in the fifth paragraph probably means"______".

    A.cure                 B.ease             C.improve             D.kill

2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?                     

    A. 4.                  B. 5.              C. 6.                 D. 7.

3. Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso's?

   A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely.

   B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.

   C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.

   D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.

4.From the last paragraph, we know that_______.

   A. some artists' paintings were beautiful, so they were masterpieces

   B. only art experts could judge they were masterpieces or not, though ugly

   C. the artists mentioned above were not really art masters.          

   D. some of them were art masters, while others were not.

5.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?

   A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.              

   B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.

   C. More research should be done in he field.             

   D. Latest environmental research.

 

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