The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a blackboard is a thing of the past. With the coming of new technologies like computers and smartphone, writing by hand has become something of nostalgic (怀旧的)skill. However, while today’s educators are using more and more technology in their teaching, many believe basic handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful---both in school and in life.

Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says it’s important to continue teaching handwriting and help children acquire the skill of writing by hand.

Berninger and her colleagues conducted a study that looked at the ability of students to complete various writing tasks---both on a computer and by hand. The study, published in 2009, found that when writing with a pen and paper, participants wrote longer essays and more complete sentences and had a faster word production rate.

In a more recent study, Berninger looked at what role spelling plays in a student’s writing skills and found that how well children spell is tied to know well they can write. “Spelling makes some of the thinking parts of the brain active which helps us access our vocabulary, word meaning and concepts. It is allowing our written language to connect with ideas.” Berninger said.

Spelling helps students translate ideas into words in their mind first and then to transcribe “those words in the mind written symbols on paper or keyboard and screen,” the study said. Seeing the words in the “mind’s eye” helps children not only to turn their ideas into words, says Berninger, but also to spot spelling mistakes when they write the words down and to correct then over time.

“In our computer age, some people believe that we don’t have to teach spelling because we have spell checks,” she said. “But until a child has a functional spelling ability of about a fifth grade level, they won’t have the knowledge to choose the correct spelling among the options given by the computer.”

1.What makes writing by hand a thing of the past?

A. The absence of blackboard in classroom

B. The use of new technologies in teaching.

C. The lack of practice in handwriting.

D. The popular use of smartphones.

2.Berninger’s study published in 2009 ___________.

A. focused on the difference between writing by hand and on a computer.

B. indicated that students prefer to write with a pen and paper.

C. found that good essays are made up of long sentences.

D. discussed the importance of writing speed.

3.Which of the following best shows the role of spelling?

A. Spelling improves one’s memory of words.

B. Spelling ability is closely related to writing ability.

C. Spelling benefits the translation from words into ideas.

D. Spelling slows down finding exact words to express ideas.

4.What does “mind’s eye” in paragraph 5 mean?

A. Window. B. Soul

C. Picture. D. Imagination.

5.What conclusion could be drawn from the passage?

A. Computers can help people with their choice of words.

B. Spell checks can take the place of spelling teaching.

C. Handwriting still has a place in today’s classrooms.

D. Functional spelling ability develops fast in the fifth grade.

Lights Out at Bedtime

There are plenty of good reasons to power up a personal desktop or laptop computer in the evening — writing e-mails, chatting on social networks or making purchases over the Internet, for instance. But various studies indicate that people who stare at a PC’s bright monitor shortly before going to bed probably sleep less soundly than they would otherwise because the light seriously affects their natural wake-sleep cycle."They haven't proved it though," says Dieter Kunz, the team's director at Charite's Psychiatric Clinic in St. Hedwig's Hospital in Berlin.

Similarly, exposure to just 10 minutes of normal bathroom lighting is enough to free the sleep hormone melatonin, which regulates people's natural wake-sleep cycle and makes them sleepy at nightfall.

Ten years ago, a team of British and American researchers detected a photo-pigment(光敏色素) in the human eye that signals to the body whether it is day or night, summer or winter. The photo-pigment is especially sensitive to blue light.

"The blue light more or less tells the body, It's daytime, be awake,'" Kunz says. Monitors have a mostly cold white light content and scientists suspect the photo-pigment may react similarly to it. So the longer people look into the bright light, the more awake they become - and then sleep poorly.

A lot of people have difficulty "switching off" in the evening. About half of the women in Germany and a quarter of the men sleep poorly.

Environmental factors are only one of the possible causes. Job stress as well as personal and health concerns are also the main reasons for their sleep problems.

In addition, electronic objects' standby lights and indicator lamps can be annoying in the dark and affect sleep."Sound scientific evidence is still lacking on this matter," Kunz notes.

According to Kunz, those who cannot go without their computer in the evening should turn down the blue content if possible and lower the brightness somewhat."But nobody does that because, after all, you want to concentrate while working at the computer and the light helps the brain."

1.The passage is mainly about ____________.

A. natural wake-up cycles

B. the effect of light on sleep

C. personal and health concerns

D. functions of computer monitors

2.The underlined word “which” in Paragraph 2 refers to_____.

A. normal bathroom lighting

B. 10-minute exposure to lighting

C. the release process of a chemical

D. a chemical affecting one’s sleep cycle

3.We can learn from the passage that ______.

A. the blue light has a calming effect.

B. the photo-pigment tells people day or night

C. women in Germany use computers more often than men

D. it has been proved that standby lights affect people’s sleep

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