Exercise seems to be good for the human brain,with many recent studies suggesting that regular exercise improves memory and thinking skills.But an interesting new study asks whether the apparent cognitive benefits from exercise are real or just a placebo effect — that is,if we think we will be “smarter” after exercise,do our brains respond accordingly?The answer has significant implications for any of us hoping to use exercise to keep our minds sharp throughout our lives.

While many studies suggest that exercise may have cognitive benefits,recently some scientists have begun to question whether the apparently beneficial effects of exercise on thinking might be a placebo effect.So researchers at Florida State University in Tallahassee and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign decided to focus on expectations,on what people anticipate that exercise will do for thinking.If people’s expectations jibe (吻合) closely with the actual benefits,then at least some of those improvements are probably a result of the placebo effect and not of exercise.

For the new study,which was published last month in PLOS One,the researchers recruited 171 people through an online survey system,they asked half of these volunteers to estimate by how much a stretching and toning regimens (拉伸运动) performed three times a week might improve various measures of thinking.The other volunteers were asked the same questions,but about a regular walking program.

In actual experiments,stretching and toning program generally have little if any impact on people’s cognitive skills.Walking,on the other hand,seems to substantially improve thinking ability.

But the survey respondents believed the opposite,estimating that the stretching and toning program would be more beneficial for the mind than walking.The estimates of benefits from walking were lower.

These data,while they do not involve any actual exercise,are good news for people who do exercise.“The results from our study suggest that the benefits of aerobic exercise are not a placebo effect,” said Cary Stothart,a graduate student in cognitive psychology at Florida State University,who led the study.

If expectations had been driving the improvements in cognition seen in studies after exercise,Mr.Stothart said,then people should have expected walking to be more beneficial for thinking than stretching.They didn’t,implying that the changes in the brain and thinking after exercise are physiologically genuine.

The findings are strong enough to suggest that exercise really does change the brain and may,in the process,improve thinking,Mr.Stothart said.That conclusion should encourage scientists to look even more closely into how,at a molecular level,exercise remodels the human brain,he said.It also should encourage the rest of us to move,since the benefits are,it seems,not imaginary,even if they are in our head.

1.Which of the following about the placebo effect is TRUE according to the passage?

A.It occurs during exercise.

B.It has cognitive benefits.

C.It is just a mental reaction.

D.It is a physiological response.

2.Why did the researchers at the two universities conduct the research?

A.To discover the placebo effect in the exercise.

B.To prove the previous studies have a big drawback.

C.To test whether exercise can really improve cognition.

D.To encourage more scientists to get involved in the research.

3.What can we know about the research Cary Stothart and his team carried out?

A.They employed 171 people to take part in the actual exercise.

B.The result of the research removed the recent doubt of some scientists.

C.The participants thought walking had a greater impact on thinking ability.

D.Their conclusion drives scientists to do research on the placebo effect.

4.What might be the best title for the passage?

A.Is it necessary for us to take exercise?

B.How should people exercise properly?

C.What makes us smarter during exercise?

D.Does exercise really make us smarter?

Delta College starts Street Fair

San Joaquin Delta College will introduce its new Summer Street Fair, which runs from noon to 8 p. m every Friday stating this week through Aug. 9 in Delta’s L-l parking lot near Pacific Avenue and March Lane. The fair goes with Delta’s weekend flea market.

This week’s featured performers are guitarist Travis Matsumoto from noon to 3 p.m., and Julio and his Jazz Trio from 3 to 6 p.m.

Lode Farmers Market opens

The Angels Camp Certified Farmers Market begins its yearly run from 5 p.m. to dusk this Friday in Utica Park in downtown Angels Camp. Opening night will feature wine tasting from award-winning Four Winds Cellars, and live music by guitarist Nicholas Leffler. Visitors will find fresh, locally grown produce and specialty foods. There will also be barbecue and California-

Mexican fusion cuisine.

Join River Rafting for a good cause

Whitewater enthusiasts can participate in Mokelumne Rive, Rafting Adventures on June 16 in Mokelumne Hill. Local outfitter O.A.R.S. is donating its services to help with the event. Departures are at 8 a.m., noon, or 4 p.m. The trip should last about three hours.

The trip is appropriate for those 7 and older, and the ability to swim is not required. The cost is $ 70 per person.

Films center on paddling water

The festival is an annual contest that awards winning films that focus on paddling in rivers, lakes and oceans in a variety of locales. Tickets to the film festival are $12 in advance and $15 at the door, and are also available online at

ticketriver.com/event/7002-reel-paddling-film-festival.

The evening also includes a drawing. Prizes include whitewater trips on the South Fork of the American River.

1.If you want to go to the Summer Street Fair, .

A. you must be a student from Delta College

B. you can go there on the afternoon of Friday

C. you should live near the Pacific Avenue

D. you must give a performance in the market

2.If you want to enjoy the tasty foods, you can go to____.

A. the new Summer Street Fair of Delta College

B. Lode Farmers Market

C. Mokelumne River Rafting Adventures

D. the film festival centering on paddling water

3.If you are interested in paddling in rivers.

A. you can know all the American rivers

B. you must try hard to get many prizes

C. you can get tickets from a website

D. you must keep silent in the evening

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Relax during a job interview

Few people actually like job interviewing. It’s nerve-wracking(摧残神经的) trying to show your “best” self to a perfect stranger. 1. That’s not easy. But there are some ways to pull yourself together and feel more confident.

Prepare solid talking points. It’s always best to over-prepare for possible questions by not only researching the company and the person interviewing you, but also by preparing answers and practicing those responses. Review the skills and experiences requested in the job announcement and have two to three examples how you have demonstrated each one. 2.

Remember: It’s a two-way street. This is conversation, not an interrogation(审问). 3. Remembering that this is a back and forth discussion, where you can and should ask questions as well as answer them, can help you feel more comfortable.

Just breathe. 4.Your body will relax lot. You want to avoid upper chest breathing, as it tends to just move you, stress upward to your face.

5.if you go into an interview picking apart your outfit or imperfect responses, you're only hurting your chances of coming off as calm and collected. Turn off your negative self-talk and then create a different self-talk message, like, “I am here to share the best of my ability and that is all I can really do.”

Work it out. Putting in some gym time the morning of your interview can help you get rid of any nervous tension. Exercise helps calm your nervous system and tends to reduce the intensity of physical manifestations(表现形式)of stress such as restlessness.

A. Stop the negative thoughts.

B. Put your idea into practice.

C. When faced with an interviewer, you may be nervous.

D. Before you walk into your interview, take a few deep breaths.

E. You’re trying to prove you’re the one for the job and that you can handle stressful situations.

F. Don’t forget that you’re not the only one being interviewed – you’re also interviewing the organization.

G. This will strengthen your answers and allow you to show how your experience is relevant to the job or organization for which you’re interviewing.

The dodo is among the most famous extinct creatures, and a poster child for human-caused extinction events. Despite its bad name, and the fact that the species was alive during recorded human history, little is actually known about how this animal lived, looked, and behaved. A new study of the only known complete skeleton(骨架) from a single bird takes advantage of modern 3-D laser scanning(扫描) technology to open a new window into the life of this famous extinct bird.

The study was presented at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Estrel, Berlin. Leon Claessens, Associate Professor at the College of the Holy Cross, and lead researcher on the study said that, "the 3-D laser surface scans we made of the fragile dodo skeletons enable us to reconstruct how the dodo walked, moved and lived to a level of detail that has never been possible before. There are so many outstanding questions about the dodo bird that we can answer with this new knowledge."

A complete dodo skeleton, found by an amateur collector and barber, Etienne Thirioux, on the island of Mauritius between 1899 and 1917, has remained unstudied, even though it is the only complete dodo skeleton from a single individual bird known to exist. All other skeletons are incomplete combinations, meaning that they are gathered from more than one individual. In addition, Thirioux constructed a second, partially combined skeleton, which contains many bones that also belong to a single bird. "Being able to examine the skeleton of a single, individual dodo, which is not made up from as many individual birds as there are bones, as is the case in all those other combined skeletons, truly allows us to appreciate the way the dodo looked and see how tall or fat it really was," said Juilan Hume, of the Natural History Museum UK, a co-author on the study.

The scans were performed on site in Durban, South Africa, and allow examination of the biology of this mysterious extinct bird in detail for the first time. Using the newest digital tools and techniques, the scans provide an insight into how the flightless dodo may have developed its giant size, and how it walked and lived in its forest home. According to Kenneth Rijsdijk, a biologist from University of Amsterdam, “the skull of the dodo is so large and its mouth so strong that it is easy to understand that the earliest naturalists thought it was related to sharks and other birds of prey(猛禽), rather than the pigeon family.”

1.The underlined phrase “a poster child” in Para. 1 is closest in meaning to “ ”.

A. a typical example

B. an endangered animal

C. a child who puts up posters on the board

D. a child posted in a newspaper as an advertisement

2.The researchers study the dodo skeleton to find out .

A. ways to save the dodo

B. the dodo’s living habits

C. the bird’s natural habitat

D. the cause of the dodo’s extinction

3.What is special about the dodo skeleton found by an amateur collector?

A. It is gathered from more than one individual.

B. It reminded unstudied between 1899 and 1917.

C. It is the only complete dodo skeleton from a single individual bird.

D. It can be examined with 3-D laser scanning technology.

4.What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?

A. To call people’s attention to wildlife protection.

B. To criticize humans for the extinction events.

C. To introduce a new way of studying the dodo.

D. To give tips on how to study extinct creatures.

阅读填空(共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分释)

Food makes us feel good, but some people eat when they aren’t really hungry and eat to simply feel good. This kind of eating habit is called emotional eating, which does not affect adults but also young children. It isn’t a good thing.

A child’s eating habits can develop right from childhood. As we know, a baby cries out if he doesn’t get milk at the usual time of the day. However, sometimes parents immediately stick a bottle in a child’s mouth without trying to find out if the child is really hungry. In fact, children may cry for other reasons. Even as children grow up and start going to school, parents sometimes give them a chocolate bar if they become really unhappy. As the children further grow up, they may become used to having a snack whenever they’re upset or low.

Therefore, they’d like to eat an emotional snack when they have the feeling of unhappiness and boredom. Even when they don’t get high grades, aren’t popular at school or made fun of by others, they will want something to eat. After having the snack, they feel a lot better.

Emotional eating in young children is a thing that needs to be taken seriously. To protect your children from emotional eating, you should satisfy your child’s emotional needs in the best possible way. This includes spending time with your child every day, taking an interest in his school work, helping your child study, providing a health environment without tension at home, etc. Don’t make the child lose face by scolding him. Develop confidence in your child. Make your child eat enough once in a while. Reward him for his achievements.

All this will help your little one develop a healthy eating habit. And always remember love and care is the key to help you child out of trouble and grow up happily.

Title: 1. in Young Children

Definition

Eating for feeling good instead of for 2..

Causes

forming the habit when they are 3.

feeling4.

feeling getting low grades and feeling 5.

being made fun of by others

6.

staying with your child for some time every day

being 7. in your child’s studies and help him study

providing a healthy environment without tension at home

avoiding 8. to make him ashamed

making your child 9. in himself

giving your child enough to eat once in a while

giving your child reward for what he has achieved

10.

Love and care helps children out of trouble.

Elizabeth’s Second!

In 60 years, the Queen has never put a foot wrong in public. And for the last 24 of them, it turns out she’s had a secret weapon — the nice Ella Slack. The former BBC manager has, unknown to anyone except a handful of key advisers, spent the last quarter of a century acting as the Queen’s official stand-in at rehearsals (排练) for royal events. The 69-year-old has never accepted a penny for her royal service, considering it “a pleasure and an honour” to ensure that everything runs smoothly for the Queen. “How many people in the world have had a chance to sit in a royal landau (马车) or walk onto the dais (讲台) at Windsor Castle even before the Queen has done so?” she said.

While Miss Slack may not resemble the Queen facially, she has a similar figure to the Queen, standing just 5 foot. The Queen is 5 foot 2 inch. She began her remarkable role in 1988, when she was working as manager of the BBC’s sports and events department. A producer asked her if she could stand in for the Queen to check camera angles at a rehearsal — and her second career was born.

Since then, from the State Opening of Parliament (议会) to the 50th anniversary of Victory day, wherever the Queen is on duty Miss Slack is likely to have been there first. She has perfected her own version of the Queen’s clothes, including a black patent handbag she bought in a charity shop for £1, and even styles her hair like the Queen.

1.What’s the Queen’s secret weapon?

A. She often meets people in public.

B. She actively attends social activities.

C. She has a nice lady to act as herself.

D. She and Miss Slack have a lot in common.

2.Miss Slack’s words in Paragraph 1 indicate that ___________.

A. she thinks the job honorable and worthy

B. she thinks she can do the job better

C. she thinks frequently of her role

D. she is determined to carry the job on

3.How did Miss Slack get the job?

A. The Queen invited her to do so.

B. The BBC appointed her to finish the job.

C. She was invited to have an accidental try.

D. The advisers offered her the chance.

4.In which section of a newspaper may you find the passage?

A. Education. B. Entertainment.

C. Sports. D. Health.

The cultures of the East and the West really disting?uish from each other a lot.This is because the culture systems are two separate systems ____.

The origin of the eastern cultures is mainly from two countries:China and India.Both of the two cultures are gestated(孕育) by ___.In China,the mother river is the Yellow River ___ the Indian one is the Hindu River.These two cultures were ____ for several thousand years and formed their own styles.Then in the Tang Dynasty of China,the Chinese culture ____ went overseas to Japan,____ into the Japanese society and ___ the Japanese culture nowadays.Though a bit different from the Chinese one,it ____ to the same system.

When the two mother rivers gave birth to the eastern culture,another famous culture was ____ on the Mesopotamian Plain(美索不达米亚平原)—the Mesopotamian Civilization.This civilization later on developed into the cultures of the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.And these two are well?known as the ____ of the European culture.____ the Chinese culture,the European one also ____ waters.When the colonists of England ____ in America,their culture went with them over the Atlantic Ocean.So the American culture doesn’t ___ from the European one a lot.

At the same time,the ____ of the language systems adds to the cultural differences.In the East,most languages belong to the pictographic(象形文字的) languages while the Western languages are ____ based on the Latin system,for example,the one I’m using to write this paper.

Other factors like human race difference ____ as well.However,___ the far distance and the steep areas between the East and West,the two cultures seldom ___ until recent centuries.____ they grew up totally in their own ways with almost no interference(干扰) from the other.

1.A. above all B.on the whole C.in all D.in no case

2.A. mountains B.plains C.lakes D.rivers

3.A. or B.for C.while D.when

4.A. developed B.improved C.created D.protected

5.A. suddenly B.quietly C.gradually D.naturally

6.A. mixed B.changed C.decided D.forced

7.A. expanded B.interrupted C.influenced D.shaped

8.A. comes B.belongs C.amounts D.adds

9.A. brought up B.carried out C.given out D.picked up

10.A. result B.sign C.base D.content

11.A. Via B.Except C.With D.Like

12.A. affected B.spread C.crossed D.formed

13.A. joined up B.went up C.broke down D.settled down

14.A. come B.suffer C.result D.differ

15.A. difference B.developmen C.appearance D.feature

16.A. properly B.partl C.simply D.mostly

17.A. last B.count C.reduce D.change

18.A. in terms of B.due to C.as to D.in case of

19.A. transform B.display C.communicate D.distinguish

20.A. Furthermore B.Meanwhile C.Therefore D.However

Tickets for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil have gone on sale, with fans able to apply on FIFA’s website. FIFA is expecting a similar demand to that in Germany 2006, when there were about seven applicants for every ticket of the 64 matches. And now around 3.3 million tickets will be available for the matches in 2014.

Tickets will range in price from£58 for first-round matches to£632 for the final at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian citizens over 60, local students and members of some social programs can purchase tickets for £15.

The Price of Football - World Cup 2014

Items

Prices

Items

Prices

Ticket

£58-£112

Final ticket

£281-£632

Sun cream

£9.50

T-shirt

£13

McDonald’s meal

£11

Water

£1.28

Imported beer

£3.83

Domestic beer

£1.91

Coffee

£2.55

Average dinner

£29

“It’s always difficult to predict,” said FIFA marketing director Thierry Weil. “But I truly believe that it will be more similar to what happened in Germany than in South Africa in 2010.” According to FIFA, the 2006 World Cup was attended by more than 3.3 million fans. Almost two million tickets were sold to the general public in South Africa, although the number of applications during the first ticketing phase was significantly lower.

All applications made before 10th October 2013 will enter a random selection draw if there are not enough tickets available to fulfill all requests. The sales of the leftover tickets will begin on 5th November on a first-come, first-served basis. Another phase will begin on 8th December after the draw is made. The tournament begins on 12th June, with Brazil playing the opener in Sao Paulo.

A study on the price of World Cup 2014 looked at the ticket prices and the cost of travelling to Brazil and found that our English fans face hotel costs of between£46 and£797 a night, while packages range from£2,999 to£14,999.

1.How much should a Brazilian student pay for the opening match?

A.£15 B.£58 C.£112 D.£632

2.From the passage we know that Thierry Weil_______.

A.feels proud of what they achieved in South Africa 2010

B.feels worried about the sales of the tickets for Brazil 2014

C.holds the belief that Brazil 2014 will be the greatest world cup

D.believes that more fans will attend Brazil 2014 than South Africa 2010

3.What will FIFA do if there are not enough tickets available for requests before Oct.10, 2013?

A.They will sell the spare tickets to the applicants.

B.They will sell on a first-come, first-served basis.

C.They will choose the applicants based on a random selection draw.

D.They will sell them the tickets to be sold on Dec.8.

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