Seen from space the Earth is covered in a blue mantle. It is a planet on which the continents are dwarfed(相形见绌)by the oceans surrounding them and the vastness of the marine area.

An astonishing 80 percent of all the life on Earth is to be found hidden beneath the waves and this vast global ocean pulses around our world driving the natural forces which keep life on our planet.

The oceans provide necessary sources of protein, energy, minerals and other products of use the world over and the rolling of the sea across the planet creates over half our oxygen, drives weather systems and natural flows of energy and nutrients around the world, transports water masses many times greater than all the rivers on land combined and keeps the Earth habitable.

Without the global ocean there would be no life on Earth.

It is seriously worrying, then, that we are damaging the oceans on a scale that is unimaginable to most people.

We now know that human activity can have serious influences on the vital forces governing our planet. We have fundamentally changed our global climate and are just beginning to understand the consequences of that. As yet largely unseen,but just as serious,are the influences we are having on the oceans. A healthy ocean has diverse ecosystems and strong and healthy habitats. The actual state of our oceans is a far cry from this natural level.

A large quantity of human pressures are being exerted both directly and indirectly on ocean ecosystems the world over. Consequently ecosystems are collapsing as marine species are driven towards extinction and ocean habitats are destroyed. With the decrease and removement of their diversity, ocean ecosystems are losing their natural recovery.

20.The 2nd and the 3rd paragraphs are given mainly to describe________.

A.what the oceans look like

B.what the oceans are made up of

C.what lives in the oceans

D.what functions the oceans have

21.The oceans provide all the following except ________.

A. various marine creatures

B. rich living resources

C. all natural forces

D. comfortable habitats for man

22.Man has not yet realized that ________.

A.he has done harm to the oceans

B.he has done harm to the planet

C.he has benefited from the oceans

D.he has benefited from the planet

23.The best title for this passage should be ________.

A. Protecting our planet

B. Defending our oceans

C. Making good use of our oceans

D. A glimpse of the oceans

Some students get so nervous before a test. They do poorly even if they know the material. Sian Beilock, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago in Illinois, has studied these highly anxious test­takers.

Sian Beilock says, “They start worrying about the consequences. They might even start worrying about whether this exam is going to prevent them from getting into the college they want. And when they worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources. I talk about them as their cognitive(认知的)horsepower that they could otherwise be using to focus on the exam.”

Professor Beilock and another researcher, Gerardo Ramirez, have developed a possible solution. Just before an exam, highly anxious test­takers spend ten minutes writing about their worries about the test. The researchers tested the idea on a group of 20 anxious college students. They gave them two short math tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the upcoming second test. The researchers added to the pressure. They told the students that those who did well on the second test would get money. They also told them that their performance would affect other students as part of a team effort.

Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of 12 percent worse on the second test. But the students who had written about their fears improved their performance by an average of five percent.

Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things unrelated to the test.

Professor Beilock says highly anxious students who did the writing got an average grade of B+, compared to a B-for those who did not.

The research shows that for students who are highly test­anxious, who'd done the writing intervention(排解), all of a sudden there was no relationship between test anxiety and performance. Those students most likely to worry were performing just as well as their classmates who don't normally get nervous in these testing situations.

But what if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam or presentation? Professor Beilock says students can try it themselves at home or in the library and still improve their performance.

16.The purpose of the passage is ________.

A. to build the confidence of the highly anxious test­takers

B. to introduce a research about the anxious test­takers

C. to improve the performance of the test­takers

D. to tell something about the highly anxious test­takers

17.The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refers to ________.

A. attention and memory resources

B. worries about the consequences

C. concerns about the exam

D. cognitive horsepower

18.According to the research, the solution to the test anxiety is to________.

A. sit quietly before the exam

B. prepare well before the test

C. set their mind on happy memories

D. write about their feelings before the test

19.The result of the research suggests that ________.

A. proper amount of burden may turn out to be a good thing

B. avoiding facing the problem may contribute to relaxation

C. facing the fears bravely may help one to achieve more

D. taking no action before difficulty may result in success

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