Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
People are being lured(引诱) onto Facebook with the promise of a fun, free service, realizing that they're paying for it by giving up plenty of personal information. Facebook then attempts to make money by selling their data to advertisers that want to send (target) messages.
Most Facebook users don't realize this is happening. Even if they know what the company is up to, they still have no idea they're paying for Facebook, because people don't really know what their personal details are worth.
The biggest problem, however, is that the company keeps changing the rules. Early on, you could keep everything private. That was the great thing about Facebook -- you could create your own little private network. Last year, the company changed its privacy rules many things -- your city, your photo, your friends' names -- were set, by default(默认), to be shared with everyone on the Internet.
According to Facebook's vice president Elliot Schrage, the company is simply making changes to improve its service, and if people don't share information, they have a “ (satisfying) experience.”
Some critics think this is more about Facebook looking to make more money. Its original business model, involved selling ads and putting them at the side of the page, totally failed. Who wants to look at ads when they are connecting with their friends online?
So far the privacy issue (land) Facebook in hot water in Washington. In April, Senator Charles Schumer called on Facebook to change its privacy policy. He also urged the Commission to set regulations for social-networking sites.
I suspect that whatever Facebook has done (invade) our privacy is only the beginning, which is why I'm considering (cancel) my account. Facebook is a handy site, but I'm upset by the idea that information is in the hands of people I don't trust. That is too high a price to pay.
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A. combining B. analyzed C. concerned D. tremendously E. effective F. applied G. actually H. common I. limited J. assessing K. test |
Getting help with parenting makes a difference -- at any age
New Oxford University study finds that parenting interventions(育儿干预)for helping children with behavior problems are just as effective in school age, as in younger children.
There is a dominant view among scientists and policy-makers. They believes, for the greatest effect, interventions need to be early in life, when children's brain function and behavior are thought to be more flexible. However, according to the new research, it's time to stop focusing on when we intervene with parenting, and just continue helping children in need of all ages.
Just published in Child Development, the study is one of the first to this age assumption. Parenting interventions are a common and effective tool for reducing child behavior problems, but studies of age effects have produced different results until now.
A team led by Professor Frances Fardner data from over 15,000 families from all over the world, and found no evidence that earlier is better. Older children benefited just as much as younger ones from parenting interventions for reducing behavior problems. There was no evidence that earlier interventions are more powerful. This was based on data from more than 150 different experiments.
What's more, their economic analysis found that interventions with older children were more likely to be cost-effective.
Professor Gardner commented: “When there is about behavioral difficulties in younger children, our findings should never be used as a reason to delay intervention, otherwise, children and families will suffer for longer.” She continued, “As for parenting interventions for reducing behavior problems in childhood, we should stick to the principle, 'it's never too early, never too late', rather than 'earlier is better'.”
The study draws the conclusion that it makes sense to invest in parenting interventions for children at all ages with behavioral difficulties, because they are no more likely to be in younger than older children, at least in the pre-adolescents.
Of course, there's more work to be done. The experiments conducted were to pre-adolescents, to shorter-term effects, and parent-reported assessment of child outcomes. Future studies are needed that focus on adolescents, longer-term outcomes, and using multiple sources for child behavior problems.
Marmoset monkeys exist on a branch of the evolutionary tree that is distinct from the one that led to mans. But they constantly astonish researchers with 1 behavior that seems pretty highly evolved. Their social organization and 2 practices could have been the model for the phrase “It takes a village.” A dominant male and female breed, and their babies are carefully looked after by extended family members who then aren't free to breed themselves.
A new study further 3 the marmoset's reputation for admirable community values. Researchers report that these caregivers share their food more generously with little ones 4 than when they're surrounded by the watchful eyes of other community members. In complex societies where individuals band together for 5 protection, researchers have come up with a few widely accepted explanations for selfless behavior. But specific acts, like sharing a delicious cricket(蟋蟀) with a begging baby marmoset, seem to need more 6 explanation
One possibility is that an individual practices 7 as a means of enhancing his status among peers. By 8 that he is so well gifted with material goods that he can give some away, this do-gooder enhances his power within the group. That, in turn, may 9 prospective mates. The other explanation for charitable behavior 10 that kindnesses extended to others are simply the fees of group membership, which offers some future promise of a chance to mate. Failure to share would result in exclusion from the group and a loss of 11 partners. Scientists call this the “pay to stay” model. Importantly, for both of these models to work, acts of kindness must have a(n) 12. That suggests you would see more sharing in group settings; away from judging eyes, a caregiver might be more likely to keep food for himself or herself. And yet, in 2,581 tests conducted with 31 adult and 14 baby marmosets, the 13 appeared to be true
Anthropologists (人类学家) from the University of Zurich carefully documented how often, in groups and in conditions that found caregiver and baby separated from the crowd, an adult would share his or her cricket. When alone with a baby begging for a taste, adult marmosets shared their cricket 85% of the time. When in a group, caregivers offered up their cricket 67% of the time.” Our results show that helping in common marmosets is not driven by reputation management or 14 avoidance, “the study authors reported Rather, it is driven by a deep-down motivation to help that is more 15 expressed when individuals are alone with young.”
One day a little boy, annoyed by his father's decision for him to become a grocer, decides that he will never grow up. Grocery is a dull job and staying a child is his protest against it. This strange little boy-man, never separated from a tin drum he is always banging, is our hero of the table. It covers three crucial decades of 20th century history. Little Oscar Matzerath will experience love, war and imprisonment in a story that paints an unforgettable picture of Central Europe between 1923 and 1954.
This is an overview of the story of The Tin Drum, the most famous work by the German Nobel-winning author Günter Grass, who passed away on April 13 at the age of 87. The Tin Drum also established Grass as one of the leading authors of Germany. It also set a high bar of comparison for all of his following works. Just as his best-known fiction is both the story of an individual and of an age, so it is that Grass' life cannot be understood without referring to the history of Germany. He was called "Germany's conscience", because he reminded Germans of a past during the Second World War (1933-1945) that many would have rather forgotten.
This sometimes made him unpopular. Many Germans did not agree in 1989 when he said that East Germany and West Germany should remain separate, as a united country would be too strong and threaten the world's peace. And Grass was called a hypocrite when he revealed in his memoir
Peeling the Onion (2006) that he had been a teenage member of the Waffen-SS, the Nazi (纳粹) Party's fighting force. The man who had blamed the actions of others had a less-than-perfect record himself.
Grass was a man of the pen and the page and also a man with a gift for speaking to the public.
His writing was noisy and annoying, but one had to listen to it, a little like the sound of the drum banged by his most famous literary creation.
Bees in a colony work with each other to gather food, and they try to find the most nectar (花蜜)in the least amount of time possible. A small number of bees work as searchers, but when a good flower patch (花丛) is found, how do they tell other bees where to find it?
Bees communicate flower location using special dances inside the hive, where bees live. One bee dances while the other bees watch. The dancing bee smells like the flower patch, and also gives the watching bees a taste of the nectar she has gathered. Smell and taste helps other bees find the correct flower patch. Bees use two different kinds of dances to communicate information: the waggle (摇摆) dance and the circle dance.
Waggle dance
The waggle dance tells the watching bees two things about a flower patch's location: the distance and the direction away from the hive.
A. Distance
The dancing bee waggles back and forth as she moves forward in a straight line, then circlesaround to repeat the dance. The length of the middle line, called the waggle run, shows roughly how far it is to the flower patch.
B. Direction
Bees know which way is up and which way is down inside their hive, and they use this to show direction. How? Bees dance with the waggle run at a specific angle away from straight up. Outside the hive, bees look at the position of the sun, and fly at the same angle away from the sun.
Circle dance
The circle dance tells the watching bees only one thing about the flower patch's location: that it is somewhere close to the hive.
In this dance, the bee walks in a circle, turns around, then walks the same circle in the opposite direction. Sometimes, the bee includes a little waggle as she's turning around. The duration of this waggle is thought to indicate the quality of the flower patch.
B . 
C . 
D . 
Earth's geologic ages—time periods defined by evidence in rock layers—typically last more than three million years. We're barely 11,500 years into the current age, the Holocene. But a new paper argues that we've already entered a new one—the Anthropocene, or “new man”, age.
The name isn't brand-new. Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen, a co-author of the paper, coined it in 2002 to reflect the changes since the industrial revolution. The paper, however, is part of new push to formalize the Anthropocene age.
Recent human impacts have been so great that they'll result in an obvious boundary (界限 ) in Earth's rock layer, the author's say. “We are so skilled at using energy and exploiting the environment that we are now a defining force in the geological process on the surface of the Earth,” said co-author Jan Zala, a geologist with the University of Leicester in the UK. Even so, it could take years or even decades for the International Union of Geological Science to formalize the new age.
If the concept of the Anthropocene age is to be formalized, scientists will first have to identify and define a boundary line ,or marker, that's set in stone. “The key thing is thinking about how—thousands of years in the future—geologist might come back and actually recognize in the deposit in the UK.” It's not as straightforward as you might think. The market has to be very precise, and it has to be recognized in many different parts of the world,” said Haywood, who wasn't involved in the new study.
One candidate for the market is the distinctive radioactive signature left by atom bomb tests, which began in 1945. “The fallout (沉降 ) is basically across the world,” Haywood said. In a similar way, scientists used traces of the element iridium (铱) left by shooting star strikes to help define the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods—the time of the great dinosaur extinctions.
The push for a formal declaration of the Anthropocene age is about more than just scientific curiosity. The move the scientists write in the last issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology, “might be used as encouragement to slow carbon emissions and biodiversity(生物多样性)loss” or “ as evidence on protection measures” Just as Haywood said, by underlining how much we're changing the environment, the formalization would be "a very powerful statement”.
Why do some people feel obliged to do the craziest things, while most of us are happy to sit on the sofa and watch their exploits on TV? Robin Styles ponders(考虑)this question.
Generally, we love to watch someone's bravery and drama--a single person against the wilds of nature, testing their endurance beyond belief. And our pleasure is greater because we live a comfortable and increasingly risk-free life, where the greatest test of endurance is getting to work through the rush hour. However, there are countless ways to test the limits of your endurance, if you should wish to do so, by attempting something unpleasant, uncomfortable or just plain dangerous.
American Lynne Cox swims in sub-zero temperatures through the planet's most dangerous oceans wearing only a swimsuit--for fun! According to Lynne, there is always something driving her on. At age 9, when she was swimming in an outdoor pool one day, a violent storm blew up, but she refused to get out of the pool. Something make her carry on. Then she realized that, as the water got colder and rougher, she was actually getting faster and warmer, and she was really enjoying it. At age 14, she broke her first endurance record. Years later, experts discovered that Lynne has a totally even layer of body fat, like a seal.
The famous British explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, has led many major expeditions (远征) in the extreme cold, including walking right round the Arctic Circle. He has also led expeditions in the extreme heat, and discovered the Lost City of Ubar in the Omani desert. Sir Fiennes has said, "If I am getting sick, I find a very powerful way of conquering it is to know that my father would have definitely done it."
There is probably no such thing as a "normal" adventurer. Unsurprisingly, risk-takers tend to be single-minded and unusually determined people who hate the stability and routine that most people prefer. They tend to take risks for the "fun" of it. The excitement becomes addictive, and they want more and more of it. Ordinary life seems boring in comparison.
A. She is perfectly made for doing what she does, it seems.
B. Adventurers are clearly different from the rest of us.
C What she did was really beyond our imagination.
D. It seems that many adventurers spend their lives trying to live up to the image of a parent.
E. And most of us would prefer it to remain that way.
F. Many adventurers have amazed the world with their extraordinary skills.
Take care of your spine (脊柱)
The spine stands at the center of your health, providing your body with structure and support. It also contains your spinal cord, a massive collection of nerves conveying electric signals from the rest of your body to your brain. Since your spine is so central to health, it's important to look after it.
Maintain good posture (姿势)is one of the most important things you can do to keep you spine healthy. Proper posture means standing or sitting while keeping your spine straight, except for its natural curves. Posture comes into play even when you're asleep. Sleeping on your side puts less stress on your spine than most other positions. Staying still for too long—even if your posture is good—can be hard on your back. Especially if you look at a desk most of the day, it's important to get up and stretch periodically.
Exercise is also an important factor in the health of your spine. Stretches can help the muscles around your spine relax and allow bones to shift into better arrangement. Strength exercises like pushups can also help by strengthening the muscles around your spine. However, don't overdo the exercise, as repeated motions can strain the muscles around your spine.
Finally, your diet affects the health of your spine because many vitamins are necessary for bones and nerves. In particular, B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids keep nerves healthy, so you may want to consider taking a supplement. Another important factor is vitamin D, which is essential for strong bones. Vitamin D can come from some foods, but it's also absorbed from sunlight, so it may help to do some of those back exercises outside.
Many of the actions necessary to keep your spine healthy are identical to those need to preserve your health in other ways. So protect our back, and the rest of body will benefit.
