How northern Europeans beat the winter blues
Ask a child from northern Europe to draw two pictures—one on a rainy day and a second in the sunshine—and this is what you will get: in the first, as raindrops fall from the top of the page, the man behind the window has an unhappy expression. When a yellow sun sends out some light from the corner, the man is smiling.
Northern Europeans associate rain with sadness and sunshine with happiness. They think this is true because they are so aware of how their environment affects them. 1. In October 2008, a group of researchers examined the influence of different daily weather factors, including temperature,wind and sunlight, on 1,200 participants. The conclusion was that good or bad weather had little effect on people’s feelings. 2. A person who is upset on dark or cold days suffers from a negative mood, and he will be likely to experience a sad winter. This is the basis of an illness called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). 3. .
AniKalayjian, professor of psychology at Fordham University, advises that we should take steps to strengthen the brain’s system against weather-driven mood changes. Research on SAD has been focused on the brain’s response to darkness and light. When our eyes detect darkness, the brain gives off melatonin, which starts sleep cycles. 4. It takes over to help us wake up and feel better when we detect light.“We can encourage people to take charge of their feelings,” says Kalayjian.“We tell them to leave the computers and the indoor games and get out there in the sun. 5.”
A day of rain can potentially destroy your plan and affect your mood. But as the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly once said:“There is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing.”
A. Another chemical called serotonin, however, can make people happy.
B. It affects about10% of the population of northern Europe each year.
C. That’s when people can recharge their serotonin and get a better mood.
D. Yet that link has no scientific basis.
E. Most studies prove that a negative feeling is associated with bad weather.
F. They determined that people actually differ in their sensitivity to weather changes.
G. It is seriously doubted among the people who suffer from SAD.
“Clothes Swapping”has become an increasingly popular activity for women in the United States. The women can give away unwanted clothing at a clothes swap event and get something different in return.
Recently about 300 women went to a clothes swap at a high school in Springfield, Virginia. It was the largest crowd ever for the area’s popular clothing-swapping group.
Daphne Steinberg was having a good day.“For anyone who knows Ann Taylor LOFT, Ann Taylor is a really nice women’s designer and I will totally wear this to work. So I love that, I love that I can equip myself for work, have a good time in doing it, not totally bankrupt myself.”
Sandy Van Dusen likes the idea that clothes are finding new homes instead of being thrown away. “Because it helps to keep the Earth green. There’s no point in my opinion in continuing to buy new clothes when we can reuse what’s already here. Give it a new home--- let somebody else love what you used to love and no longer love.”
Kim Pratt organized the clothing-swapping event in Springfield. She also organized a money-raising activity for the high school’s debate team. It is one of several ways that her group gives to charitable causes. Another is by donating all of the“un-swapped” clothing to shelters for victims of domestic violence.
“I started doing this four years ago, and we’ve been doing it for four years, getting bigger and bigger each time we have a swap.”
She used the social media website meetup.com to help publicize the events. The website has helped her group grow from 30 members to 1,300. Mrs.Pratt says most of the members respect the clothing swap rules. But she say competition for desirable fashion can be strong.
“We have to tell people sometimes not to hover over the new people coming in with their clothing. As they put it out, some people tend to grab the stuff right out of their hands and it becomes like a free-for-all. We try to avoid that as much as possible.”
1.At a clothes swap what can women do?
A. Make some money by giving away unwanted clothing
B. Buy whatever clothing they like
C. Have a social gathering and make friends
D. Exchange unwanted clothing for something different
2.What can be learnt from what Daphne Steinberg said?
A. The clothes swap was the largest ever in the area
B. She got some nice clothes at the clothes swap
C. It was the first time she had been to a clothes swap
D. She saved much more money than she had expected
3.What is Paragraph 5 mainly about?
A. How Kim Pratt raised money to help charitable causes
B. How Kim Pratt started the clothing-swapping event.
C. What Kim Pratt did to help people in need.
D. What Kim Pratt did with the un-swapped clothes.
4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. Clothes swaps often go out of control in the end
B. Clothes-swapping is becoming increasingly popular with women
C. Improper behavior at clothes swaps needs to be controlled
D. More clothing swapping events need to be organized
Four years ago, we asked ourselves: what if we could create a shopping experience with no waiting in lines and no checkout? Or could we create a physical store where customers could simply take what they want and go? Our answer to those questions is Amazon Go, where you could experience the idea of "just walk out shopping".
Amazon Go is a new kind of store with no checkout required. We created the world's most advanced shopping technology, so you never have to wait in line. With our "just walk out shopping" experience, simply use the Amazon Go app to enter the store, take the products you want, and go! No lines, no checkout.
Our checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning. Our “ just walk out technology ” automatically detects when products are taken from or returned to the shelves and keeps track of them in your virtual cart. When you have done shopping, you can just leave the store. Shortly after, we'll charge your Amazon account and send you a receipt.
We offer delicious ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options made fresh every day by our on-site chefs and favorite local kitchens and bakeries. Our selection of food stuff ranges from bread and milk to cheeses and locally made chocolates. You' ll find well-known brands we love, plus special finds we're excited to introduce to customers. For a quick home-cooked dinner, pick up one of our chef-designed Amazon Meal Kits, and you can make a meal for two in about 30 minutes.
Our 1,800-square-foot shopping space is conveniently compact, so busy customers can get in and out fast. It is located at 2131, 7th Ave, Seattle, WA, on the corner of 7th Avenue and Blanchard Street. All you need is an Amazon account, a supported smart phone, and the free Amazon Go app.
Amazon Go is currently only open to Amazon employees in our testing program, and will be open to the public soon.
1.From the passage, we can learn that Amazon Go ________.
A. is a checkout-free store B. sells all kinds of goods
C. is open to the public D. uses unknown technologies
2.What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 3?
A. When Amazon Go charges. B. What Amazon Go sells.
C. Where Amazon Go lies. D. How Amazon Go works.
3.The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. encourage people to shop online B. advise people to work for Amazon
C. inform people of a new concept store D. tell people of the shopping experience
It is a popular Internet thing to focus on the upside of being in your 30s, and it is nice to know how to do basic modern-human-being things like paying your taxes and cooking a simple meal. But it can be a less-encouraging story at work: People in their late 20s to early 40s tend to report lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion than other age groups, according to new research.
There’s an obvious reason: These tend to be the ages when people have young children at home, and the researchers did find that this group reported feeling increasingly crunched for time. But adding to that pressure, coworker support also tends to decline at this age. Some researchers interpret the findings:
Support from co-workers probably decreases in midlife as peers compete for limited resources（promotion bottlenecks are often encountered during this career stage. Also, whereas younger co-workers are often hungry to make up new social networks, and older workers seek identity-affirming work experiences in their remaining tenure（任期）, mid lifers find it demanding enough just to maintain existing social networks. Meanwhile, time pressure likely increases as colleagues are all trying to enrich their own knowledge and experience.
But the good news is that after about a decade of struggle, things start to pick back up again. Occupational psychologists say that happiness at work recovers when people reach their 40s, and that people in their 50s are more satisfied with their jobs than any other age group. Hang in there, 30-somethings-soon you will be older, but at least work will meet less frustration（挫折）!
1.What can we learn about people in their 30s according to the text?
A. They tend to feel less emotionally exhausted
B. They are more satisfied with their work.
C. They may feel more pressured at work.
D. They don’t know how to do basic modern-human-being things.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “crunched” in Paragraph 2?
A. pressed B. encouraged
C. relaxed D. satisfied
3.Why do people in their late 20s to early 40s have less support from co-workers?
A. Because they have a family to support.
B. Because they are eager to form new social networks.
C. Because they try to seek identity-affirming work experiences.
D. Because they are faced with strong competition in promotion.
假设你是学生李华，在某英文网站看到一则告示内容关于向全球中学生征集他们感兴趣的话题。请你用英文给该网站发邮件向其推荐话题。内容包括：
1. 个人简介: 姓名、年龄、国籍;
2. 话题主题: 和平、感恩、幸福;
3. 推荐理由。
注意: 词数100左右，可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯.
Dear Sir/Madam,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely yours,
Li Hua
假如英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌的以下作文，文中共有10 处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加，删除或修改。
增加: 在缺词处加一个漏字符号(/\),并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除: 把多余的词用斜线(\) 划掉。
修改: 在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词:
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起) 不计分。
Last Friday, the evening fell, but my parents hadn’t come back home yet. I stopped doing my homework but decided to make a meal for my family instead of just wait. It was my the first cooking. I went online to find information on how cook home-style dishes. With the step-by-step direction, I managed to make a dish. Then I tried to cook other. When my Parents got home, they were amazing to see the tasty dishes I made. Immediately my mum took pictures for them and my dad gave me a big hug. I real enjoyed the meal that evening.
