Psychologists have discovered that even the most independent-minded of us will conform to social pressure when we are with a group of people. In one classie experiment, people were shown a vertical line and asked to find a line of identical length from a selection of three.
You might think that this is an absurdly easy task, and when people perform it by themselvesthey do it very well.
However, psychologists have discovered that we are very easily swayed by the opinions of other people when we do this task in a group. In one study, a group of three people was set up,where two of the people were confederates(同伙)of the experimenter.When the confederates deliberately gave wrong answers,people were often swayed to give the wrong answer also. In fact, 75% of people gave at least one wrong answer, with some people conforming to peer pressure on every occasion.
was set up,where two of the people were confederates(同伙)of the experimenter.When the confederates deliberately gave wrong answers,people were often swayed to give the wrong answer also. In fact, 75% of people gave at least one wrong answer, with some people conforming to peer pressure on every occasion.
But why do people conform in this way? In an easy task like this, it seems that people do not want to step out of line with the prevailing opinion of the group. On more difficult tasks, people also conform because they lose〔onfidence in their own ability to make decisions and prefer to trust the majority opinion instead.
A typical example of this kind of conformity arises when we come across people in distress.
Would you help a woman who has been attacked in the street?It turns out that you are much more likely to go to her assistance if you are alone.When other people are also around,a diffusion of responsibility occurs. People are paralysed into inaction, because everyone assumes that someone else will go to the woman. s assistance.
8.In Paragraph 1, the underlined word "conform" probably means“
9.What is the purpose of the experiment described in Paragraph 2? To
10. In the last paragraph, according to the author,why wouldn’t one help the woman ? .1l.What method does the author mainly use to develop the text?
It.s great fun to explore (探索) new places—it feels like an adventure, even when you know you.re not the first to have been there. But make sure not to get lost or waste time going round in circles.
● Do the map reading if you.re being driven somewhere. It.ll be easier if you keep turning the map so it follows the direction you. re traveling in. Keep looking ahead so that you can give the driver lots of warning before having to make a turn, or you.ll have to move to the back seat.
● Get a group of friends together and go exploring. You.ll need a good map, a compass (指南针), a raincoat, a cell phone to call for help in case you get lost, and a bit of spare cash for emergencies (应急现金). Tell someone where you.re going before you set out and let them know what time you expect to be back. The test is in not getting lost, not in seeing how fast you can go, so always stick together, waiting for slower friends to catch up.
● See if your school or a club organizes orienteering activities, in which you need a map and a compass to find your way. This can be done as a sport, with teams trying to find the way from A to B (and B to C, etc. ) in the fastest time, or simply as a spare-time activity. Either way, it.s not only good fun, but a great way to keep fit..
1.Sitting beside the driver, you should ________.
2. Why do you need to tell someone your exploration plan before setting out?
3. Orienteering activities can ________.
4. The text mainly talks about________.
Owning a smartphone may not be as smart as you think. It may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are…but it also turns you into a workaholic, it seems.
A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancingmobilephone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.
The study by technology retailer Pixmania reveals the average UK working day is between 9 and 10hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls. More than 90 percent of office workers have email-enabled phones, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day. Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they make work emails and calls outside their normal working hours. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 7 am, with more than a thirdchecking their first emails in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11 pm and midnight.
Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said, “The ability to access literally millionsof apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and callhas made smartphones invaluable for many people. However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smartphones mean thatpeople literally cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become , the moreis expected of us in a work capacity(容量|)
1. What can we conclude from the text?
2. The underlined word “accessing” in the third paragraph can be replaced by “________”
3. Which of the following is true according to the text?
4. What’s the main idea of the text?
Dyslexia is a problem that restricts the ability to recognize words and connect sounds with letters when people read. People with this learning disorder may also have problems when they write. Dyslexia is not related to eyesight or intelligence. The problem involves areas of the brain that process language. Brain scientists are studying whether they can predict which young children may struggle with reading to provide them with early help. John Gabrieli at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is leading the study of five-year-olds in about twenty schools in the Boston area.
They studied in the schools with kindergartens. And for all the children joining in the study, they give them a brief set of paper-and-pencil tests to look at which children appear to be at some risk for struggling to read. So far, fifty of them have been examined in a scanner, a special machine, to show brain activity. Written tests are not always able to identify dyslexia or other problems, while brain scans may offer a more scientific way to identify problems. And with reading problems, early identification is important. When it comes to helping children overcome reading difficulties, the younger the child, the more effective they are.
Reading problems are not usually identified until a child is in the third or fourth grade. The later children are recognized as poor readers, the less treatment can help. And, as Professor Gabrieli points out, poor reading can make education a struggle. Reading is everything. Even math and science have textbooks.
While the children are given tasks related to reading, the brain scans measure the extent to which certain parts of the brain become active while the children do the work. The scientists say they are pleased with early results from the study, but have a long way to go.
1.Dyslexia affects the part of brain concerning 2.Dyslexia problems are more likely to be identified through ________.________.
3.According to the passage, which of the followings has the best time to overcome reading difficulties?4.What is the passage mainly about?