Why aren't you curious about what happened?A) “You suspended Ray Rice after our video,” a reporter from TMZchallenged National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell the other day. “Why didn’t you have the curiosity to go to the casino(赌场)yourself?”The implication of the question is that a more curious.commissioner would have found a way to get the tape.B) The accusation of incuriosity is one that we hear often,carrying the suggestion that there is something wrong with not wanting to search out the truth. “Ihave been bothered for a long time about the curious lack of curiosity,” said a Democratic member of the New Jersey legislature back in July, referring to an insufficiently inquiring attitude on the part of an assistant to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who chose not to ask hard questions about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal. “Isn’tthe mainstream media the least bit curious about what happened?” wrote conservative writer Jennifer Rubin earlier this year,referringto the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.C) The implication, in each case,is that curiosity is a good thing, and a lack of curiosity is a problem.Are such accusations simply efforts to score political points for one's party? Or is there something of particular value about curiosity in and of itself?D) The journalist Ian Leslie,in his new and enjoyable book Curious: The Desire to Know and WhyYour Fatter Depends on It, insists that the answer to that last question is‘Yes.’Leslie argues that curiosity is a much-overlooked human virtue, crucial to our success, andthat we are losing it.E)We are suffering,he writes,from a “serendipity deficit.” The word“serendipity”was coined by Horace Walpole in an 1854 letter,from a tale of three princes who“were always makingdiscoveries,by accident, of things they were not in search of,” Leslieworries that the rise of the Internet, among other social and technological changes, has reduced our appetite for aimless adventures.No longer have we the inclination to let ourselves wander through fields of knowledges, ready to be surprised. Instead, we seek only the information we want.F) Why is this a problem? Because without curiosity we will lose the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We will see unimaginative governments and dying corporations make disastrous decisions.We will lose a vital part of what has made humanity as a whole so successful as a species.G) Leslie presents considerable evidence for the proposition that the society as a whole is growing less curious. In the U.S.and Europe, for example, the rise of the Internet has led to a declining consumption of news from outside the reader’s borders. But not everything is to be blamed on technology.The decline in interest in literary fiction is also one of the causes identified by Leslie.Reading literary fiction,he says, make us more curious.H)Moreover,in order to be curious, “you have to be aware of a gap in your knowledge in the first place.” Although Leslie perhaps paints a bit broadly in contending that most of us are unaware of how much we don’t know,he’s surely right to point out that the problem is growing: “Google can give us the powerful illusion that all questions have definite answers.”I)Indeed, Google, for which Leslie expresses admiration, is also his frequent whipping body(替罪羊). He quotes Google co-founder Larry Page to the effect that the“perfect search engine” will“understand exactly what Imean and give me back exactly what Iwant.”Elsewhere in the book, Leslie writes:“Google aims to save you from the thirst of curiosity altogether.”J) Somewhat nostalgically(怀旧地),he quotes John Maynard Keynes’s justly famous words of praise to the bookstore: “One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye.To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoons entertainment.” If only!K) Citing the work of psychologists and cognitive( 认知的)scientists, Leslie criticizes the received wisdom that academic success is the result of a combination of intellectual talent and hard work. Curiosity, he argues, is the third key factor--and a difficult one to preserve.If not cultivated, it will not survive: “Childhood curiosity is a collaboration between childand adult.The surest way to kill it is to leave it alone.”L) School education, he warns, is often conducted in a way that makes children incurious.Children of educated and upper-middle-class parents turn out to be far more curious, even at early ages,than children of working class and lower class families.That lack of curiosity produces arelative lack of knowledge, and the lack of knowledge is difficult if not impossible to compensate for later on.M)Although Leslie’s book isn’t about politics, he doesn’t entirelyshy away from the problem. Political leaders,like leader of other organizations, should be curious. Theyshould ask questions at crucial moments. There serious consequences, he warns, in not wanting to know.N) He presents as an example the failure of the George W.Bush administration to prepare properly for the after-effects of the invasion of Iraq. According to Leslie, those who ridiculed former.Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for his 2002 remark that we have to be wary of the “unknown unknowns”were mistaken. Rumsfeld’s idea,Leslie writes, “wasn’t absurd- it was smart.” He adds, “The tragedy is that he didn’t follow his own advice.”O) All of which brings us back to Goodell and the Christie case and Benghazi. Each critic in those examples is charging, in a differentway, that someone in authority is intentionally being incurious. Ileave it to the reader's political preference to decide which, if any,charges should stick. But let’s be careful about demanding curiosity about the other side’s weaknesses and remaining determinedly incurious about our own. We should be delighted to pursue knowledge for its own sake--even when what we find out is something we didn’t particularly want toknow.1. To be curious, we need to realize first of all that there are many things we don’t know.2. According to Leslie, curiosity is essential to one’s success.3. We should feel happy when we pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake.4. Political leaders’ lack of curiosity will result in bad consequences.5. There are often accusations about politicians' and the media’s lack of curiosity to find out the truth.6.The less curious a child is, the less knowledge the child may turn out to have.7. It is widely accepted that academic accomplishment lies in both intelligence and diligence.8. Visiting a bookshop as curiosity leads us can be a good way to entertain ourselves.9. Both the rise of the Internet and reduced appetite for literary fiction contribute to people’s declining curiosity.10. Mankind wouldn’t be so innovative without curiosity.
举一反三
- Section B Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Why Study History? A)Let's face it, our first experience with history is that it is a course that we have to take in order to graduate. As a junior and senior high school student, we have to study American history and state history, and perhaps even take a general course in western civilization (文明) or world history. We didn't have a choice. And the fact that we are forced to take history puts us on the defensive. We begin to build that splendid brick wall that will prevent us from getting anything important out of history. B)The main problem as I see it, is not history itself. The study of history can be fun. But there's only one thing that can make our first experience with history a horrible thing indeed: and that's a poor instructor. I was fortunate. I managed to have a number of excellent history instructors throughout my high school years and this was at a time when I was leaning toward the physical sciences, geology and biology to be exact. I might not have been an excellent history student, but I do remember having excellent history teachers. C)Fine. That's my experience. But experience aside, why study history in the first place? What could history offer the business major? the student hoping to study web page development? the student taking her first psychology class? or the lawyer? or the worker on the shop floor? Well, simply stated, everything has a history, whether we like it or not. Even history itself has a history. Try hard as we might, we can't escape the past. We can't let go of the past. And we celebrate the past all the time. D)You may have been told that we study history so that we won't repeat the mistakes of the past. This is the wishful thinking (一厢情愿) school of historical interpretation (诠释). It's too clean. If we have learned from the past then over the centuries we ought to have built on so much knowledge that things like war, poverty, injustice and immorality ought not to exist. Of course, we've still got a long way to go along this line. E)You may also have heard that everything repeats itself, so if we study the past, we can be sure to know something of the future. I don't hold to this view either. To insist that the study of the past will help to know something of the future is a nice idea, but what I really want to know about is the present. History cannot "tell" the future. History can, on the other hand, help to understand all that is the present. So, faced as we are with the question "why study history?" I can only hope to answer by telling you why I study history. F)Well first off, it's extremely important for us to be in touch not only with the past of our own country, but also of the world as well. History tells us things about the world in which we live. When we are young, we know little about the world beyond our immediate family and environment. As we grow older we realize that the world extends far beyond those limited surroundings and we are hungry for more knowledge of the wider world. But no matter how much of it we explore, all we see is the world as it is today. However, the way the world works is a result of a very long period of development, and we can never understand it well enough unless we try to learn as much as possible about our past. G)Most of us want to live meaningful lives, and we want to understand more than is enough for our mere survival. In our search for understanding our place in the world, we turn to history. There we find a much larger store of human beliefs and values than we come across in our everyday lives. In doing so, we develop a wiser understanding of who we are, of what we can achieve, and of what dangers put individuals, families, communities and nations at risk. H)Of course, there are also more practical reasons why we should study history. Historians examine facts, compare them, evaluate (评价) them, and reach conclusions. By studying history, our own ability to perform these tasks is increased, and this ability is crucial in many walks of life. If you think about it, it's what managers, journalists, politicians, doctors, lawyers and many other professionals have to do every day -- each in their profession. I)But history is enjoyable, too. We should know something of our past in order to be proud of our achievements and how we may have played our part in the development of civilization. With increasing globalization, individual countries are losing the traditions and customs of their own regions, but knowing our history would mean that these traditions do not entirely disappear. However, we should not feel that only our history is of value to the world. Every country has been important to the development of civilization and we must not be so arrogant (傲慢) as to think only ours counts. ______11.What the world is now has taught us that it has not come true that we study history to avoid repeating the same mistakes of the past.
- Section C 40% Directions: In this section, you will hear a passage three times. When the passage is read for the first time, you should listen carefully for its general idea. When the passage is read for the second time, you are required to fill in the blanks with the exact words you have just heard. Finally, when the passage is read for the third time, you should check what you have written. Section C.wav We can make mistakes at any age. Some mistakes we make are about money. But most mistakes are about people. “Did Jerry really care when I (1)_____ with Helen?”“When I got that great job, did Jim really feel good about it, as a friend? Or did he (2)_____ my luck?” When we look back, doubts like these can make us feel bad. But when we look back, It’s too late. Why do we go wrong about our friends – or our enemies? Sometimes what people say (3)______ their real meaning. And if we don’t really listen, we miss the feeling behind the words. (4)______ someone tells you, “You’re a lucky dog .” That’s being friendly. But “lucky dog”? There’s a bit of envy in those words. Maybe he doesn’t see it himself. But (5)_____ in the “dog” puts you down a little. What he may be saying is that he doesn’t think you (6) ______ your luck. “Just think of all the things you have to be thankful for” is another noise that says one thing and means another. It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem as part of your life (7)________. But is he? Hidden in this phrase is the thought that your problem isn’t important. It’s telling you to think of all the (8) _____________ in the world when you haven’t got a date for Saturday night. How can you tell the real meaning behind someone’s words? One way is to take a good look at the person talking. Do his words fit the way he looks? Does what he says agree with the (9)______________? His posture? The look in his eyes? Stop and think. The minute you spend (10)____________ the real meaning of what people say to you may save another mistake./js/editor20150812/dialogs/attachment_new/fileTypeImages/icon_default.gif
- Questions 18-21 are based on the following passage. What can we learn about the writer’s friend from the passage A: He got to the writer’s flat without difficulty. B: He found the key by the tree. C: He entered the wrong flat by mistake. D: He didn’t have a good meal.
- We don’t know much about him; he’s so __1__ (mystery).
- What can you learn from the example of Vera Wang? We can learn from the example of Vera Wang that we should ________ ourselves. By doing so, we are more likely to find an ________ we don't know we have, and it may help us sbuild a __________ future.