考研英语时文阅读
2014黄涛时文阅读(十二)这是一篇与2013考研英语(一)真题试卷阅读理解Text 4有着类似主题的时文，希望大家认真阅读理解，积累相关背景知识。
It may have taken the Supreme Court just an hour to wrap up its discussion of illegal immigration this week, but America’s politicians, it seems, cannot get enough of the subject. It will be several months before the court rules on the case in question, which concerns a state law in Arizona, but Democratic leaders in the Senate are already planning a vote to overturn its decision if the law is upheld. That vote would presumably fail, thanks to Republican opposition, but it would allow the Democrats to keep the subject in the news. Democrats are also attacking Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, for supporting the law. Mr Romney, meanwhile, has dismissed the whole fuss as an effort to distract Hispanic voters from Mr Obama’s failings as steward of the economy. The outcome of the presidential race, both sides acknowledge, could conceivably hinge on whether it is the state of the economy or laws like Ari zona’s that stir more indignation among Hispanics.最高法院本周对于非法移民的讨论也许只持续了一个小时，但是美国的政客们看上去从未停止在非法移民这个问题上大做文章。
最高法院裁决这个涉及到亚利桑那州州法律的案子还将花上几个月, 但是参议院中民主党的领袖已经在计划, 一旦最高法院判亚利桑那州州法律有效, 就发动一场投票来推翻这一决议。
由于参议院中共和党的反对, 这一投票多半会失败, 但民主党却能把这一话题保留在公众视野中。
民主党也批评米特·罗姆尼, 因为这位预定的共和党总统竞选人支持这一法律。
同时, 罗姆尼认为这整场闹剧只不过是民主党人想借此来分散西班牙裔选民的注意力, 让他们忽视奥巴马总统作为经济守门人的失职。
民主共和两党都承认, 经济状态和激起西班牙裔美国人愤慨的亚利桑那州法律, 都可能影响总统大选的结果。
Arizona’s bill, passed in 2010, seeks to discourage illegal immigration by making it a crime under state as well as federal law and by instructing state authorities to be on the lookout for illegal immigrants. Civil-liberties groups worry that this will lead to harassment of anyone with brown skin, even though the law expressly prohibits such “profiling”. There is no easy w ay for the authorities to judge an individual’s immigration status, argue opponents, so many citizens will be subjected to unwarranted checks.亚利桑那州这一法案于2010年通过,旨在让州法律和联邦法律把非法移民认定为犯罪行为, 并引导州政府密切搜寻非法移民者, 以此来打击非法移民活动。
公民自由组织担忧这将给那些古铜色肤色的人带来困扰, 尽管法案中明令禁止"按肤色下定论"。
反对者称, 官方鉴定个人的移民身份从来就不是一件容易的事, 所以许多美国公民被迫接受未经批准的检查。
That prospect seemed to concern several justices during the oral arguments on the law before the Supreme Court. Stephen Breyer, for example, fretted about thepossible fate under the law of a jo gger carrying only a driver’s license from New Mexico, a state that borders Arizona and used to issue licenses to illegal immigrants. But the solicitor-general said he was not challenging the law on the grounds that it would discriminate against Latinos. Instead he argued that the law pre-empts the federal government’s power to set immigration policy. Its defenders retort that it aims only to help the federal government fulfill its obligations on immigration, and that only an administration that was deliberately neglecting them could find fault with it.这件事的可能性, 令几位法官对庭上的案子有所忧虑, 他们有过几番辩论。
比如, 根据这项法律, 史蒂芬·拜耳就担心某位从新墨西哥州过来, 身上只带驾照的慢跑者的命运,因为新墨西哥州毗邻亚利桑那州, 而且曾经给非法移民发放过驾照。
但是副检察长则说道, 他反对这项法律并不是基于该法律会歧视拉美裔美国人这一点。
相反，他说这项法律夺取了联邦政府制定移民政策的权力。
它的辩护者们则反驳, 这项法律只是为了帮助联邦政府履行制定移民政策的义务, 并且只有故意忽视他们的政府才会发现这项法律有问题。
The Supreme Court’s verdict will determine the fate not just of Arizona’s law, but of similar measures in five other states. As successive presidents have promised but failed to tackle the question of America’s 10m-odd illegal immigrants, frustration at the federal government’s inertia has grown, especially among conservative voters. Republican-controlled legislatures in several states have attempted to take matters into their own hands. The need for a crackdown on illegal immigration seems to have become an article of faith among Republican primary voters. The presidential bid of Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, came to grief partly because he had signed a law allowing certain undocumented students to pay the same rates as other state residents at public universities.最高法院的判决不仅将决定亚利桑那州这一法律的命运, 还将影响其他五个州采取的类似措施的命运。
接连几任总统都承诺解决这一困扰美国超过1000万非法移民的问题, 但都失败了, 因此人们对政府惰性的失望情绪日渐增长, 特别是在保守派的选民中。
共和党掌握的几个州的立法机关已经试着处理这件事情。
取缔非法移民很有必要, 这似乎在共和党初选选民中成了一种信条。
里克·佩里这位德克萨斯州州长的总统竞选之路最终失败, 或许有一部分原因是因为他曾经签署了一项法律, 这项法律允许某些没有正式身份的学生和本州学生用一样的比例支付公立大学的学费。
Even as the debate about illegal immigration has become shriller, the phenomenon itself has declined. The recession has helped to stem the flow of job-seekers across America’s souther n border. Despite more vigorous policing, the number of people caught trying to cross has declined markedly. This week the Pew Hispanic Centre, a research institute, released a report arguing that Mexicans, who once accounted for most of the illegal influx, are now leaving the country in greater numbers than they are entering it.尽管对非法移民本身的争论日渐激化, 这种现象本身却在减少。
考研英语时文阅读(13)
It will be obvious, for example, that the gene for human intelligence will not have the same effect if inserted into cabbage DNA as it had in human DNA——but what side－effect would it have? In other words, is GE food safe to eat? The answer is that nobody knows because long－term tests have not been carried out.
4. ty 特性，属性 例句：He is studying the medicinal properties of wild plants. 他正在研究野生
植物的药物特性。
5. scorpion 蝎子
6. toxin 毒素
7. alien 外国的，性质不相容的；例句：Her behavior is alien to our ethical values. 她的行为和我们的伦理标准格格不入。
传统的植物培育方法，是用植物自然杂交的方式，来进行相同物种的人工杂交。比如，抗病小麦同高产小麦杂交，形成了一种具有双重特性的新的小麦品种。这种自然的基因交换既安全，又具有相当的可预见性。
Genetic engineering（GE）involves exchanging genes between unrelated species that cannot naturally exchange genes with each other. GE can involve the exchange of genes between vastly different species, e.g. putting scorpion toxin genes into maize or fish antifreeze genes into tomatoes. It is possible that a scorpion toxin gene, even when it is in maize DNA, will still get the organism to produce scorpion toxin, but what other effects may it have in this alien environment? We are already seeing this problem——adding human growth hormone genes to pigs certainly makes them grow——but it also gives them arthritis and makes them cross－eyed, which was entirely unpredictable.
考研英语时文阅读宝典
考研英语时文阅读宝典随着考研英语考试的不断改革，时文阅读部分在考试中所占的比重越来越大，它不仅考察学生的词汇量和语法知识，更考验学生的阅读理解能力和对时事的敏感度。
因此，掌握时文阅读技巧，对于提高考研英语成绩至关重要。
首先，考生需要了解时文阅读的特点。
时文阅读通常涉及最新的社会、科技、文化等领域的新闻报道，内容新颖，语言地道。
这就要求考生不仅要有扎实的语言基础，还要具备一定的背景知识，以便更好地理解文章内容。
其次，考生在阅读时文时，要学会快速浏览和定位关键信息。
由于时文阅读的文章篇幅较长，考生需要在短时间内抓住文章的主旨和关键信息。
这就需要考生具备快速阅读的能力，通过扫读文章标题、小标题、首尾段落等，迅速把握文章大意。
再者，考生在阅读过程中，要注意培养自己的推理判断能力。
时文阅读中常常会出现一些隐含的信息，需要考生根据上下文进行推理。
这就要求考生在阅读时，要善于捕捉文章中的逻辑关系，通过分析作者的论点、论据和结论，形成自己的判断。
此外，考生在练习时文阅读时，要注重积累词汇和短语。
时文阅读中会涉及大量的专业词汇和固定搭配，这些词汇和短语往往是理解文章的关键。
因此，考生在平时的阅读中，要注意积累这些词汇和短语，以便在考试中能够迅速识别和理解。
最后，考生要通过大量的练习来提高自己的时文阅读能力。
只有通过不断的练习，考生才能熟悉时文阅读的题型和出题规律，提高自己的阅读速度和理解能力。
考生可以选择一些高质量的时文阅读材料，如《经济学人》、《时代周刊》等，进行定期的阅读和练习。
总之，考研英语时文阅读宝典的核心在于提高考生的阅读速度、理解能力和推理判断能力。
通过掌握这些技巧，考生可以在考研英语的时文阅读部分取得优异的成绩。
考研英语时事阅读
考研英语时事阅读随着全球化的不断深入，英语作为国际通用语言，在考研英语中占据了举足轻重的地位。
近年来，考研英语的阅读部分越来越注重时事，这不仅要求考生具备扎实的英语基础，还要求考生对国际时事有所了解。
因此，考研英语时事阅读成为了考生们必须重视的环节。
首先，时事阅读能够帮助考生了解全球范围内发生的重大事件，这对于提高考生的国际视野和跨文化交流能力具有重要意义。
通过阅读时事新闻，考生可以接触到不同国家的文化、政治、经济等方面的信息，从而在考试中更好地理解和分析文章内容。
其次，时事阅读能够提高考生的阅读理解能力。
时事新闻往往涉及多个领域，语言风格多样，词汇量丰富。
考生在阅读时事新闻的过程中，可以不断积累词汇，提高对复杂句型和长难句的理解能力，这对于考研英语阅读部分的得分至关重要。
此外，时事阅读还能够帮助考生培养批判性思维。
时事新闻中的观点往往多元，考生在阅读时需要学会从不同角度分析问题，形成自己的见解。
这种批判性思维在考研英语的写作和翻译部分同样适用，能够提高考生的整体英语水平。
为了提高考研英语时事阅读能力，考生可以采取以下几种方法：1. 定期阅读英文时事新闻。
考生可以选择一些知名的英文新闻网站，如BBC、CNN等，每天阅读一到两篇时事新闻，逐渐提高阅读速度和理解能力。
2. 总结时事新闻中的高频词汇。
在阅读过程中，考生可以记录下不熟悉的词汇和短语，通过查阅词典和例句，加深对这些词汇的理解和记忆。
3. 练习时事新闻的阅读理解题。
考生可以在网上找到一些考研英语时事阅读的模拟题，通过练习，提高自己的答题技巧和速度。
4. 参与讨论和交流。
考生可以加入一些英语学习的社群，与其他考生分享阅读时事新闻的心得，通过讨论和交流，提高自己的思辨能力和表达能力。
总之，考研英语时事阅读是一个长期积累的过程，考生需要通过持续的阅读和练习，不断提高自己的英语水平和时事敏感度。
只有这样，才能在考研英语的阅读部分取得优异的成绩。
考研英语阅读精美时文
考研英语阅读精美时文在全国硕士研究生入学英语考试中,阅读理解试题在整个试卷中占很大比重,其重要程度不言而喻。
想要提高英语阅读能力，最好的办法就是多看多练。
为了提高大家的阅读水平，下面是为大家带来考研英语阅读精美时文，希望大家喜欢!考研英语阅读精美时文：让爱天长地久的秘密You want to know whether your relationship will last, don’t listen to those sweet nothings. But do pay close attention to the rest of your partner’s language.如果你想知道自己和另一半的关系能否持久，不要被那些“甜言蜜语”骗了。
你真正应该关注的是对方在日常生活中的语言。
According to scientists, it is possible to predict whether a couple will break up by using a wordassociation test;and it’s much more accurate than simply asking them how they feel about each other.科学家近日指出，通过一项“文字关联测试”就有可能预测出两人是否会分手;;这种测试结果的准确率要比直接询问双方感受高。
In a study, volunteers were shown positive words, such as “peace”and “sharing”, and negative words, such as “grief”and “hostile”, alongside words they had supplied to describetheir partner. In the first test, they were asked to press a button whenever they saw either positive words or partner-related words, and in the second, to do it whenever they saw negative words or partner-related words. The test had a time limit.研究人员给志愿者提供了一些词汇，这其中既有积极词汇如“平和”、“乐于分享的”，也有消极词汇如“悲伤”、“怀有敌意的”。
考研英语时文阅读
考研时文阅读（1）(2008-09-10 14:58:51)转载标签：考研时文阅读教育分类：阅读篇FEW ideas in education are more controversial than vouchers---letting parents choose to educate their children wherever they wish at the taxpayer’s expense. First suggested by Milton Friedman, an e conomist, in 1955, the principle is compelling simple. The state pays; parents choose; schools compete; standards rise; everybody gains.Simple, perhaps, but it has aroused predictable----and often fatal---opposition from the educational establishment. Letting parents choose where to educate their children is a silly idea; professionals know best. Cooperation, not competition, is the way to improve education for all. Vouchers would increase inequality because children who are hardest to teach would be left behind.But these arguments are now succumbing to sheer weight of evidence. Voucher schemes are running in several different countries without ill-effects for social cohesion; those that use a lottery to hand out vouchers offer proof that recipients get a better education than those that do not.Harry Patrinos, an education economist at the World Bank, cites a Colombian program to broaden access to secondary schooling, known as PACES, a 1990s initiative that provided over 125,000 poor children with vouchers worth around half the cost of private secondary school. Crucially, there were more applicants than vouchers. The programme, which selected children by lottery, provided researchers with an almost perfect experiment, akin to the “pill-placebo” st udies used to judge the efficacy of new medicines. The subsequent results show that the children who received vouchers were 15—20% more likely to finish secondary education, five percentage points less likely to repeat a grade, scorced a bit better on scholastic tests and were much more likely to take college entrance exams.V ouchers programmes in several American states have been run along similar lines. Greg Forster, a statistician at the Friedman Foundation, a charity advocating universal vouchers, says there have been eight similar studies in America: seven showed statistically significant positive results but was not designed well enough to count.The voucher pupils did better even though the sate spent less than it would have done had the children been educated in normal state schools. American voucher schemes typically offer private schools around half of what the sate would spend if the pupils stayed in public schools. The Colombian programme did not even set out to offer better schooling than was available in the state sector; the aim was simply to raise enrollment rates as quickly and cheaply as possible.These results are important because they strip out other influences. Home, neighborhood and natural ability all affect results more than which school a child attends. If the pupils who received vouchers differ from those who don’t----perhaps simply by coming from the sort of go-getting family that elbows its way to the front of every queue---any effect might simply be the result of any number of other factors. But assigning the vouchers randomly guarded against this risk.Opponents still argue that those who exercise choice will be the most able and committed, and by clustering themselves together in better schools they will abandon the weak and voiceless to languish in rotten ones. Some cite the example of Chile, where a universal voucher scheme that allows schools to charge top-up fees seems to have improved the education of the best-off most.The strongest evidence against this criticism comes from Sweden, where parents are freer than those in almost any other country to spend as they wish the money the government allocates to educating their children. Sweeping education reforms in 1992 not only relaxed enrolment rules in state sector, allowing students to attend schools outside their own municipality, but also let them take their state funding to private schools, including religious ones and those operating for profit. The only real restrictions imposed on private schools were that they must run their admissions on a first-come-first-served basis and promise not to charge top-up fees(most American voucher schemes impose similar conditions).The result has been burgeoning variety and a breakneck expansion of the private sector. At the time of the reforms only around 1% of Swedish students were educated privately; now 10% are, and growth in privateschooling continues unabated.Anders Hultin of Kunskapsskolan, a chain of 26 Swedish schools founded by a venture capitalist in 1999 and now running at a profit, says its schools only rarely have to invoke the first-come-first-served rule----the chain has responded to demand by expanding so fast that parents keen to send their children to its schools usually get a place. So the private sector, by increasing the total number of places available, can ease the mad scramble for the best schools in the state sector(bureaucrats, by contrast, dislike paying for extra places in popular schools if there are vacancies in bad ones).More evidence that choice can raise standards for all comes from Caroline Hoxby, an economist at Harvard University, who has shown that when American public schools must compete for their students with schools that accept vouchers, their performance improves. Swedish researchers say the same. It seems that those who work in state schools are just like everybody else: they do better when confronted by a bit of competition.没有什么教育观念比学券更容易引发争议。
英文时文阅读
考研时文阅读（12Text 11 Why texting harms your IQ为什么收发短信会降低智商？The regular use of text messages and e-mails can lower the IQ more than twice as much as smoking marijuana. That is the claim of psychologists who have found that tapping away on a mobile phone or computer keypad or checking them for electronic messages temporarily knocks up to ten points off the user's IQ. This rate of decline in intelligence compares unfavorably with the four-point drop in IQ associated with smoking marijuana, according to British researchers, who have labeled the fleeting phenomenon of enhanced stupidity as infomania.Research on sleep deprivation suggests that the IQ drop caused by electronic obsession is also equivalent to a wakeful night. Infomania is mainly a problem for adult workers, especially men, as the study commissioned by Hewlett Packard, the technology company, has concluded.The noticeable drop in IQ is attributed to the constant distraction of always on technology when employees should be concentrating on what they are paid to do. Infomania means that they lose concentration as their minds remain fixed in an almost permanent state of readiness to react to technology instead of focusing on the task in hand. Workers lose productivity by interrupting a business meeting and disrupt social gatherings because of their infirmity, the report said.The brain also finds it hard to cope with juggling lots of tasks at once, reducing its overall effectiveness, it added. And while modern technology can have huge benefits, excessive use can be damaging not only to a person's mind, but to their social life.Furthermore, infomania is having a negative effect on work colleagues, increasing stress and dissenting feelings. Nine out of ten polled thought that colleagues who answered e-mails or messages during a face-to-face meeting were extremely rude. Yet one in three Britons believes that it is not only acceptable, but actually diligent and efficient to do so.The effects on IQ were studied by Dr Glenn Wilson, a University of London psychologist, as part of the research project. This is a very real and widespread phenomenon, he said. We have found that infomania, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness. Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working.经常收发短信和e-mail会降低人的智商。
考研备考英语时文阅读Burnished
考研备考英语时文阅读:BurnishedUp goes gold, down goes the dollarMost economists hate gold. Not, you understand, that they would turn up their noses at a bar or two. But they find the reverence in which many hold the metal almost irrational. That it was used as money for millennia is irrelevant: it isn't any more. Modern money takes the form of paper or, more often, electronic data. To economists, gold is now just another commodity.So why is its price soaring? Over the past week, this has topped $450 a troy ounce, up by 9% since the beginning of the year and 77% since April 2001. Ah, comes the reply, gold transactions are denominated in dollars, and the rise in the price simply reflects the dollar's fall in terms of other currencies, especially the euro, against which it hit a new low this week. Expressed in euros, the gold price has moved much less. However, there is no iron link, as it were, between the value of the dollar and the value of gold. A rising price of gold, like that of anything else, can reflect an increase in demand as well as a depreciation of its unit of account.This is where gold bulls come in. The fall in the dollar is important, but mainly because as a store of value the dollar stinks. With a few longish rallies, the greenback has been on a downward trend since it came off the gold standard in 1971. Now it is suffering one of its sharper declines. At the margin, extra demand has come from those who think dollars--indeed any money backed by nothing more than promises to keep inflation low--a decidedly risky investment, mainly because America, with the world's reserve currency, has been able to create and borrow so many of them. The least painful way of repaying those dollars is to make them worth less.The striking exception to this extra demand comes from central banks, which would like to sell some of the gold they already have. As a legacy of the days when their currencies were backed by the metal, central banks still hold one-fifth of the world's gold. Last month the Bank of France said it would sell 500 tonnes in coming years. But big sales by central banks can cause the price to plunge--as when the Bank of England sold 395 tonnes between 1999 and 2002. The result was an agreement between central banks to co-ordinate and limit future sales.If the price of gold marches higher, this agreement will presumably be ripped up, although a dollar crisis might make central banks think twice about switching into paper money. Will the overhang of central-bank gold drag the price down again? Not necessarily. As James Grant, gold bug and publisher of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a newsletter, points out, in recent years the huge glut of government debt has not stopped a sharp rise in its price.注(1)：本文选自Economist;12/4/2004, p76-76, 1/3p;注(2)：本文习题命题模仿2000年真题text 4第3题(1)，2001年真题text 4第2题(2)，text 1第2题(3)，2002年真题text 2第2题(4)和text 5第3题(5);economists’eyes, gold is something__________.[A] they look down uponthat can be exchanged in the market[C] worth people’s reverence[D] that should be replaced by other forms of moneyto the author, one of the reasons for the rising of gold price is___________.[A] the increasing demand for goldthe depreciation of the euro[C] the link between the dollar and gold[D] the increment of the value of the dollarcan infer from the third paragraph that_________.[A] the decline of the dollar is inevitableAmerica benefits from the depreciation of the dollar[C] the depreciation of the dollar is good news to other currencies[D] investment in the dollar yields more returns than that in gold4. The phrase “ripped up”(Line 1, Paragraph 5) most probably means__________.[A] strengthenedbroadened[C] renegotiated[D] torn upto the passage, the rise of gold price__________.[A] will not last longwill attract some central banks to sell gold[C] will impel central banks to switch into paper money[D] will lead to a dollar crisis答案：B A B D B篇章剖析本篇文章采用了提出问题-分析问题的模式，分析了金价上涨，美元下跌的经济态势。
考研英语时文阅读(2)
考研英语_时文阅读50篇
考研英语_时⽂阅读50篇考拉进阶英语时⽂阅读50篇Passage1Dealing With Spam1:Confidence Game(2010.11.18The Economist)[483words]Bill Gates,then still Microsoft’s boss,was nearly rightin2004when he predicted the end of spam in two years.Thanks to clever filters2unsolicited3e-mail has largelydisappeared as a daily nuisance4for most on the internet.But spam is still a menace5:blocked at the e-mail inbox,spammers post messages as comments on websites and increasingly on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.The criminal businesses behind spam are competitive and creative.They vault over6technical fixes as fast as the hurdles7are erected.The anti-spam industry has done applaudable work in saving e-mail.But it is always one step behind.In the end,the software industry’s interest is in making money from the problem(by selling subscriptions to regular security updates)rather than tackling it at its source.Law-enforcement agencies have had some success shutting down spam-control servers in America and the Netherlands.But as one place becomes unfriendly, spammers move somewhere else.Internet connections in poor and ill-run countries are improving faster than the authorities there can police them.That won’t end soon.In any case,the real problem is not the message,but the link.Sometimes an unwise click leads only to a website that sells counterfeit8pills.But it can also lead to a page that infects your computer with a virus or another piece of malicious software that then steals your passwords or uses your machine for other immoral purposes. Spam was never about e-mail;it was about convincing us to click.To the spammer,it needs to be decided whether the link is e-mailed or liked.The police are doing what they can,and software companies keep on tightening security.But spam is not just a hack9or a crime,it is a social problem,too.If you look beyond the computers that lie between a spammer and his mark,you can see allthe classic techniques of a con-man:buy this stock,before everyone else does.Buy these pills,this watch,cheaper than anyone else can.The spammer plays upon the universal human desire to believe that we are smarter than anyone gives us credit for,and that things can be had for nothing.As in other walks of life,people become wiser and take precautions only when they have learned what happens when they don’t.That is why the spammers’new arena10—social networks—is so effective.A few fiddles might help,such as tougher default privacy settings on social networks.But the real problem is man,not the machine.Public behaviour still treats the internet like a village,in which new faces are welcome and anti-social behaviour a rarity.A better analogy would be a railway station in a big city,where hustlers11gather to prey on the credulity12of new arrivals.Wise behaviour in such places is to walk fast,avoid eye contact and be cautious with strangers.Try that online.1.spam/sp?m/n.垃圾邮件2.filter/?f?lt?/n.过滤器；滤光器；筛选过滤程序3.unsolicited/??ns??l?s?t?d/adj.未经请求的，⾃发的4.nuisance/?nju?s?ns/n.⿇烦事，讨厌的⼈或东西5.menace/?men?s/n.威胁，恐吓；危险⽓氛；烦⼈的⼈或事物6.vault over越过7.hurdle/?h??dl/n.障碍；跨栏，栏8.counterfeit/?ka?nt?f?t/n.伪造，仿造，制假9.hack/h?k/n.砍,劈；供出租的马；出租车司机；⾮法侵⼊（他⼈计算机系统）10.arena/??ri?n?/n.圆形运动场，圆形剧场；竞技舞台，活动场所11.hustler/?h?sl?/n.耍诡计骗钱的⼈12.credulity/kr??du?l?t?/n.轻信Passage2A Gene to Explain Depression（2011.1.3Time）[459words]As powerful as genes are in exposing clues to diseases,not even the most passionate geneticist1believes thatcomplex conditions such as depression can be reduced to atell-tale2string of DNA.But a new study confirms earlier evidence that aparticular gene,involved in ferrying3a brain chemical critical to mood known as serotonin4,may play a role in triggering5the mental disorder in some people.Researchers led by Dr.Srijan Sen,a professor of psychiatry at University of Michigan,report in the Archives6of General Psychiatry that individuals with a particular form of the serotonin transporter gene were more vulnerable to developing depression when faced with stressful life events such as having a serious medical illness or being a victim of childhood abuse.The form of the gene that these individuals inherit prevents the mood-regulating serotonin from being re-absorbed by nerve cells in the brain.Having such a low-functioning version of the transporter starting early in life appears to set these individuals up for developing depression later on,although the exact relationship between this gene,stress,and depression isn’t clear yet.Sen’s results confirm those of a ground-breaking7study in2003,in which scientists for the first time confirmed the link between genes and environment in depression.In that study,which involved more than800subjects,individuals with the gene coding for the less functional serotonin transporter were more likely to develop depression following a stressful life event than those with the more functional form of the gene.But these findings were questioned by a2009analysis in which scientistspooled814studies investigating the relationship between the serotonin transporter gene,depression and stress,and found no heightened risk of depression among those with different versions of the gene.“One of the hopes I have is that we can settle this story,and move on to looking more broadly across the genome9for more factors related to depression,”he says.“Ideally we would like to find a panel of different genetic variations that go together to help us predict who is going to respond poorly to stress,and who might respond well to specific types of treatment as opposed to others.”He believes that the2009findings do not contradict those from2003,or the latest results,but rather reflect a difference in the way the study was conducted.Sen stresses,however,that this gene is only one player in the cast of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to depression.“All things considered,this gene is a relatively small factor,and for this finding to be clinically10useful,we really need to find many,many more factors.Ultimately we may identify new pathways that are involved in depression to come up with new and better treatments.”1.geneticist/dnet?s?st/n.遗传学家2.tell-tale/?tel?te?l/adj.暴露实情的，能说明问题的3.ferry/?fer?/vt.渡运，摆渡4.serotonin/?s??rt??n?n/n.[⽣化]⾎清素，5-羟⾊胺（神经递质，易影响情绪等）5.trigger/?tr?ɡ?/vt.触发，引发；开动，启动6.archive/?ɑ?ka?v/n.档案馆；档案⽂件7.ground-breaking/?gra?nd?bre?k??/adj.开创性的；创新的8.pool/pu?l/vt.合伙经营；集中（智慧等）；共享，分享9.genome/??i?n??m/n.[⽣]基因组；[⽣]染⾊体组10.clinically/?kl?n?kl?/adv.临床地；冷淡地；通过临床诊断Passage3Second Thoughts on Online Education(2010.9New York Times)[415words]Let the computer do the teaching.Some studies,expertopinion and cost pressures all point toward a continuing shiftof education online.A major study last year,funded by the EducationDepartment,which covered comparative research over12years,concluded that online learning on average beat face-to-face teaching by a modest1but statistically meaningful margin2.Bill Gates,whose foundation funds a lot of education programs,predicted last month that in five years much of college education will have gone online.“The self-motivated learner will be on the Web,”Mr.Gates said,speaking at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe.“College needs to be less place-based.”But recent research,published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper,comes to a different conclusion.“A rush to online education may come at more of a cost than educators may suspect,”the authors write.The research was a head-to-head experiment,comparing the grades achieved in the same introductory economics class by students—one group online,and one in classroom lectures.Certain groups did notably worse online.Hispanic3students online fell nearly a full grade lower than Hispanic students that took the course in class.Male students did about a half-grade worse online,as did low-achievers,which had college grade-point averages below the mean for the university.The difference certainly was not attributable4to machines replacing a tutorial-style human teaching environment.Instead,the classroom was a large lecture hall seating hundreds of students.Initially,David Figlio,an economist at Northwestern University and co-author of the paper,said he had thought that the flexibility5of the Internet—the ability to“go back and roll the tape”—would probably give the online coursework6an edge over traditional“chalk and talk teaching.”The online lectures were well done,using a professional producer and cameraman7.“It had very much the feel of being in the room,”Mr.Figlio said.So what accounts for the difference in outcomes8?Mr.Figlio has a few theories. For the poorer performance of males and lower-achievers,he says the time-shifting convenience of the Web made it easier for students to put off viewing the lectures and cram9just before the test,a tactic10unlikely to produce the best possible results.It’s partly a stereotype11but also partly true,Mr.Figlio says,that female students tend to be better at timemanagement,spreading their study time over a semester,than males.“And the Internet makes it easier to put off12the unpleasant thing,attending the lecture,”he said.1.modest/?m?d?st/adj.谦虚的,谦恭的；适中的,适度的；些许的2.margin/?mɑ:d??n/n.页边空⽩；边,边缘；差数,差额3.Hispanic/h?s?p?n?k/adj.西班⽛和葡萄⽛的4.attributable/??tr?bj?t?bl/adj.可归因于，可能由于5.flexibility/?fleks??b?l?t?/n.灵活性；柔韧性6.coursework/?k?:sw?:k/n.课程作业7.cameraman/?k?m?r?m?n/n.摄影师8.outcome/?a?tk?m/n.结果9.cram/kr?m/v.挤满，塞满；临时死记硬背10.tactic/?t?kt?k/n.兵法；⽅法,策略；⼿段；招数11.stereotype/?ster??ta?p/n.模式化观念，⽼⼀套，刻板形象12.put off撤销，取消Passage4The Kids Can’t Help It（2010.12.16Newsweek）[372words]What new research reveals about the adolescentbrain—from why kids bully1to how the teen yearsshape the rest of your life.They say you never escape high school.And forbetter or worse,science is lending some credibility tothat old saw.Thanks to sophisticated imaging technology and a raft2of longitudinal3studies,we’re learning that the teen years are a period of crucial brain development subject to a host of environmental and genetic factors.This emerging research sheds4light not only on why teenagers act they way they do,but how the experiences of adolescence—from rejection to binge5 drinking—can affect who we become as adults,how we handle stress,and the way we bond with others.One of the most important discoveries in this area of study,says Dr.Frances Jensen,a neuroscientist at Harvard,is that our brains are not finished maturing by adolescence,as was previously thought.Adolescent brains“are only about80percentof the way to maturity,”she said at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in November.It takes until the mid-20s,and possibly later,for a brain to become fully developed.An excess of gray matter6(the stuff that does the processing)at the beginning of adolescence makes us particularly brilliant at learning—the reason we’re so good at picking up new languages starting in early childhood—but also particularly sensitive to the influences of our environment,both emotional and physical.Our brains’processing centers haven’t been fully linked yet,particularly the parts responsible for helping to check7our impulses8and considering the long-term repercussions9of our actions.“It’s like a brain that’s all revved10up not knowing where it needs to go,”says Jensen.It’s partially because of this developmental timeline that a teen can be so quick to conjure11a stinging remark,or a biting insult,and so uninhibited12in firing it off at the nearest unfortunate target—a former friend,perhaps,or a bewildered parent.The impulse to hurl13an insult14is there,just as it may be for an adult in a stressful situation,but the brain regions that an adult might rely on to stop himself from saying something cruel just haven’t caught up.1.bully/?b?l?/v.恐吓；充当恶霸，恃强凌弱2.raft/rɑ?ft/n.筏；橡⽪艇，充⽓船；⼤量3.longitudinal/?l?ntju?d?nl/adj.纵向的；纵观的；经度的4.shed/?ed/vt.散发出光；去除，摆脱；蜕，落5.binge/b?nd?/n.饮酒作乐；狂饮；狂闹6.gray matter灰质（脑、脊髓内神经元集中的地⽅）7.check/t?ek/v.检查，核验，核对；制⽌，控制8.impulse/??mp?ls/n.冲动；脉冲；刺激，推动⼒9.repercussion/?ri?p??kn/n.（间接的）反响，影响，恶果10.rev/rev/v.（发动机等）加快转速11.conjure/?k?n??/v.变魔术；使变戏法般地出现（或消失）12.uninhibited/??n?n?h?b?t?d/adj.⽆限制的;⽆拘束的,放任的13.hurl/h??l/vt.猛掷，猛扔；⼤声说出14.insult/?n?s?lt/n.侮辱；凌辱；⽆礼Passage5The Power of Posture(2011.1.13The Economist)[486words]“Stand up straight!”“Chest out!”“Shoulders back!”Theseare the perennial1cries of sergeant2majors and fussy3parentsthroughout the ages.Posture certainly matters.Big is dominantand in species after species,humans included,postures thatenhance the posturer’s apparent size cause others to treat him asif he were more powerful.The stand-up-straight brigade4,however,often make a further claim:that posture affects the way the posturer treats himself,as well as how others treat him.To test the truth of this,Li Huang and Adam Galinsky,at Northwestern University in Illinois,have compared posture’s effects onself-esteem with those of a more conventional ego-booster,management responsibility. In a paper just published in Psychological Science they conclude,surprisingly,that posture may matter more.The two researchers’experimental animals—77undergraduate students—first filled out questionnaires5,ostensibly6to assess their leadership capacity.Half were then given feedback forms which indicated that,on the basis of the questionnaires, theywere to be assigned to be managers in a forthcoming7experiment.The other half were told they would besubordinates8.While the participants waited for this feedback, they were asked to help with a marketing test on ergonomic9chairs.In fact,neither of these tests was what it seemed.The questionnaires were irrelevant.V olunteers were assigned to be managers or subordinates at random.The test of posture had nothing to do with ergonomics.And,crucially,each version of the posture test included equal numbers of those who would become“managers”and “subordinates”.Once the posture test was over the participants received their new statuses and the researchers measured theirimplicit10sense of power by asking them to engage in a word-completion task.Participants were instructed to complete a number of fragments11with the first word that came to mind.Seven of the fragments could be interpreted as words related to power(“power”,“direct”,“lead”,“authority”,“control”,“command”and“rich”).Although previous studies suggested a mere title is enough to produce a detectable increase in an individual’s sense of power,Dr Huang and Dr Galinsky found no difference in the word-completion scores of those told they would be managers and those told they would be subordinates.Having established the principle,Dr Huang and Dr Galinsky went on to test the effect of posture on other power-related decisions:whether to speak first in a debate, whether to leave the site of a plane crash to find help and whether to join a movement to free a prisoner who was wrongfully locked up.In all three cases those who had sat in expansive12postures chose the active option(to speak first,to search for help,to fight for justice)more often than those who had sat crouched13. The upshot14,then,is that father(or the sergeant major)was right.Those who walk around with their heads held high not only get the respect of others,they seem also to respect themselves.1.perennial/p??ren??l/adj.[植]多年⽣的；长久的，持续的2.sergeant/?sɑnt/n.[军]（英）陆军、空军、海军陆战队中⼠；（美）陆军或空军中⼠3.fussy/?f?s?/adj.挑剔的，⼤惊⼩怪的；紧张不安的4.brigade/?br?ɡe?d/n.旅；伙，帮，派5.questionnaire/?kwestn e?/n.问卷；调查表6.ostensibly/?s?tens?bl?/adv.表⾯上；明显地7.forthcoming/?f??θ?k?m??/adj.即将发⽣的；现成的；乐于提供信息的8.subordinate/s??b??d?n?t/n.下级，部属9.ergonomic/ɡn?m?k/adj.⼈类⼯程学的10.implicit/?m?pl?s?t/adj.不⾔明的，含蓄的11.fragment/?fr?ɡm?nt/n.碎⽚，⽚段12.expansive/?ks?p?ns?v/adj.⼴阔的，辽阔的；⼴泛的，全⾯的；友善健谈的，开朗的13.crouch/kraut?/vt.屈膝,蹲伏,蹲,蹲下14.upshot/??p??t/n.最后结果，结局Passage6How Rest Helps Memory:Sleepy Heads(2010.2.25The Economist)[402words]Mad dogs and Englishmen,so the song has it,go out in themidday sun.And the business practices of England’s linealdescendant1,America,will have you in the office from nine in themorning to five in the evening,if not longer.Much of the world,though,prefers to take a siesta2.And research presented to theAAAS meeting in San Diego suggests it may be right to do so.Ithas already been established that those who siesta are less likely todie of heart disease.Now,Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the University of California,Berkeley,have found that they probably have better memory, too.A post-prandial3snooze4,Dr Walker has discovered,sets the brain up for learning.The role of sleep in consolidating5memories that have already been created has been understood for some time.Dr Walker has been trying to extend this understanding by looking at sleep’s role in preparing the brain for the formation of memories in the first place.He was particularly interested in a type of memory called episodic6memory,which relates to specific events,places and times.This contrasts with procedural memory,of the skills required to perform some sort of mechanical task,such as driving.The theory he and his team wanted to test was that the ability to form new episodic memories deteriorates7with increased wakefulness,and that sleep thus restores the brain’s capacity for efficient learning.They asked a group of39people to take part in two learning sessions,one at noon and one at6pm.On each occasion the participants tried to memorise and recall 100combinations of pictures and names.After the first session they were assigned randomly to either a control group,which remained awake,or a nap group,which had 100minutes of monitored sleep. Those who remained awake throughout the day became worse at learning.Those who napped8,by contrast,actually improved their capacity to learn,doing better in the evening than they had at noon.These findings suggest that sleep is clearing the brain’s short-term memory and making way for new information.The benefits to memory of a nap,says Dr Walker,are so great that they can equal an entire night’s sleep.Hewarns,however,that napping must not be done too late in the day or it will interfere with night-time sleep.Moreover,not everyone awakens refreshed from a siesta.1.lineal descendant直系后裔2.siesta/s??est?/n.午睡，午休3.prandial/?pr?nd??l/adj.膳⾷的，正餐的4.snooze/snu:z/n.⼩睡5.consolidate/k?n?s?l?de?t/vt.使巩固，使加强；合并6.episodic/?ep??s?d?k/adj.偶尔发⽣的，不定期的；有许多⽚段的7.deteriorate/d??t??r??re?t/vi.恶化,退化；变坏8.nap/n?p/vi.⼩睡Passage7Learning Gap Between Rich and Poor Starts Early（2011.2Newsweek）[354words]It’s generally accepted that there is a correlationbetween a child’s educational attainment1and a family’spoverty level,but new research shows that the problemmay take root2earlier than previously thought.A new study in Psychological Science found that at10months old,children from poor families performed just as well as children from wealthier families,but by the time they turned2,children from wealthier families were scoring consistently higher than those from poorer ones.“Poor kids aren’t even doing as well in terms of school readiness,sounding out letters and doing other things that you would expect to be relevant to early learning,”Elliot M.Tucker-Drob of the University of Texas at Austin,lead author of the study, said in a press release.To conduct the study,researchers assessed the mental abilities of about750pairs of fraternal3and identical4twins from all over the U.S.The participants’socioeconomic status was determined based on parents’educational attainment, occupations and family income.Each child was asked to perform tasks that included pulling a string to ring a bell, placing three cubes in a cup,matching pictures and sorting pegs by color first at10 months and again when they were2years old.At this time,researchers discovered that during the14-month window between the aptitude5tests,gaps in cognitive6 development had started to occur.Children from wealthier families had started to consistently outperform those from poorer ones.Researchers attempted to disprove7a genetic explanation by comparing the aptitude tests of each set of twins.Among the2-year-olds from wealthier families, identical twins had much more similar test scores than fraternal twins,who share only half of their genes.However,among2-year-olds from poorer families,identical twins scored no more similar to one another than did fraternal twins.The implication is that children’s genetic potential is subdued8by poverty, though the study stopped short of drawing a scientific conclusion as to what specifically was causing the achievement gaps.Researchers did postulate9that, generally speaking,poorer parents may not have the time or resources to spend playing with their children in stimulating ways.1.attainment/??te?nm?nt/n.达到；成就，造诣2.take root⽣根；开始；建⽴3.fraternal/fr??t??nl/adj.兄弟般的，亲如⼿⾜的4.identical/a??dent?kl/adj.同⼀的，完全相同的5.aptitude/??pt?tju?d/n.天资，天赋6.cognitive/?k?ɡn?t?v/adj.认知的，认识的7.disprove/d?s?pru?v/vt.证明……是错的8.subdue/s?b?dju?/vt.征服；抑制，克制9.postulate/?p?stj?le?t/v.假定，假设Passage8More Than Meets the Mirror：Illusion1Test Links Difficulty Sensing InternalCues2with Distorted3Body-Image(2011.1.4Scientific America)[457words]With all of the New Year’s diet ads claiming you canlose dozens of pounds in seemingly as many days,youprobably are not alone if you looked in the mirror thismorning and saw a less than ideal body.Or maybe you justpicked up a new magazine in which already thin modelshave their remaining flesh scavenged4by Photoshop to make them appear even slimmer.With all of these unrealistic promises and images,it can be hard to gain an accurate sense of one’s own body.But the disjunction5for some people might go deeper than manipulated5photos.A new study shows that the way people perceive their external7appearance is likely linked to how they experience their bodies internally.Researchers found that people who had greater difficulties sensing their own internal bodily states were also more likely to be fooled into believing a rubber hand was part of their own bodies. These results,published online in the issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,may one day help scientists understand how body image can become so distorted in disorders like body dysmorphia8and anorexia nervosa9,says lead author Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway,University of London.“The sense of self is built up from a representation of internal states,”says Hugo Critchley,a professor of psychiatry at the University of Sussex in England who was not involved with the study.“This paper is showing that sensitivity of individuals to their internal state predicts the strength of their self-representation.”Most of the time,the image someone has of their body is pretty close to its external appearance.You may see your thighs10as slightly bigger than they actually are,or your arm muscles as slightly smaller,but the discrepancy11is usually minimal12.In some mental disorders,however,body image can become dramatically distorted.Those who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder think that parts of their bodies are malformed13or grotesque14,even when these supposed flaws are not noticeable to others.In eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa patients continue to think they need to lose weight even as their bodies waste away.Crucial to the formation of body image—pathological15and otherwise—is the integration of external and internal cues.What we see in the mirror and what we feel against our skin melds with16our own internal awareness of our bodies to create an overarching17body image.Scientists have historically focused on how external factors like magazines and fashion models affect the creation of an accurate body image.Tsakiris and his colleagues,however,hypothesized that a person’s internal awareness of his or her body,known as interoceptive18awareness,was also related to the creation of an accurate body image.1.illusion/??ljun/n.错觉，幻觉；假象2.cue/kju?/n.提⽰；暗⽰,暗号3.distorted/d?s?t??t?d/adj.变形的，扭曲的；歪曲的，曲解的4.scavenge/?sk?v?n?/v.（从废弃物中）觅⾷，捡破烂；吃（动物⼫体）5.disjunction/d?sk??n/n.分离，分裂6.manipulate/m??n?pj?le?t/vt.控制，操纵；操作，使⽤；正⾻7.external/?k?st??nl/adj.外部的，外⾯的；外界的，外来的；对外的8.dysmorphia/d?s?m??f??/n.[医]畸形,变形9.anorexia nervosa神经性厌⾷症10.thigh /θa?/n.股，⼤腿11.discrepancy/d?s?krep?ns?/n.差异，不符合，不⼀致12.minimal/?m?n?m?l/adj.极⼩的，极少的，最⼩的13.malformed/?m?l?f??md/adj.畸形的14.grotesque/ɡrtesk/adj.怪诞的，荒唐的；奇形怪状的15.pathological/?p?θ??lkl/adj.不理智的，⽆道理的；病态的；病理学的16.meld with与……融合；与……合并17.overarching/v?r?ɑ?t/adj.⾮常重要的，⾸要的18.interoceptive /??nt?r?u?sept?v/adj.内感受(器)的Passage9The Tussle1for Talent（2011.1.6The Economist）[432words]Plato believed that men are divided into three classes:gold,silver and bronze.Vilfredo Pareto,an Italianeconomist,argued that“the vital2few”account for mostprogress.Such sentiments are taboo today in public life.Politicians talk of a“leadership class”or“the vital few”attheir peril3.Schools abhor4picking winners.Universities welcome the masses:more people now teach at British ones than attended them in the 1950s.In the private sector5things could hardly be more different.The world’s best companies struggle relentlessly6to find and keep the vital few.They offer them fat pay packets,extra training,powerful mentors7and more challenging assignments.If anything,businesses are becoming more obsessed with ability.This is partly cyclical8.Deloitte and other consultancies have noticed that as the economy begins to recover,companies are trying harder to nurture raw talent,or to poach9it from their rivals.When new opportunities arise,they hope to have the brainpower to seize them.The acceleration of the tussle for talent is also structural, however.Private-equity firms rely heavilyon a few stars.High-tech firms,for all their sartorial10egalitarianism11,are ruthless12about recruiting the brightest.Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyer13s—the younger the better—who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with“talentdevelopment”.Jack Welch and /doc/2e5e0328482fb4daa58d4b15.html fley,former bosses of GE and P&G,claimed that they spent40%of their time on personnel.Andy Grove,who ran Intel,a chipmaker14,obliged all the senior people,including himself,to spend at least a week a year teaching high-flyers.Nitin Paranjpe,the boss of Hindustan Unilever,recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices.Involving the company’s top brass15in the process prevents lower-level managers from monopolising16high-flyers(and taking credit for their triumphs).It also creates a dialogue between established and future leaders.Successful companies also integrate talent development with their broader strategy.This ensures that companies are more than the sum of their parts.Adrian Dillon,a former chief financial officer of Agilent,a firm that makes high-tech measuring devices,says he would rather build a“repertory17company”than a “collection of world experts”.P&G likes its managers to be both innovative and worldly:they cannot rise to the top without running operations in a country and managing a product globally.Agilent and Novartis like to turn specialists into general managers.Goodyear replaced23of its24senior managers in two years as it shifted from selling tyres to carmakers to selling them to motorists.1.tussle/t?sl/n.扭打；争论；争⽃；奋⽃2.vita l/?va?tl/adj.⽣命的；充满活⼒的；⽣死攸关的；极其重要的3.peril/?per?l/n.严重危险；祸害，险情4.abhor/?b?h??/vt.痛恨，憎恶5.sector/?sekt?/n.[数]扇形；两脚规；部分；部门6.relentlessly/r??lentl?sl?/adv.残酷地，⽆情地；不停地，不减弱地7.mentor /?men?t??/n.私⼈教师，辅导教师；良师益友8.cyclical/?sa?kl?kl/adj.周期的，循环的9.poach/p??t?/vt.⽔煮；偷猎；盗⽤，挖⾛（⼈员）10.sartorial/sɑ??t??r??l/adj.服装的，男装的，⾐着的11.egalitarianism/??ɡ?l??te?r??n?z?m/n.平等主义，平均主义12.ruthless/?ru?θl?s/adj.⽆情的，冷酷的;残忍的13.high-flyer/?ha?fla??/n.抱负极⾼的⼈；有野⼼的⼈14.chipmaker/?t??p?me?k?/n.集成块制造者；半导体(元件)制造商15.top brass要员16.monopolise/m??n?p?la?z/vt.垄断，独占；占去（⼤部分时间、精⼒），霸占17.repertory/?rep?tr?/n.保留剧⽬轮演Passage10What Is a Medically Induced Coma1and Why Is It Used?（2011.1.10Scientific America）[497words]Basically what happens with a medically induced。
考研英语时文阅读(25)
考研时文阅读(25)"医学之父"希波克拉底说过："让食物变成你的药，让药变成你的食物。
"作为一个生于公元前五世纪的希腊人，他的智慧远远超越了他所处的时代。
如今，我们知道低脂肪而富含全麦、水果和蔬菜的饮食结构能增强我们的免疫力，并能减少癌症、心脏病和中风的发病率。
但是，这些还不完全。
新的证据显示食品可能会影响健康人的思考和感觉方式。
如果希波克拉底今天还在世的话，他也许会回顾他吃过的最后一顿饭，解释他兴奋（或忧伤）的心情。
他可能还会改变自己的饮食习惯，使自己变得更幸福或更聪明。
Can milk make you happy?Can fish make you smart?Picture yourself lying in bed, your mind in turmoil. You toss and turn, but sleep won't come. Maybe a bedtime snack would help. What should you choose? If you think first of toaster waffles or popcorn, some experts would say you're on the right track. Foods high in complex carbohydrates---such as cereals, potatoes, pasta, crackers, or rice cakes---make many people relaxed and drowsy.Missed that one? Try again. Suppose the weather's rotten, you forgot your homework, and your best friend's mad at you. What's good medicine when you're feeling low? A sugary cola or candy may give you a quick lift, but you'll crash just as quickly. Better choices may be Brazil nuts (for selenium), skim milk (for calcium), or a spinach salad (for folic acid). In research studies, all three of those nutrients have been shown to lift spirits and battle the blues.Try one more. You have a math test coming up in the afternoon. You want to be sharp, but you usually feel sleepy after lunch. Is your best choice an energy fix of fries and a shake or a broiled chicken breast and low-fat yogurt? If you pick the high-fat fries and shake, you may feel sluggish and blow that test. The protein-rich chicken and yogurt are better choices. Protein foods energize, some experts say.How does food affect mood and mind? The answer may lie in the chemistry of the brain and nervous system. Molecules called neurotransmitters are chemical messengers. They carry a nerve impulse across the gap between nerve cells. The release of neurotransmitter molecules from one neuron and their attachment to receptor sites on another keep a nerve impulse moving.Nerve impulses carry messages from the environment to the brain, for example, the pain you feel when you stub your toe. They also carry messages in the other direction, from the brain to the muscles. That's why you back away from the obstacle that initiated the pain signal and exclaim, "Ouch!""Many neurotransmitters are built from the foods we eat," says neuroscientist Eric Chudler of the University of Washington. Too little or too much of a particular nutrient in the diet can affect their production, Chudler says. For example, tryptophan from foods such as yogurt, milk, bananas, and eggs is required for the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Phenylalanine from beets, almonds, eggs, meat, and grains goes into making the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dozens of neurotransmitters are known; hundreds may exist. Their effects depend on their amounts and where they work in the brain. The neurotransmitter serotonin, for example, is thought to produce feelings of calmness, relaxation, and contentment. Drugs that prevent its reuptake (into the neuron that released it) are prescribed to treat depression. In at least some healthy, non-depressed people, carbohydrate foods seem to enhance serotonin production and produce similar effects. "It is the balance between different neurotransmitters that helps regulate mood," Chudler says.Proper nutrition may also enhance brainpower. Chorine is a substance similar to the B vitamins. It's found in egg yolks, whole wheat, peanuts, milk, green peas, liver, beans, seafood, and soybeans. The brain uses it to make the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. To test the effects of chorine on memory and learning, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave memory tests to college students before increasing the amount of chorine in their subjects’ diets. Later, they retested. On the average, memories were better, and the students learned a list of unrelated words more easily.核心词汇picture v. 想象，设想; (常后接介词as) ，相当于imagineturmoil n. 骚动，混乱（disorder=mess）snack n. 小吃，零食；on the right track(在合适或正确的小路或轨道上)，比喻为：做某事情是对的。