How We Form First Impression We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her—aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits? The answer is related to how your brain allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits. Even very minor difference in how a person’ s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information—the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming signals are compared against a host of “memories “stored in the brain areas called the cortex(皮质)system to determine what these new signals “mean“. If you see someone you know and like at school, your brain says “ familiar and safe“. If you see someone new it says, “new and potentially threatening“. Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other ““known“memories. The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics are, the more your brain may say, “This is new, I don’t like this person“. Or else, “!’ m intrigued(好奇的)“. Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures—like your other friends; so your brain says, “I like this person“. But these preliminary “impressions“can be dead wrong. When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking(not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child)that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than learn about the depth and breadth of people—their history, interest values, strengths, and true character—we categorize them as jocks(骗子), peeks(反常的人), or freaks(怪人). However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’ s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking—and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.

There was an inclination to treat geography as a less important subject. point tendency result finding

She felt that she had done her good deed for the day. act homework justice model

A. making children laugh B. almost everything C. a lot of money D. his childhood memories E. telling scary stories F. a number of reasons

The group does not advocate the use of violence. limit regulate oppose support

The department deferred the decision for six months. put off arrived at abided by protested against

That uniform makes the guards look absurd. serious ridiculous beautiful impressive

The country was torn apart by strife. poverty war conflict economy

His professional career spanned 16 years. started changed moved lasted

When Our Words Collide “Wanna buy a body?“ That was the opening line of more than a few phone calls I got from freelance(自由职业)photographers when I was a photo editor at U. S. News. Like many in the mainstream press, I wanted to separate the world of photographers into “ them“ , who trade in pictures of bodies or chase celebrities, and ’’us“ , the serious news people. But after 16 years in that role, I came to wonder whether the two worlds were easily distinguishable. Working in the reputable world of journalism, I assigned photographers to cover other people ’ s nightmares. I justified invading moments of grief, under the guise(借口)of the reader’ s right to know. I didn’ t ask photographers to trespass(冒犯)or to stalk(跟踪), but I didn’ t have to. 1 worked with pros(同行)who did what others did, talking their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines to get pictures I was after. And I wasn’ t alone. In the aftermath of a car crash or some other hideous incident when ordinary people are hurt or killed, you rarely see photographers pushing past rescue workers to capture the blood and gore(血腥场面). But you are likely to see local newspaper and television photographers on the scene—and fast. How can we justify our behavior? Journalists are taught to separate doing the job from worrying about the consequence of publishing what they record. Repeatedly, they are reminded of a news-business dictum(格言): leave your conscience in the office. You get the picture of the footage; the decision whether to print or air it comes later. A victim may lie bleeding, unconscious, or dead;your job is to record the image. You put away your emotions and document the scene. We act this way partly because we know that the pictures can have important meaning. Photographs can change deplorable(凄惨的)situations by mobilizing public outrage or increase public understanding. However, disastrous events often bring out the worst in photographers and photo editors. In the first minutes and hours after a disaster occurs, photo agencies buy pictures. Often an agency buys a picture from a local newspaper or an amateur photographer and put it up for bid by major magazines. The most keenly sought “exclusives“ command tens of thousands of dollars through bidding contests. Many people believe that journalists need to change the way they do things, and it’ s our pictures that annoy people the most. Readers may not believe, as we do, that there is a distinction between sober-minded us and sleazy(低级庸俗的)“them“. In too many cases, by our choices of images as well as how we get them, we prove our readers right.

The Storyteller 1 Steven Spielberg has always had one goal: to tell as many interesting stories to as many people as possible. The son of a computer scientist and a pianist, Spielberg spent his early childhood in New Jersey and then Arizona. Some of his childhood memories became the inspiration for his filmmaking. 2 Even decades later, Spielberg says he has vivid memories of his earliest years, which are the origins of some of his most successful films. He believes that E. T. is the result of the difficult years leading up to his parent s 1966 divorce. He commented, “ It is really about a young boy who was in search of some stability in his life. “ Close Encounters of the Third Kind was inspired by times when the four-year-old Steven and his father would search the skies for meteors(流星). His mother remembers, “ He was scared of just about everything. When trees brushed against the house, he would jump into my bad. And that’ s just the kind of scary stuff he would put in films like Poltergeist. “ 3 Spielberg was 11 when he first got his hands on his dad’ s movie camera and began shooting short flicks(电影)about flying saucers(飞碟)and World War TJ battles. These homemade movies gave him a way to escape his fears. From the very beginning, he had a creative imagination. With his talent for scary storytelling, he could terrify his three younger sisters. It also made it easier for him to make friendships. On Boy Scout camping trips, when night fell, young Steven became the center of attention. “ Steven would start telling his ghost stories, “says Richard Y. Hoffman. Jr. , leader of Troop 294, “and everyone would suddenly get quiet so that they could all hear. “ 4 Spielberg moved to California with his father and went to high school there, but his grades were so bad that he barely graduated. Both UCLA and USC film schools rejected him, so he entered California State University at Long Beach because it was close to Hollywood. Spielberg was determined to make movies, and he managed to get an unpaid, non-credit internship(实习)in Hollywood. Soon he was given a contract, and he dropped out of college. He never looked back. 5 Now, many years later, Spielberg is still telling stories with as much passion as when he was a boy. Ask him where he gets his ideas, and Spielberg will shrug. “The process for me is mostly intuitive, “ he says. “There are films that I feel that I need to make. And it’ s for a variety of reasons, for personal reasons, or because I just want to have fun. Or maybe because the subject matter is cool, and I think that my kids will like it. “ A. Getting Into the Movie Business B. Inspirations for His Movies C. An Aim of Life D. Telling Stories to Make Friends E. The Trouble of Making Movies F. A Funny Man

How We Form First Impression We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her—aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits? The answer is related to how your brain allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits. Even very minor difference in how a person’ s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information—the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming signals are compared against a host of “memories “stored in the brain areas called the cortex(皮质)system to determine what these new signals “mean“. If you see someone you know and like at school, your brain says “ familiar and safe“. If you see someone new it says, “new and potentially threatening“. Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other ““known“memories. The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics are, the more your brain may say, “This is new, I don’t like this person“. Or else, “!’ m intrigued(好奇的)“. Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures—like your other friends; so your brain says, “I like this person“. But these preliminary “impressions“can be dead wrong. When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking(not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child)that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than learn about the depth and breadth of people—their history, interest values, strengths, and true character—we categorize them as jocks(骗子), peeks(反常的人), or freaks(怪人). However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’ s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking—and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.

Wrongly Convicted Man and His Accuser Tell Their Story NEW YORK, NY, January 5, 2010. St. Martin’ s Press has announced the release of the paperback edition of Picking Cotton, a remarkable true story of what novelist John Grisham calls an “ account of violence, rage, redemption(救赎), and ultimately forgiveness. “ The story began in 1987, in Burlington, North Carolina, with the rape of a young while college student named Jennifer Thompson. During her ordeal, Thompson swore to herself that she would never forget the face of her rapist, a man who climbed through the window of her apartment and assaulted her brutally. 【B1】______When the police asked her if she could identify the assailant(袭击者)from a book of mug shots, she picked one that she was sure was correct, and later she identified the same man in a lineup. Based on her convincing eyewitness testimony, a 22-year-old black man named Ronald Cotton was sentenced to prison for two life terms. Cotton’ s lawyer appealed the decision, and by the time of the appeals hearing, evidence had come to light suggesting that the real rapist might have been a man who looked very like Cotton, an imprisoned criminal named Bobby Poole. 【B2】______Jennifer Thompson looked at both men face to face, and once again said that Ronald Cotton was the one who raped her. Eleven years later, DNA evidence completely exonerated(证明......清白)Cotton and just as unequivocally (明确地)convicted Poole, who confessed to the crime.【B3】______“The man I was so sure I had never seen in my life was the man who was inches from my throat, who raped me, who hurt me, who took my spirit away, who robbed me of my soul, “ she wrote. “And the man I had identified so surely on so many occasions was absolutely innocent. “ 【B4】______Remarkably both were able to put this tragedy behind them, overcome the racial barrier that divided them, and write a book, which they have subtitled “Our memoir of injustice and redemption“. Nevertheless, Thompson says, she still lives “with constant pain that my profound mistake cost him so dearly, 【B5】______“ A. Jennifer Thompson decided to meet Cotton and apologize to him personally. B. Many criminals are sent to prison on the basis of accurate testimony by eyewitnesses. C. I cannot begin to imagine what would have happened had my mistaken identification occurred in a capital case. D. Another trial was held. E. Thompson was shocked and devastated. F. During the attack, she made an effort to memorize every detail of his face, looking for scars, tattoos(纹身), or other identifying marks.

Obesity(肥胖)Causes Global Warming The list of ills attributable to obesity keeps growing: Last week, obese people were accused of causing global warming. This【C1】______comes from Sheldon Jacobson of the University, of Illinois, US, and a doctoral student, Laura McLay. Their study【C2】______how much extra gasoline is needed to haul fat Americans around. The answer, they say, is a billion gallons of gas per year. It【C3】______an extra 11 million tons of carbon dioxide. There have been【C4】______for taxes on junk food in recent years. US economist Martin Schmidt suggests a tax on fast food【C5】______to people ’ s cars. “ We tax cigarettes partly because of their health cost, “ Schmidt said. “Similarly, leading a lazy lifestyle will end【C6】______costing taxpayers more. US political scientist Eric Oliver said his first instinct was to laugh at these gas and fast food arguments. But such【C7】______are getting attention. At the US Obesity Society’ s annual meeting, one person【C8】______obesity with car accident deaths, and another correlated obesity with suicides. No one asked whether there was really a cause-and-effect relationship. “The funny thing was that everyone took it【C9】______, “ Oliver said. In a 1960s study, children were【C10】______drawings of children with disabilities and without them , and a drawing of an obese child. They were asked【C11】______they would want for a friend? The obese child was picked last. Three researchers recently repeated the study【C12】______college students. Once again, 【C13】______ no one, not even obese people, liked the obese person. But, researchers say, getting【C14】______is not like quitting smoking. People struggle to stop smoking, and, in the end, many succeed. Obesity is different. Science has shown that they have limited personal control over their weight. Genes also【C15】______a part.

New secretaries came and went with monotonous regularity. amazing depressing predictable dull

The committee was asked to render a report on the housing situation. furnish copy publish summarize

The original experiment cannot be exactly duplicated. reproduced invented designed reported

The symptoms of the disease manifested themselves ten days later. eased appeared improved relieved

Some of the larger birds can remain stationary in the air for several minutes. silent motionless seated 真

A person’ s wealth is often in inverse proportion to their happiness. equal certain large opposite

His stomach felt hollow with fear. sincere “ respectful terrible empty

Our first impression of someone new is influenced by his or her______.

If you meet a stranger with familiar gestures, your brain is most likely to say______

The word “preliminary“ in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to______.

Our thinking is not mature enough when we stereotype people because______.

Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?