【二轮专题练】（七）概要写作专项
A
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While it takes time, energy and money that could surely be put to a much more productive use, there are millions of collectors around the world. People collect postcards, chocolate wrappers or whatever they like. Collecting must be one of the most varied human activities, and it’s one that many psychologists find fascinating. Many forms of collecting have been dignified with a technical name: an arctophilist collects teddy bears, a philatelist collects postage stamps and a deltiologist collects postcards.
There are people who collect something because they want to make money, and this could be called an instrumental reason for collecting, that is, collecting as a means to an end. They will look for, say, antiques (古董) that they can buy cheaply and expect to be able to sell at a profit. But there may well be a psychological factor too: buying cheap and selling dear can keep the collector a sense of achievement. And as selling online is so easy, more people are joining in.
If you think about collecting postage stamps, another potential reason for it is its educational value. Stamp collecting opens a window to other countries and to the plants, animals or famous people shown on the stamps. Similarly, in the nineteenth century many collectors amassed (积累) animals and plants from around the globe and their collections provide a vast amount of information about the natural world. Without those collections, our understanding would be greatly inferior to what it is.
Not all collectors are interested in learning from their hobby, though, so what we might call a psychological reason for collecting is the need for a sense of control and a sense of fulfillment, perhaps as a way of dealing with insecurity. Stamp collectors, for instance, arrange their stamp albums, usually very neatly, organizing their collections according to certain commonplace principles — perhaps by country in alphabetic order or grouping stamps by what they describe — people, birds, maps and so on.
B
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Work is a very important part of life in the United States. When the early immigrants came to this country, they brought the idea that work was the way to God and heaven. This attitude still influences America today. Work is not only important for the salary, but also for social and psychological working, being productive. For most Americans, they are what they do. What happens, then, when a person retires at the age of sixty-five or seventy? It’s easy to imagine that retirement is no easy thing. Retirees often feel they are unproductive and no longer needed by others.
Once people retire, they may also get into financial trouble. Many people rely on Social Security checks every month. During their working years, employees contribute a certain percentage of their salaries to the government. When people retire, they receive this money as income. These checks do not provide enough money to live on, however, because prices are increasing very rapidly. After retirement, they have to change their lifestyles. They have to spend carefully to be sure that they can afford to buy food, fuel, and other necessities.
Of course, not all senior citizens feel sad when they are in face of retirement. Working for so
many years, they eventually have time to spend with their families or to enjoy their hobbies such as reading, traveling or joining some senior citizen clubs. Some continue to work part time; others choose to do volunteer work like helping young people to get started in new business.
American government is taking steps to ease the problems of retired people. They are building new housing, offering discounts in stores and museums and on buses, and providing other services, such as free courses, food service, and help with housework. It is wise to do so. Retired citizens are an important part of the population and their special needs must be concerned about. After all, everyone will be a senior citizen someday.
C
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In recent weeks, a report on the value of homework has been raising concern. In a word, homework for elementary school children is not beneficial. Texas teacher Brandy Young has her own view. Instead of filling up the extra free time with sports or extracurricular activities, Mrs Young requested that parents take time to be with their children. “I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with students’ success, such as eating dinner as a family, reading together, playing outside and getting your child to bed early,” she said.
The fact that Mrs Young’s note has drawn public attention suggests just how unusual and appreciated her advice is. But while her advice is rare, it corresponds (符合) with one of the three elements that medical doctor Leonard Sax believes is a forgotten aspect of parenting, enjoying your children.
In his book, The Collapse of Parenting, Sax notes that so many parents who are occupied with checking their e-mails and making sure that their child doesn’t miss out on opportunities often miss out on the biggest opportunity of all: time together. Sax writes: “Enjoy the time you have with your kids. That means no devices at mealtime. When you are sitting at the table together, the focus should be on interaction. Listen to your child and talk with your child. Those who fail to do so send an unintended message that relaxed time together as a family is the lowest priority of all.”
In modern America, the family unit has fallen into deeper and deeper disorder. The public education system has stepped in to pick up the slack by becoming a substitute “expert parent” who will guide children to success and a functional future. But if the recent chaos and low academic scores in the schools can’t be solved, such a method isn’t working there either. If we want to see improved academic and behavioral success coming out of our schools, are we going to need more teachers and experts like Mrs Young and Dr Sax to encourage and enable families to spend more time with one another?
D
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We know about the power of expectations. Here are five ways to maximize their power in your classroom. There is a strange but important difference between aspiration (抱负) and expectation. Aspirations are about wanting to be better, while expectations convey a belief about the likelihood of success. Raising expectations has been proven to help pupils, but the same effect can’t be achieved by aspirations. The Education Endowment Foundation reviewed on aspirations and found that interventions which aim to raise aspirations have little positive impact on
educational achievement. But if expectations are set at the right level, to be both challenging and realistic, they can help students to improve their performance and academic achievement.
Research suggests that the effect of expectations is mostly pronounced at the start of the school year or at the beginning of new tasks and topics. This is because students tend to start projects with an open mind about how they should do — and they are looking for guidance on how to achieve success. Make sure they hear a positive voice — full of belief and confidence that they can succeed — before their self-doubt starts to come in.
Psychologists have calculated that when high expectations are only coming from teachers, they will only help a minority of students. Parents also play a huge role in shaping young people’s opinions on seeing themselves. A recent review on how parents can help their children succeed at school found that high expectations had the greatest impact. Valuing education and expecting children to succeed convey the importance and likelihood of success in school.
A word of caution is needed when it comes to expectations. More is not always better. Evidence suggests that when expectations are unrealistic — that is, if they far exceed (超越) a child’s ability — this can lead to a downturn in academic performance. Furthermore, these excessive expectations can be a source of stress and anxiety for students. When it comes to expectations, it seems that challenging but realistic should be the guiding principle.
E
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The brown widow spider became established in Southern California in early 2000 and has become part of the local spider family in urban Los Angeles and San Diego. The brown widow spider is continuing its expansion in Southern California and could possibly move northward into Central California.
The brown widow is suspected to have evolved in Africa although it was first described from South America, which adds confusion as to where it might have originated. It is a tropical and subtropical spider having established populations in Hawaii, Florida, parts of Australia, South Africa and Japan.
The brown widow builds its web in protected sites around homes and in woody vegetation with branches. Some typical sites selected by brown widows for web building are empty containers such as buckets and nursery pots, entry way corners, storage closets and garages. They choose places that are more exposed than sites chosen by black widows and therefore, appear to be at higher risk for interactions with humans as far as bites are concerned.
One recent study demonstrates that the brown widow spider is less poisonous than other widow species. The reason for the weaker effect of brown widow bites on humans is possibly because the brown widow does not have much poison as its larger relatives, but it is really a threat to humans as to its poison. The two major symptoms of a brown widow bite were that the bite hurt when it was given and it left a red mark.
There is no specific information regarding the control of brown widows by farm chemicals. Most current advice is what is used for controlling spiders in general. Therefore, most commercially available farm chemicals should work on brown widows. Avoiding a mess of the house and the garage should reduce nest sites for them. Also, one should store garage items in plastic bags where there might be interactions with spiders.
F
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Cycling isn’t always easy. Busy streets, honking horns, and inadequate bike lanes can make it an uphill battle. But not even these difficulties can stop Europeans’ passion for cycling. According to BBC, bicycles outsold cars in 26 of the European Union’s 28 states last year.
There are traditional “bicycle capitals”, such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Copenhagen in Denmark. But in many other traditionally car-made countries, the shift to bikes is striking. Italians, for instance, bought 1.6 million bikes against 1.4 million cars in 2012.
So what has led to cycling’s growing popularity in Europe?
The economic crisis has played an important role in the issue. “The economic crisis has had an effect on all areas of people’s lives, including on transport,” Giulietta Pagliaccio, head of the Italian cycling federation FIAB, told the Australian Associated Press.
Since the European debt crisis broke out in 2009, more people have lost their jobs while the cost of living, including fuel costs, continued to rise. It forced many people to give up driving to save money, the Guangzhou-based New Express commented. Take Greece, a country seriously hit by the crisis, for example. It sold 320,000 bikes last year against 58,000 cars.
More importantly, people have changed their views toward cars and bikes. Cars are losing their appeal as status symbols. Yet, cycling is now seen as “a safe, clean, healthy, inexpensive way to get around town”, the Daily Star concluded. “It not only reduces traffic jam and pollution, but also contributes to public health.”
However, with more and more people turning to cycling, questions remain about traffic and safety problems.
To ease people’s worries, dozens of cities have joined a European Union initiative to make bicycles equal to cars as a form of urban transport. Quite a few cities now offer well-marked bike lanes, such as the cycling super-highway marked in blue in London. It runs all over the city, from the center to the suburbs.
G
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A father’s relationship to his child’s current and future academic success and the level of his or her development in academic potential and scholastic achievement are both factors with some rather interesting implications that educators are beginning to study. As a matter of fact, “life with father” has been discovered to be a very important factor in determining a child’s progress or lack of progress in school.
A recent survey of over 16,000 children made by the National Child Development Study in London revealed that children whose fathers came to school conferences and accompanied their children on outings did better in school than those children whose fathers were not involved in those activities. The study, which monitored children born during a week in March, 1992, from the time of their birth through the years of their early schooling, further revealed that the children of actively involved fathers scored much higher in reading and math than those children whose only involved parent was the mother. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role played by fathers in the raising of a child. It indicated a much higher level of parental involvement by the father than had been anticipated. Over 66% of the fathers were said to have played a major role in parental responsibility.