注意:请将答案写在答题纸上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填一个单词。
―HELL is a city much like London,‖ said Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819. Modern academics agree. Last year Dutch researchers showed that city dwellers (居民) have a 21% higher risk of suffering from anxiety disorders than do their calmer rural countrymen, and a 39% higher risk of suffering from mood disorders. But exactly how the inner workings of the urban and rural minds cause this difference has remained unclear—until now. A study just published in Nature by Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg of the University of Heidelberg and his colleagues has used a scanning technique called functional magnetic-resonance imaging (机能性磁共振成像,简称fMRI) to examine the brains of city dwellers and countrymen when they are under stress.
In Dr Meyer-Lindenberg’s first experiment, participants lying with their heads in a scanner took maths tests that they were bound to fail (the researchers had designed success rates to be just 25-40%). To make the experience still more embarrassing, the team provided negative feedback through headphones, all the while checking participants for indications of stress, such as high blood pressure.
The city people’s general mental health did not differ from that of the rural countrymen. However, their brains dealt with the stress caused by the experimenters in different ways. These differences were noticeable in two regions: the amygdalas (杏仁核) and the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (前扣带皮层,简称pACC).
People living in the countryside had the lowest levels of activity in their amygdalas. Those living in towns had higher levels. City dwellers had the highest. In the case of the pACC, however, what mattered was not where someone was living now, but where he or she was brought up. The more urban a person’s childhood, the more active his pACC, regardless of where he was dwelling at the time of the experiment.
The amygdalas thus seem to respond to the here-and-now while the pACC is programmed early on, and does not react in the same, flexible way as the amygdalas. Second-to-second changes in its activity might, though, be expected to be connected with changes in the amygdalas, because of its role in regulating them. fMRI allows such connections to be measured.
In the cases of those brought up in the countryside, regardless of where they now live, the connections were as expected. For those brought up in cities, however, these connections broke down. The regulatory mechanism of the native urbanite, in other words, seems to be out of order.
Dr Meyer-Lindenberg and his team conducted several more experiments to check their findings. They asked participants to complete more maths tests—and also tests in which they were mentally ups and downs—while investigators scolded them about their performance. The results matched those of the first test. They also studied another group of volunteers, who were given stress-free tasks to complete.
These experiments showed no activity in either the amygdalas or the pACC, suggesting that the earlier results were indeed the result of social stress rather than mental effort. As is usually the case in studies of this sort, the sample size was small and the result showed an association, rather than a definite, causal relationship. That association is, nevertheless, interesting. Living in cities brings many benefits, but Dr Meyer-Lindenberg’s work suggests that Shelley and his fellow Romantics had at least half a point. Title: Do urban brains behave differently from rural ones? Purpose of the research Process of the research 78. ▲ on the findings Conclusion of the research
第五部分 书面表达(满分25分)
81. 请阅读Farewell Letter的节选,并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
It is the social stress rather than mental effort that leads to mental disorders, so living in cities also brings some 80. ▲ . Findings of the research Design of the research The research was conducted to explain why city dwellers are more likely to 71. ▲ serious disorders than countrymen. ? The researchers made the participants take difficult maths tests and provided negative feedback, which served as the source of 72. ▲ for the participants. ? Meanwhile the researchers scanned their brains and got indications by a scanning technique called fMRI . ? The activity level in the amygdalas is highest in city dwellers, 73. ▲ by those living in towns and the countryside. Besides, the amygdalas respond 74. ▲ . ? The activity level of a person’s pACC, regulating the amygdalas, is 75. ▲ by the place where he was raised, and the pACC works when a person is at a 76. ▲ age. ? The association between the amygdalas and the pACC depends on a person’s living 77. ▲ . Several more experiments were carried out with 79. ▲ results. … There is always tomorrow, and life gives us another opportunity to do things right, but in case I am wrong, and today is all that is left to me, I would love to tell you how much I love you and that I will never forget you. Tomorrow is never guaranteed to anyone, young or old. Today could be the last time to see your loved ones, which is why you mustn’t wait; do it today, in case tomorrow never arrives. I am sure you will be sorry you wasted the opportunity today to give a smile, a hug, a kiss, and that you were too busy to grant them their last wish. Keep your loved ones near you; tell them in their ears and to their faces how much you need them and love them. Love them and treat them well; take your time to tell them ―I am sorry‖, ―forgive me‖, ―please‖, ―thank you‖, and all those loving words you know! Nobody will know you for your secret thought. Ask the Lord for wisdom and strength to express them. Show your friends and loved ones how important they are to you. …
【写作内容】
1. 用约30个单词概述上面节选的主要内容;
2. 简要分析现代社会部分人忽视表达爱的原因(至少两点); 3. 谈谈你该如何珍惜周围的人。 【写作要求】
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句; 2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称; 3. 不必写标题。 【评分标准】
内容完整,语言规范,语篇连贯,词数适当。
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