选择知识点

B

Read the directions of the medicine before you take it.

         Tablespoonful  汤匙   teaspoonful茶匙     dose 剂量

The following is a timetable in Shanghai Pudong International Airport．

Goldfish have pretty boring lives, so maybe it’s a good thing they can only concentrate for nine seconds! But according to new research, humans are becoming like goldfish. Our attention span (时长) is getting shorter ...and it’s all because of technology.　

“We move quickly from one site to another on the web,”says Doctor Ted Selker,  a computer scientist from Massachusetts,“and we are losing the ability to concentrate.”With millions of websites to choose from, the attention span of the average internet user is just seconds. There are other digital distractions（分心）too: email, instant messaging and quickie movies on websites. Some people are worried about the effect on young people.“You need time to understand and think about what you read,”says Julia Wood, from London.“Young people search the net all the time and their brains become full of useless information but there is no time to make sense of it. I am trying to persuade my pupils to read more books, so that they concentrate on one subject for longer.”　　

Other teachers are trying more unusual methods to improve students’ concentration.AnneSavan, from Wales, was so worried about her students that she started playing Mozart during her science lessons. She says that it had an amazing effect:“The music made them calmer, and their concentration was much better.”　　

But not everyone believes that there is a problem. Ray Cole, an educational psychologist says:“On the web, young people learn to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t worth reading.

They might look at five unhelpful websites very quickly, before stopping and reading a sixth useful website more carefully. In a world with so much information available, this is an important skill.”

A

Vacation

If you visited your Qzone, Youku.com or other social media websites recently, you might have thought that some famous people and even some of your friends had gone mad.

They took buckets(桶) of icy water and poured them over their heads. They recorded the process, and even asked you to join them!

Welcome to the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge is simple: When challenged, one either pours a bucket of icy water over his or her head or donates $100 to the ALS(肌萎缩侧索硬化) Organization. He or she can do both, of course.

As the challenge has got more and more popular, however, I think that it has lost its real meaning. The activity’s initial(最初的) purpose was to make more people pay attention to ALS and donate money for scientists to treat the disease. However, the videos have caught people’s attention too far from the real purpose of the activity. Many people did it just for fun or to follow the trend(潮流). They didn’t even know what ALS was, let alone donate money to the charity.

Some people even tried hard to take the challenge in a funny way. They didn’t know how bad the ALS patients would feel if they watched those videos.

At the same time, the world is facing another challenge — the water crisis(危机). According to The Washington Post, the Ice Bucket Challenge had already used over 5 million gallons (14 million liters) of water by August, which put the world’s freshwater reserves(储存) under a lot of pressure.

In short, the Ice Bucket Challenge has changed from a good thing to a show. ALS patients need our kindness, help and respect. We should do something to help them.

C

     Children usually love dogs. And even those who are afraid of them at first grow to love these lovely animals once they get to know them. So let’s find out which small dogs is the most suitable as a pet for your child, in case your little one is asking for a dog of his/her own.

      When you choose a dog for children, a number of factors need to be kept in mind. People usually choose a dog based on its looks. However, looks can be cheating, as a lovely looking dog might be aggressive, and a strong looking dog might be gentle. Therefore, it is very important to choose a dog based on its character, rather than its looks. Some dogs are known to be very amicable and gentle, while other dogs are unfriendly and rude. However, one should not choose a dog based only on its breed either, as there are always exceptions. The character of a dog depends on the individual dog, as much as it does on the breed it belongs to.

        Another factor that needs to be kept in mind, while you choose small dogs for your child, is the character of the child who is going to be with the dog. If the child is active, the dog should be energetic, strong, and patient, so that it can take all the actions the child gives it. On the other hand, if the child has a quiet nature, a dog that is gentle, calm and sensitive will be more suitable.

       It is also good to have a dog that is easy to train, so that it can be taught to behave properly with children. This will ensure that the child is safe with the dog. However, it is not a good idea to leave a young child alone with a dog.