2018.12的第三套六级题的阅读部分

Children with attention problems in early childhood were 40% less likely
to graduate from high school, says a new study from Duke University.

The study included 386 kindergarteners from schools in the Fast Track
Project, a multi-site clinical trial in the U.S. that in 1991 began tracking
how children developed across their lives.

With this study, researchers examined early academic attention and
socio-emotional skills and how each contributed to academic success into young
adulthood.

They found that early attention skills were the most consistent predictor
of academic success, and that likability by peers also had a modest effect
on academic performance.

By fifth grade, children with early attention difficulties had lower
grades and reading achievement scores than their peers. As fifth-graders,
children with early attention problems obtained average reading scores at
least 3% lower than their contemporaries’ and grades at least 8% lower than
those of their peers. This was after controlling for IQ, socio-economic status
and academic skills at school entry.

Although these may not seem like large effects, the impact of early
attention problems continued throughout the children’s academic careers.
Lower reading achievement scores and grades in fifth grade contributed to
reduced grades in middle school and thereby contributed to a 40% lower high
school graduation rate.

“The children we identified as having attention difficulties were not
diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder（注意力缺乏多动症）
（ADHD）, although some may have had the disorder. Our findings suggest that even
more modest attention dean of Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, whose
research has focused on ADHD and interventions to improve academic performance
in children with attention difficulties.

Social acceptance by peers in early childhood also predicted grades in
fifth grade. Children not as liked by their first-grade peers had slightly
lower grades in fifth grade, while those with higher social acceptance had
higher grades.

“This study shows the importance of so-called ‘non-cognitive’ or soft
skills in contributing to children’s positive peer relationships, which, in
turn, contribute to their academic success,” said Kenneth Dodge, director
of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy.

The results highlight the need to develop effective early interventions
to help those with attention problems stay on track academically and for
educators to encourage positive peer relationships, the researchers said.

“We’re learning that student success requires a more comprehensive
approach, one that incorporates not only academic skills but also social,
self- regulatory and attention skills,” Dodge said. “If we neglect any of
these areas, the child’s development lags. If we attend to these areas, a
child’s success may reinforce itself with positive feedback loops.”

46. What is the focus of the new study from Duke University?

A)The contributors to children’s early attention.

B) The predictors of children’s academic success.

C) The factors that affect children’s emotional well-being.

D) The determinants of children’s development of social skills.

47. How did the researchers ensure that their findings are valid?

A)By attaching equal importance to all possible variables examined.

B)By collecting as many typical samples as were necessary.

C)By preventing them from being affected by factors not under study.

D)By focusing on the family background of the children being studied.

48. What do we learn from the findings of the Duke study?

A)Modest students are generally more attentive than their contemporaries.

B)There are more children with attention difficulties than previously
thought.

C)Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder accounts for most academic
failures.

D)Children’s academic performance may suffer from even slight inattention.

49. What does the Duke study find about children better accepted by peers?

A)They do better academically.B)They are easy to get on with.

C)They are teachers’ favorites.D)They care less about grades.



50. What can we conclude from the Duke study?

A)Children’s success is related to their learning environment.

B)School curriculum should cover a greater variety of subjects.

C)Social skills are playing a key role in children’s development.

D)An all-round approach should be adopted in school education.

Passage Two

Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage

On Jan.9,2007, Steve Jobs formally announced Apple’s “revolutionary
mobile phone”—a device that combined the functionality of an iPod, phone and Internet
communication into a single unit, navigated by touch.

It was a huge milestone in the development of smartphones, which are now
owned by a majority of American adults and are increasingly common across the
globe.

As smartphones have multiplied, so have questions about their impact on
how we live and how we work. Often the advantages of convenient, mobile
technology are both obvious and taken for granted, leaving more subtle topics
for concerned discussion: Are smartphones disturbing children’s sleep? Is an
inability to get away from work having a negative impact on health? And what
are the implications for privacy?

But today, on the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, let’s take a moment to
consider a less obvious advantage: the potential for smartphone technology
to revolutionize behavioral science. That’s because, for the first time in

human history, a large proportion of the species is in continuous contact with
technology that can record key features of an individual’s behavior and
environment.

Researchers have already begun to use smartphones in social scientific
research, either to query people regularly as they engage in their normal lives
or to record activity using the device’s built-in sensors. These studies are
confirming, challenging and extending what’s been found using more traditional
approaches, in which people report how they behaved in real life or participate
in relatively short and artificial laboratory-based tasks.

Such studies are just first steps. As more data are collected and methods
for analysis improve, researchers will be in a better position to identify
how different experiences, behaviors and environments relate to each other
and evolve over time, with the potential to improve people’s productivity and
wellbeing in a variety of domains. Beyond revealing population-wide patterns,
the right combination of data and analysis can also help individuals identify
unique characteristics of their own behavior, including conditions that could
indicate the need for some form of intervention—such as an unusual increase in
behaviors that signal a period of depression.

Smartphone-based data collection comes at an appropriate time in the
evolution of psychological science. Today, the field is in transition, moving
away from a focus on laboratory studies with undergraduate participants
towards more complex, real-world situations studied with more diverse groups
of people. Smartphones offer new tools for achieving these ambitions,
providing rich data about everyday behaviors in a variety of contexts.

So here’s another way in which smartphones might transform the way we live
and work: by offering insights into human psychology and behavior and, thus,
supporting smarter social science.



51. What does the author say about the negative impact of smartphones?

A)It has been overshadowed by the positive impact.

B)It has more often than not been taken for granted.

C)It is not so obvious but has caused some concern.

D)It is subtle but should by no means be overstated.

52. What is considered a less obvious advantage of smartphone technology?

A)It systematically records real human interactions.

B)It helps people benefit from technological advances.

C)It brings people into closer contact with each other.

D)It greatly improves research on human behavior.





characterizes traditional psychological research?

A)It is based on huge amounts of carefully collected data.

B)It relies on lab observations and participants’ reports.

C)It makes use of the questionnaire method.

D)It is often expensive and time-consuming.

54. How will future psychological studies benefit individuals?

A)By helping them pin down their unusual behaviors.

B)By helping them maintain a positive state of mind.

C)By helping them live their lives in a unique way.

D)By helping them cope with abnormal situations.

55. What do we learn about current psychological studies?

A)They are going through a period of painful transition.

B)They are increasingly focused on real-life situations.

C)They are conducted in a more rigorous manner.

D)They are mainly targeted towards undergraduates.