Research on friendship has established a number of facts, some interesting, even useful. Did you know that the average student has 5~6 friends, or that a friend who was previously an enemy is liked more than one who has always been on the right side Would you believe that physically attractive individuals are preferred as friends to those less comely, and is it fair that physically attractive defendants are less likely to be found guilty in court Unfortunately, such titbits don’’t tell us much more about the nature or the purpose of friendship. In fact, studies of friendship seem to implicate more complex factors. For example, one function friendship seems to fulfill is that supports the image we have of ourselves, and confirms the value of the attitudes we hold. Certainly we appear to project ourselves onto our friends; several studies have shown that we judge them to be more like us than they (objectively) are. This suggests that we ought to choose friends who are similar to us rather than those who would be complementary. In our experiment, some developing friendships were monitored amongst first-year students living in the same hostel. It was found that similarity of attitudes (towards politics, religion and ethics, pastimes and aesthetics) was a good predictor of what friendships would be established by the end of four months, though it has less to do with initial alliances not surprisingly, since attitudes may not be obvious on first inspection. There have also been studies of pairings, both voluntary (married couples) and forced (student roommates), to see which remained together and which split up. Again, the evidence seems to favor similarity rather than complementarity as an omen of successful relationship, though there is a complication: where marriage is concerned, once the field is narrowed down to potential mates who come from similar backgrounds and share a broad range of attitudes and values, a degree of complementarity Seems to become desirable. When a couple are not just similar but almost identical, something else seems to be needed. Similarity can breed contempt it; it has also been found that when we find others obnoxious, we dislike them more if they are like us than when they are dissimilar. The difficulty of linking friendship with similarity of personality probably reflects the complexity of our personalities: we have many facets and therefore require a disparate group of friends to support us. This of course can explain why we may have two close friends who have little in common, and indeed dislike each other. By and large, though, it looks as though we would do well to choose friends(and spouses) who resemble us. If this were not so, computer dating agencies would have gone out of business years ago. Research on friendship has demonstrated that______.
A. every student has five or six friends
B. judges are always influenced by a pretty face
C. ugly people find it harder to make friends than beautiful people
D. we lend to grow fond of people if we dislike them at first sight
Origin of Vegetable and Animal Life in America When the new world was first discovered, it was found to be, like the old, full of plants and animals, and a great many tribes and nations of men lived there. Yet the plants and animals, if not the men, were all essentially different from those known in the old world. This was unexpected; it was thought to be quite remarkable. Then a question arose, what is the origin of these plants and animals and men How could they come to a continent that is cut off apparently from all intercourse (交流) and connection with the rest of the world For the American continent is entirely separated from the old. The nearest approach to it is at Behring’’sStraits (白令海峡), on the north-west, where it is divided from the Asiatic continent by a channel about forty miles wide.Means of Communication with the Old World Some animals and perhaps some plants, and most certainly men, may be supposed to have been transported across such a channel of water as this of Behring’’s Straits, either by boats made by the savages living on the coasts, or possibly by means of ice at some time when the whole channel was entirely frozen over. There is also at some distance south of Behring’’s Straits a remarkable chain of islands, called the Aleutian Islands (阿留申群岛), which extend in a regular and continuous line from the American to the Asiatic shore. These islands are volcanic. They contain now numerous volcanoes, some active and some dead. They bear no trees, but they produce a great variety of animals. They look, upon the map, like a row of stepping stones, placed on purpose to enable men and animals from the old world to make their way to the new. These islands are nearly all inhabited, and the natives navigate (航海) the seas around them in boats made of a frame-work of wood or bone, covered externally with seal skins. It is perhaps possible to imagine also that a company of men might have been forced accidentally to sea in some large canoe from the coast of Africa, or on the other side from some of the islands of the Pacific, and landed upon the American shores. It is true that it would be exceedingly improbable that any such combination of circumstances would occur as could lead to such a result. The canoe or boat must have been very large, the stock of provisions very great. The wind must not have been violent enough to engulf (吞没) the boat and must still have blown very long and very steadily to have carried a company of men so far before they all perished of hunger and thirst. All this would have been very improbable. Still it would be difficult to show that it could not occur. From the hundreds and perhaps thousands of boats full of savages that have been blown off to sea from the coasts of Africa, or from the South Sea Islands, it would be impossible to prove positively that there could never have been one that by any chance could have reached the American shores. There is still another mode by which we can imagine the animal and vegetable life of America to have been communicated to it from other regions, and that is, by supposing that there was in former ages some direct connection between the two continents by a tract of land which has since become submerged (淹没的). It is well known now that the crust of the earth is not in a stable condition. It is subject to changes and movements of various kinds, which are now going forward all the time, and have probably always been going forward. In some places the land is slowly rising; in others it is slowly subsiding (下沉). There are many places in the world where towns and cities which formerly stood high and dry on the land are now under water. The land has slowly subsided, so that the sea at the present time flows over it, and people passing in boats now look down and see the old foundations, and fragments of the fallen walls and columns, at the bottom.The Plants and Animals of America Generally New These and various other similar theories were devised in former times in endeavors to contrive some way of bringing plants and animals from other countries to America. But they have been generally considered unsatisfactory, since when people examined the plants and animals living here, they were found to be, as it seemed, essentially different from those found in other countries, so different that they could ever be descended from the same stock (祖先,血统), at least by ordinary generation. The fauna (动物群) and the flora (植物) were both found to be in general essentially dissimilar. The flora is its system of plants. By the fauna of a country is meant the system of animals that inhabit it. With a moderate number of exceptions such as these, however, the plants and animals found in America proved on examination to be entirely new. So, since both the fauna and the flora of America were so essentially different from those of the old world, it seemed to be wholly useless to attempt to design means by which the forefather (祖先) of the present races in America could have sailed across the ocean, or could have migrated by means of countries and territories which once existed but are now submerged. It is possible that a company of men might have sailed from the coast of Africa to the new world in some large canoe.
A. Y
B. N
C. NG
M: It’s so cold today. I cannot work any longer. I really hope there’s a heater in this room.W: So do 1. I think I will freeze if I stay longer. What are they talking about().
A. The heater of this room.
B. The cold weather.
C. Long working hours.