Question

  "If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery,a small re?ward like a sticker for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously disliked foods," a UK study said.

  Though it might seem obvious that a reward could encourage young chil?dren to eat their vegetables,the idea was actually controversial,researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "That's because some studies have shown that rewards can backfire and cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked," said Jane Wardle,a researcher at University Col?lege London who worked on the study. Verbal praise,such as "Brilliant!You're a great vegetable taster. ” did not work as well.

  The study found that when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a "tiny taste" of disliked vegetables,it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables— either carrots,celery,cucumber,red peppers,cabbage or sugar snap peas― in laboratory taste tests,the study said.

  Researchers randomly assigned (分派) 173 families to one of these groups. In one,parents used stickers to reward their children each time they took a tiny sample of disliked vegetables. The second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group,where parents used no special vegetablepro?moting methods,served as a "control".

  Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the "target" vegetables every day of 12 days. Soon after,children in the sticker group were giving higher ratings to the vegetables―and were willing to eat more in the re?search lab,going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10        grams af?ter the 12-day experience. The turnaround also seemed to last,with pre?schoolers in the sticker group .still willing to eat more of the once disliked veg?etables three months later.

  Why didn't the verbal praise work? Wardle said the parents' words may have seemed' "insincere" to their children.

1. The purpose of writing the passage is         .

   A. to introduce a practical method of making children eat vegetables

   B. to show the procedure of an experiment on children's diet

   C. to explain why children hate to eat vegetables

   D. to present a proper way of verbal praise to parents

2. The underlined word "backfire" in Paragraph 2 probably means "         ”.

   A. shoot from behind the back

   B. make a fire in the backyard

   C. produce an unexpected result

   D. achieve what was planned

3. How did the researchers get their conclusion from the experiment?

   A. By comparison.

   B. By asking questions.

   C. By giving examples.

   D. By discussion.

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

   A. Children like rewards,not verbal praise.

   B. Parents should praise their children in a sincere tone.

   C. Children are difficult to inspire.

   D. Parents should give up verbal praise.

Answer 1

1. A 寫(xiě)作意圖題�？v觀全文W知文章主要介紹了使孩子吃他們以前不喜歡吃的蔬菜的實(shí)際可行的方法。故選A項(xiàng)。

2. C 詞義猜測(cè)題。根據(jù)"...cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked,..."可推知它的意思是"產(chǎn)生意想不到的結(jié)果"。故選C項(xiàng)。

3. A 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段可知研究人員迪過(guò)比較的方式來(lái)得出結(jié)論。故選A項(xiàng)。

4. B 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一句可知，父母應(yīng)該以真誠(chéng)的語(yǔ)氣表?yè)P(yáng)孩子。故選B項(xiàng)。