If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery, a small reward 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 children to eat their vegetables, the idea is 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 College 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 t hat when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a “tiny taste” of a disliked vegetable, it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables-either carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper, 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 a disliked vegetable. A second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group, where parents used no special vegetable-promoting methods, served as a “control”.

Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the “target” vegetable 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 research lab, going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10 grams after the 12-day experience. The turnaround also seemed to last, with preschoolers in the sticker group still willing to eat more of the once disliked vegetable 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 vernal praise to parents

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

A．shoot from behind the back              

B．make a lire in the hackyard

C．produce an unexpected result            

D．achieve what was planned

3.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A．Most children are born to dislike carrots or celery.

B．It remains a question whether rewarding is a good way to get children to eat vegetables.

C．Oral praise wokrs quite well in encouraging children to eat vegetables.

D．Children in the sticker group will never lose interest in eating vegetables.

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

A．By comparison.                           B．By asking questions.

C．By giving examples,  D．By discussion.

5.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.

 

It is reported that the police will soon ____ the case of two missing children.

A. look upon         B. look after       C. look into       D. look out

He trained hard in puzzle-guessing, a sort of children's game, all year, _____ still failed to reach his best form in all the tests given to both adults and children.

A．Then

B．Thus

C．Therefore

D．Yet

 

Busy as the working mother is, she still_____ a lot of time to her children.

A．devotes

B．spends

C．offers

D．provides

 

Are your children liked by their teachers? All parents want their children to impress(给...的印象) their teachers and succeed in school. You can get your children to impress their teachers by following these easy steps.

Make sure they’re prepared. Teachers are impressed by children coming to school prepared to learn. Make sure they have everything they need—pencils textbooks, erasers and so on.

Require them to be active in class. Teach them to ask teachers questions when they don’t understand something. Some children think teachers are bothered by questions, but most teachers are impressed when children take the initiative(采取主动) in asking questions. They should take part in class discussions, giving their opinions politely.

Keep your children healthy. If your children are tired and hungry, they won’t be ready to learn. Children need at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night. Feed your children a solid breakfast and prepare a healthy lunch. Provide them with fruit and other healthy foods—apples or bananas are better for them than cookies.

Make sure that your children do their homework. If they really don’t understand it, discuss it with them patiently. Don’t help them do their homework. Teachers can always tell who it is that does the work.

Teach your children good manners and habits. Children need to arrive at the school punctually, and be polite to their teachers and classmates. Parents need to teach these skills at home. Nothing is sweeter than children who say “please” and “thank you”, and these are children their teachers are certain to love.

1. The first paragraph serves as ________.

A．an explanation

B．an introduction

C．a background

D．a guidance

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true? 

A．Hungry and tired children can’t focus on their study.

B．Children should go to school on time and learn to behave well.

C．Teachers aren’t able to decide if parents do homework for their children.

D．Teachers are impressed when children take an active part in class.

3.The passage mainly tells us that being parents, you should ________.

A．help your children to impress their teachers at school

B．ask your children to get ready for classes before going to school

C．teach your children to be polite to both their teachers and classmates

D．remind your children to observe all the rules when at school