Most of us spend our lives seeking the natural world. To this end, we walk the dog, play golf, go fishing, sit in the garden, drink outside rather than inside the pub, have a picnic, live in the suburbs, go to the seaside, buy a weekend place in the country. The most popular free time activity in Britain is going for a walk. And when joggers (慢跑者) jog, they don’t run the streets. Every one of them automatically heads to the park or the river. It is my firm belief that not only do we all need nature, but we all seek nature, whether we know we are doing so or not.
But despite this, our children are growing up nature-deprived (丧失). I spent my boyhood climbing trees. These days, children are robbed of these ancient freedoms, due to problems like crime, traffic, the loss of the open spaces and strange new ideas about what is best for children, that is to say, things that can be bought, rather than things that can be found.
The truth is to be found elsewhere. A study in the US: families had moved to better housing and the children were assessed for ADHD (多动症). Those whose housing had more natural views showed an improvement of 19%; those who had the same improvement in material surroundings but no nice view improved just 4%.
A study in Sweden indicated that kindergarten children who could play in a natural environment had less illness and greater physical ability than children used only to a normal playground. A US study suggested that when a school gave children access to a natural environment, the entire school would do better in studies.
Another study found that children play differently in a natural environment. In playgrounds, children create a hierarchy (等级) based on physical abilities, with the tough ones taking the lead. But when a grassy area was planted with bushes, the children got much more into fantasy play, and the social hierarchy was now based on imagination and creativity.
Most bullying (恃强凌弱) is found in schools where there is a tarmac (柏油碎石) playground; the least bullying is in a natural area that the children are encouraged to explore. This reminds me unpleasantly of Sunnyhill School, with its hard tarmac, where I used to hang about in corners dreaming about wildlife.
But children are frequently discouraged from involvement with natural spaces, for health and safety reasons, for fear that they might get dirty or that they might cause damage. So, instead, the damage is done to the children themselves: not to their bodies but to their souls.
One of the great problems of modern childhood is ADHD, now increasingly and expensively treated with drugs. Yet one study after another indicates that contact with nature gives huge benefits to ADHD children. However, we spend money on drugs rather than on green places.
The life of old people is much better when they have access to nature. The most important for the growing population of old people is in quality rather than quantity of years. And study after study finds that a garden is the single most important thing in finding that quality.
In wider and more difficult areas of life, there is evidence to indicate that natural surroundings improve all kinds of things. Even problems with crime and aggressive behaviour are reduced when there is contact with the natural world.
Dr William Bird, researcher from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, states in his study, “A natural environment can reduce violent behaviour because its process helps reduce anger and behavior that people might regret later.” Wild places need encouraging for this reason, no matter how small their contribution.
We tend to think human beings are doing nature some kind of favor when we are protecting nature. The error here is far too deep: not only do humans need nature for themselves, but the very idea that humanity and the natural world are separable things is damaging.
Human beings are a species of animals. For seven million years we lived on the planet as part of nature. So we miss the natural world and long for contact with non-human life. Anyone who has patted a dog, stroked a cat, sat under a tree with a glass of beer, given or received a bunch of flowers or chosen to walk through the park on a nice day, understands that.
We need the wild world. It is necessary to our well-being, our health, our happiness. Without other living things around us we are less than human.
【小题1】What is the author’s firm belief?

A．People seek nature in different ways.

B．People should spend most of their lives in the wild.

C．People have quite different ideas of nature.

D．People must make more efforts to study nature.

【小题2】What does the author say people prefer for their children nowadays?

A．Personal freedom.	B．Things that are natural.
C．Urban surroundings.	D．Things that are purchased.

【小题3】What does a study in Sweden show?
　　A. The natural environment can help children learn better.
　　B. More access to nature makes children less likely to fall ill.
　　C. A good playground helps kids develop their physical abilities.
　　D. Natural views can prevent children from developing ADHD.
【小题4】Children who have chances to explore natural areas ________.

A．tend to develop a strong love for science

B．are more likely to dream about wildlife

C．tend to be physically tougher in adulthood

D．are less likely to be involved in bullying

【小题5】What does the author suggest we do to help children with ADHD?

A．Find more effective drugs for them.

B．Provide more green spaces for them.

C．Place them under more personal care.

D．Engage them in more meaningful activities

【小题6】In what way do elderly people benefit from their contact with nature?

A．They look on life optimistically.	B．They enjoy a life of better quality.
C．They are able to live longer.	D．They become good-humored

Now let us look at how we read. When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, jerky （急动的）movement. We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate. Each time they fixate, we see a group of words. This is known as the recognition span(范围)or the visual span. The length of time of which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation (定位)----varies considerably from person to person. It also varies within any one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text. Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness.

　　Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page. As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation. For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second. One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side. Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive (连续的) fixation. All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently. Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words. Consequently (因此), for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated (孤立的) words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text.

1.The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts except ________ .

A．one’s familiarity with the text

B．one’s purpose in reading

C．the length of a group of words

D．lighting and tiredness

2.The author may believe that reading ______.

A．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation

B．requires a reader to see words more quickly

C．demands an deeply-participating mind

D．demands more mind than eyes

3.What does the author mean by saying “but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently.” in the second paragraph?

A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted.

B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to comprehend words.

C．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading.

D．The reading exercises mentioned has done a great job to improve one’s ability to see words.

4.Which of the following is NOT true?

A．The visual span is a word or a group of words we see each time.

B．Many experts began to question the efficiency of eye training.

C．The emphasis on the purely visual aspects is misleading.

D．The eye training will help readers in reading a continuous text.

5.The tune of the author in writing this article is ________

A．critical (批评的)	B．neutral (中立的)
C． pessimistic （悲观的 ）	D．optimistic