Have you heard the 【小题1】 phrase / phase “Six Degrees of Separation”? It is the idea that we all know everyone else in the world through about six people. I recently signed up to a 【小题2】 bimonthly / biweekly newsletter that is emailed on the first and last Friday of every month. It has lots of interesting articles on famous experiments.

In the latest newsletter, they decided to try to recreate the experiment that originally proved the theory of how we all have this large 【小题3】 network / netting of people. They emailed a 【小题4】 random / ransom group of people and asked them to participate. This small 【小题5】 simple / sample of people were then sent a 【小题6】 protective / package to pass on to a stranger by sending it to someone they knew. They sent it along to someone who then sent it to a person he or she knew, starting a 【小题7】 chain / chase.

In the next issue, the newsletter will 【小题8】 release / return the results. I can’t wait to see if the theory is proved!

Effects of Noise

In general, it is reasonable to suppose that we should prefer peace and quiet to noise. And yet most of us have had the experience of having to adjust to sleeping in the mountains on the countryside because it was【小题1】too “quiet”, an experience that suggests that humans are capable of adapting to a wide range of noise levels. For example, researchers exposed people to short bursts of very loud noise and then【小题2】their ability to work out problems and their physiological reactions to the noise. The noise was quite【小题3】at first, but after about four minutes the subjects were doing just as well on their tasks as control subjects who were not exposed to noise. Their physiological 【小题4】also declined quickly to the same levels as those of the control subjects.

But there are limits to adaptation and loud noise becomes more troublesome if the person is required to concentrate on more than one task. For example, high noise levels 【小题5】with the performance of subjects who were required to monitor three dials at a time. Similarly, noise did not affect a subject’s ability to【小题6】a moving line with a steering wheel, but it did influence the subject’s ability to repeat numbers while tracking.

Probably the most significant finding from research on noise is that its【小题7】is more important than how loud it is. We are much more able to “tune out” chronic background noise, even if it is quite loud, than to work under circumstances with unexpected intrusions of noise. It is not the only【小题8】that reduces the negative effects of noise. Another is control. If the individual knows that he or she can control the noise, this seems to【小题9】both its negative effects at the time and its after-effects.

However, the major worry about noisy environments is that living day after day with chronic noise may produce serious, lasting effects. One study, suggesting that this worry is a【小题10】one, compared elementary school pupils who attended schools near Los Angeles’s busiest airport with students who attended schools in quiet neighbourhoods. It was found that children from the noisy schools had higher blood pressure and were more easily distracted than those who attended the quiet schools.

Does Watching TV Make You Hungrier?

Sitting down in front of the television with a meal or snack after a long day is a very popular recreational pastime. And thanks to streaming services that play every episode of a television series automatically, some viewers aren’t even burning the few calories it might take to reach for the remote.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, television isn’t so much an appetite 【小题1】 as it is an appetite distraction. When we watch TV, we’re engaged in the program, which means we’re paying less attention to the cues that tell us we’re getting full. Instead of taking note of how we’re eating, we’re engaged in somewhat passive consumption.

In 2015, a study published in The International Journal of Communication and Health surveyed 591 undergraduates at the University of Houston. It showed that the more students watched, the more they 【小题2】 . The study also found evidence that increased television viewing was associated with a “fatalistic”(宿命论的)view of healthy food intake and poor nutritional knowledge.

One reason could be that excessive television viewing of news, entertainment, and advertising sends 【小题3】 messages about food. A news program might tell you to eat more fruit while a(n) 【小题4】 might tell you to eat more cold cereal.

Combining television and snacking also creates a cognitive association in your brain that may【小题5】 you to consider the two activities interconnected. In other words, you might reach for some pizza or chips not because you’re all that hungry, but because you’ve come to identify television with eating. You might even eat more 【小题6】 on the length of a program. If you’re watching Friends, a half-hour sitcom, you might eat less than if you were watching a super-sized episode of a drama like Mad Men.

That’s not to say the content of a program isn’t influential. In 2013, a study in the journal Appetite looked at a group of eighty 【小题7】 , half of whom were told to watch a cooking program and half who were told to watch a nature show. Both groups were 【小题8】 with equal amounts of chocolate-covered candies, cheese curls and carrots. Researchers found that viewers of the cooking show tended to eat more chocolate-covered candies than the nature show viewers.

So is snacking while watching television that bad? Like most things, it’s reasonable in 【小题9】 . Eating meals away from the TV can encourage mindful eating, which directs your attention to the food in front of you. You’ll be able to pick up on satiety(饱腹感)cues when you’re not fully 【小题10】 on your screen. Better yet, you won’t have to struggle to hear your favorite show over all that chewing.