[A] backgrounds [B] change [C] decrease [D] displayed [E] educated

[F] emotional [G] factor [H] fortunately [I] intelligence [J] misleading

[K] motivated [L] obviously [M] predict [N] status [O] top

Sending your children to piano or violin lessons in a bid (努力) to boost their academic achievements is a waste of money, according to scientists. Although research has shown that youngsters who take music lessons are more likely to be【C1】_____of their class, psychologist Glenn Schellenberg claims this link is【C2】_____.

Instead, improved academic performance may be because brighter children from privileged【C3】_____are more likely to learn an instrument, rather than music classes helping to boost their【C4】_____.

“Music may【C5】_____you a bit, but it’s also the case that different children take music lessons,” said Professor Schellenberg of the University of Toronto, who added that parents’ education was the most influential【C6】__on musicality. “Children who take music lessons come from families with higher incomes, they come from families with more【C7】_____parents, they also do more extracurricular activities, they have higher IQs, and they do better at school.”

In tests on 167 children who played the piano or other instruments, they found their answer to personality tests could【C8】________how likely it was for them to continue their music lessons. Those who were more outgoing and conscientious were more likely to continue to play.

“We were【C9】_____by the fact that kids who take music lessons are particularly good students. In school they actually do better than you would predict from their IQs, so【C10】_____something else is going on,” Professor Schellenberg told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference in Boston. “So we thought that personality might be the thing.”

[A] activity [B] aggressive [C] calmer [D] characters [E] collected

[F] correlations [G] genetically [H] influences [I] long [J] produce

[K] relatively [L] reveals [M] size [N] strong [O] tend

Small dogs generally live longer than big dogs. But body size isn’t the only factor that determines how long dogs survive. Personality【C1】_____he lifespan, too, according to a new study that might help explain how animal dispositions evolve. Research on animals from ants to apes has found that different individuals have different personalities. Some are timid, others【C2】_____.

Biologists have proposed that【C3】_____evolved along with life history. Bold, aggressive animals use a lot of energy fast in【C4】__short lives, the thinking goes, whereas【C5】__animals last longer, saving themselves to reproduce later in life. Biologist Vincent Careau used the dogs to do the experiment. Careau【C6】__data from previous studies on various breeds’ energy expenditure and longevity. After factoring out body size, Careau tested for 【C7】__with activity, obedience, and aggressiveness. More obedient dogs like German shepherds and bichon frises (比熊犬) live long for their size, he【C8】_____in the June issue of The American

Naturalist. Hard-to-train dogs like beagles (毕格尔犬) and Pomeranians generally die earlier than do other similarly sized breeds. Careau found a similar relationship for energy expenditure. Peaceful dogs like Newfoundlands and Labradors【C9】________to burn less energy per kilogram than do aggressive dogs like fox terriers and Great Danes.

Presumably, the people who created these breeds were selecting dogs based on personality, not on how much they ate or how【C10】________they lived, says Careau. So he thinks that personality and metabolic demands are somehow genetically linked.

[A] agreeable [B] characteristics [C] collected [D] confirms [E] confronted

[F] encountered [G] especially [H] harsh [I] implies [J] ingredients

[K] occasionally [L] periodically [M] presence [N] seasonal [O] substance

The journal Science reported a new study about the definitive evidence of organic matter on the surface of Mars.

The data was【C1】_____by NASA’s nuclear-powered rover Curiosity. It【C2】__earlier findings that the Red Planet once contained carbon-based compounds. These compounds—also called organic molecules (分子)—are essential【C3】__for life as scientists understand it. The organic molecules were found in Mars’s Gale Crater, a large area that may have been a freshwater lake over three billion years ago. The rover【C4】__traces of the molecule in rocks extracted from the area. The rocks also contain sulfur, which scientists speculate helped preserve the organics even when the rocks were exposed to the【C5】_____radiation on the surface of the planet.

Scientists are quick to state that the【C6】_____of these organic molecules is not sufficient evidence for ancient life on Mars, as the molecules could have been formed by non-living processes. But it’s still one of the most astonishing discoveries, which could lead to future revelations,【C7】_____when one considers the other startling findings that Curiosity uncovered around five years ago.

The rover analyses the air around it【C8】_____, and in 2014 it found the air contained another of the most basic organic molecules and a key factor of natural gas: methane. One of the【C9】__of methane is that it only survives a few hundred years. This means that something, somewhere on Mars, is replenishing (补充) the supply. According to NASA, Mars emits thousands of tons of methane at a time. The level of methane rises and falls at 【C10】_____intervals in the year, almost as if the planet is breathing it.