Passage two Did Sarah Josepha Hale write "Mary's Little Lamb," the eternal nursery rhyme ( 儿歌 ) about a girl named Mary with a stubborn lamb? This is still disputed, but it's clear that the woman 1 for writing it was one of America's most fascinating 2 In honor of the poem's publication on May 24, 1830, here's more about the 3 author's life. Hale wasn't just a writer, she was also a 4 social advocate, and she was particularly 5 with an ideal New England, which she associated with abundant Thanksgiving meals that she claimed had "a deep moral influence." She began a nationwide 6 to have a national holiday declared that would bring families together while celebrating the 7 festivals. In 1863, after 17 years of advocacy including letters to five presidents, Hale got it. President Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, issued a 8 setting aside the last Thursday in November for the holiday. The true authorship of "Mary's Little Lamb" is disputed. According to the New England Historical Society, Hale wrote only part of the poem, but claimed authorship. Regardless of the author, it seems that the poem was 9 by a real event. When young Mary Sawyer was followed to school by a lamb in 1816, it caused some problems. A bystander named John Roulstone wrote a poem about the event, then, at some point, Hale herself seems to have helped write it. However, if a 1916 piece by her great-niece is to be trusted, Hale claimed for the 10 of her life that "some other people pretended that someone else wrote the poem". A) campaign F) inspired K) reputed B) career G) latter L) rest C) characters H) obsessed M) supposed D) features I) proclamation N) traditional E) fierce J) rectified O) versatile passage Three Let’s all stop judging people who talk to themselves. New research says that those who can't seem to keep their inner monologues in are actually more likely to stay on task, remain 1 better and show improved perception capabilities. Not bad, really, for some extra muttering. According to a series of experiments published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology by professors Gary Lupyan and Daniel Swignley, the act of using verbal clues to 2 mental pictures helps people function quicker In one experiment, they showed pictures of various objects to twenty 3 and asked them to find just one of those, a banana. Half were 4 to repeat out loud what they were looking for and the other half kept their lips 5 . Those who talked to themselves found the banana slightly faster than those who didn’t, the researchers say. In other experiments, Lupyan and Swinley found that 6 the name of a common product when on the hunt for it helped quicken someone’s pace, but talking about uncommon items showed no advantage and slowed you down. Common research has long held that talking themselves through a task helps children learn, although doing so when you’ve 7 matured is not a great sign of 8 . The two professors hope to refute that idea , 9 that just as when kids walk themselves through a process, adults can benefit from using language not just to communicate, but also to help “augment thinking”. Of course, you are still encouraged to keep the talking at library tones and, whatever you do, keep the information you share simple, like a grocery list. At any 10 , there’s still such a thing as too much information. A) apparently F) focused K) spectator B) arrogance G) incur L) trigger C) brilliance H) instructed M) uttering D) claiming I) obscurely N) volume E) dedicated J) sealed O) volunteers