Passage 1
学霸导读 你是否也觉得改变自己很难？科学家们的解释，或许能让你松口气哦！
I don’t believe it！ It’s 11 p.m. and I’m still sitting here writing this article for the school magazine！ I’ve had two weeks to write it and my teacher wants it tomorrow. She’s always c 1 that I leave things to the last minute. Maybe she’s right. A month ago， I made up my mind to be more eff icient this year and not to leave things to the last minute. But I’ve failed. I’ve also been trying to get f itter for four weeks. I’ve started going to the gym. I’ve taken up karate （ 空手道 ） lessons and I’ve changed my diet. I’ve even been going to bed earlier. But I’m not feeling any f itter. I feel just a little u 2 . I miss my bad habits. Why is leading a better life so hard？
I’ve just read an article on a website and I’ve found out that it isn’t my fault! In fact, it isn’t anyone’s fault! It’s our brains. They’re programmed, therefore, it is diff icult to break bad habits. Scientists have done experiments that show we use one part of our brain when we think about o 3 and another when we think about other people. However, when we think about the “future us”, we use the part of the brain that we usually use to think about other people. In other words, the brain sees the “future you” as a different person to your “present you”. And that’s why we don’t always f ind it easy to make sensible d 4 in the future when we face diff iculties.
But that’s not all. Scientists have also found out that it takes around ten weeks to form a good habit. For example, if I want to keep f it, it’s going to take me ten weeks to go to the gym and then it will become an automatic part of my life. That’s because ten weeks is the amount of time the brain needs to change and a 5 new ways of behavior as a part of everyday life. The good news is that once you make it to ten weeks, everything becomes much easier. The bad news is that ten weeks is a really long time, so it’s easy to give up on your good plan s 6 .
So there you are. Maybe we want to change our ways and become better people but our brains make it difficult. Or is this just an e 7 ? Look! I’ve f inished my article on time. Anything is possible!
1.__________2.__________3.__________4.__________5.__________6.__________7.__________
高频词汇
make up one’s mind 下定决心，打定主意
program /'prəʊgræm/ v. 为（计算机）编程；编制……的程序
automatic /ˌɔːtə'mætɪk / adj. 自动的；自动化的
give up on 对……表示绝望