阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

    The ancient city of Xi'an in China holds many treasures. And last month, archaeologists working there made an important discovery—a buried palace built in the third century B.C. to honor China's first emperor.

    The entire palace measures roughly 2,260 feet long by 820 feet wide. It includes 10 courtyard houses and one main building. Archaeologists found bricks and pieces of pottery at the site of the palace, as well as the remains of walls and roads.

    The palace is part of the massive burial complex of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi. He conquered seven warring kingdoms and united ancient China in 211 B.C.

    Qin Shihuangdi wanted his legacy, or accomplishments, to be remembered forever. So he hired more than 700,000 workers to build his funeral complex in Xi'an. It represents a miniature version of his vast kingdom.

    The complex also includes the world-famous terra-cotta army, a collection of more than 8,000 life-size clay statues. These sculptures represent soldiers, acrobats, and horses from the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-206 B.C.). Scientists have not yet found all these terra-cotta warriors, even though they discovered more of the statues last summer.

    Farmers discovered the complex by accident in 1974. Since then, scientists studying the site have learned a great deal about life in ancient China. But much of the emperor's tomb has yet to be dug up, or unearthed. Many of the artifacts (objects from the past) are so old that scientists cannot preserve them.

    "Archaeologists fully acknowledge that nobody in the world has the technology (to safely dig up Xi'an's treasures) yet," explains Kristin Romey, an expert on Chinese archaeology.

    But as technology improves, archaeologists will keep digging to uncover the rest of the wonders that still lie buried in Xi'an.

    "It's one of the most important archaeological discoveries that's waiting to be made," says Romey, "and we know where it is."

    Recently, we've been talking about how we need better teachers. There's no doubt that great teacher can help in a student's learning but here's what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents.

    Every three years, the organization called O.E.C.D. organizes exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment(评估), or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds on their abilities to deal with real problems. America's 15-year-olds have not done as well as students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai in the PISA exams.

    To better understand the reasons, the PISA team, starting with four countries in 2006, and then adding 14 more in 2009, went to the parents of 5,000 students. They interviewed them about how they raised their kids and then compared it with the test results for each of those years. Two weeks ago, the PISA team published the main finding of its study.

    Fifteen-year-olds whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school get much higher scores in PISA 2009 than students whose parents don't often read with them or not at all. Parents' concern for their children is strongly connected with better results in PISA.

    According to Schleicher, the leader of the team, just asking your children how their school    day was and showing great interest in their learning can help a lot. It is something every parent can do, no matter what their education level is.

    The study found that getting parents concerned about their children's learning at home is more powerful than parents attending parent-teacher meetings, volunteering in classrooms,   taking part in money-raising, and showing up at back-to-back nights.

    To be sure, nothing can replace a good teacher. But let's stop putting the whole duty on teachers. We also need better parents. Better parents can make teaching more beneficial.

    A new study suggests a simple getting-to-know-you exercise might improve classroom relationships. The teacher-student relationship affects every aspect of the educational experience. When students don't feel safe and respected by their teacher, they are less likely to devote themselves to their education. And when teacher feel distanced from their students, it is nearly impossible to walk into the classroom each day actively, let alone encourage motivation or investment in students.

    Hunter Gehlbach, a professor, explained that his research is primarily concerned with social perspectivetaking(换位思考), or the ability to understand what drives the people around us. As he explained, "My focus is classrooms and social perspective-taking--figuring out the thoughts and feelings of others seems important. We want teachers to be able to engage in this process and figure out the thought process of students as much as possible, in order to understand where and why they are making mistakes."

    Gehlbach and his colleagues gave 315 students and 25 teachers a "getting-to-know-you" survey of 30 items at the beginning of a school year. The researchers matched similarities between the teacher and the student, and then showed those similarities to the teachers and students. Five weeks later, the researchers returned to start a more indepth survey of both students and teachers, and to measure their opinions of their relationships and the classroom experience as a whole. The second survey showed that when teachers and students know they have five things in common, relationships and educational outcomes both improve.

    Gehlbach explained that the similarities he and his colleagues established were not based on personal information, but on shared preferences. Gehlbach explained: one of the biggest surprises in reading the similarity research was how little some of the similarities were that caused positive feelings towards others.

    Though Gehlbach's study has limitations, he is encouraged by the results and eager to explore the phenomenon further.

    Alison Malmon was trapping up (完成) the end of her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania, US when she got the news: Her older brother Brian, a student at Columbia University, was suffering from mental illness.

    Inspired by this, Malmon formed a group at her university to empower (使能够) students to talk openly about mental health. It soon blossomed into a national organization that today has more than 450 campus chapters. Leaders with the organization spend their time talking with college students about the pressure that today's young people face.

    "What you hear often is just a need to be perfect," said Malmon, "and a need to present oneself as perfect."

    And a new study in the UK proved that this need for perfectionism is simply part of today's society. In the study, two researchers studied more than 40,000 students from the US, Canada, and the UK. They found that what they called "socially prescribed(社会定向型的) perfectionism" increased by a third between 1989 and 2016.

    Lead researcher Thomas Curran said that while so many of today's young people try to present a perfect appearance online, social media isn't the only reason behind this trend. Instead, he said, it may be driven by competition in modern society, meaning young people can't avoid being sorted and ranked in both education and employment. That comes from new norms(准则) like greater numbers of college students, standardized testing and parenting that increasingly emphasizes success in education.

    For example, in 1976, half of high school seniors expected to get a college degree of some kind. By 2008, more than 80 percent expected the same. The researchers also said changes in parenting styles over the last two decades might have had an impact. As parents feel increased pressure to raise successful children, they in turn pass their "achievement anxieties" onto their kids through "excessive(过多的) involvement in their child's routines, activities or emotions"

    Those in the mental health community like Malmon say they're concerned about the impact the culture of perfectionism has on mental health on campuses. "Mental health has truly become this generation's social justice issue," she said. "It's our job to equip them with the tools and to let people know that it's not their fault."

    A traditional Chinese cough syrup (糖浆), called Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa (念慈庵川贝枇杷膏), is flying off the shelves in New York stores this flu season, following a US news report.

    According to a report in The Wall Street Journal last week, Mr. Alex Schweder, a professor of design at Pratt Institute suffering a cough for about 10 days, felt better 15 minutes after he drank a bottle of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa. It had been recommended by his girlfriend, who first learnt about the cough syrup 30 years ago when she was living in Hong Kong.

    Mr. Schweder was shocked by the magical effects of the cough syrup, and recommended it to many people. This, together with other factors, soon made the Chinese medicine popular in New York City.

    A 300ml bottle is now sold at US$13.29 on Walmart's website. This is more than double the former price in some pharmacies (药店) in Manhattan's Chinatown, selling at about US$6 per bottle. "The number of Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa we sold over the past few days was much more than usual," said Winnie, a sales staff member of Buy-rite pharmacy in Chinatown. "More and more Westerners are accepting this medicine because it is effective," she said.

    According to the Kingworld Medicines Group's official website, Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa is made of "valuable Chinese herbs and honey, and has surprising effects in treating coughs." However, experts warn that taking the cough syrup can carry health risks, including when it is used with other medicines, used too much or taken instead of prescription medication (处方药).

    Dr. Keith Brenner, a specialist in pulmonary medicine at Columbia University Medical Centre New York Presbyterian Hospital, said, "I think people who use these things may not even tell the doctor about them, and it's a problem."

Inspired by the movement to protect the Carmanah Valley and Clayoquot Sound, I decided to devote myself to producing images for conservation full-time in 1992. Since that time my work has taken me all over the world and my photos have appeared in many major magazines. However, many of my most rewarding moments have come from working on projects in British Columbia, Canada, and sharing those images in slide show tours I have given throughout Canada, the U. S. and Europe.

The more I travel and photograph in other parts of the world, the more I have come to realize the wilderness we have in Canada is truly special and rare.

I have always felt that as a photographer my goal is to approach the natural environment with the sense of wonder and curiosity that comes so naturally to children. This, I believe, is one of the basic keys not just to producing meaningful images, but more importantly, to gaining a full appreciation and enjoyment of the natural world.

I find that not only my best images, but also my most enjoyable experiences in nature, occur when I have an open mind and follow my intuition (直觉). When I feel drawn to a certain scene, I try to make the scene simple and not include anything that is not relevant. I also try all ways to look for beautiful light. Early morning and the end of the day almost always produce light that results in more pleasing images than those taken under the strong light in the middle of a sunny day. Soft cloudy skies are wonderful for photographing all day, especially in our beautiful forests or for small subjects like wildflowers. Rain, storms, and snow also provide wonderful opportunities for new and different kinds of images.