1 . Have you ever been annoyed at younger siblings (兄弟姐妹) for stealing your toys?
Siblings help you have a healthier lifestyle. A survey of more than 15,000 people found that 43 percent of people credited their family members for having the biggest positive impact on their physical condition.
They can help you live longer, In a study from the American Sociological Association, older adults, who described themselves as being “extremely close” to the family members, had a six percent chance of dying over the next five years, compared to a 14 percent risk for the people who didn’t.
Having good friends can bring many of the same benefits. We don’t all have brothers and sisters, or you might not have much contact with them. Don’t panic.
| A．Brothers and sisters protect you from depression. |
| B．Have you ever cooperated with your brothers or sisters? |
| C．Or did you fight like cat and dog when you were younger? |
| D．Siblings can make you twice as likely to do good deeds. |
| E．Develop stable and close relationships with people around you. |
| F．Siblings are easily available fitness and healthy-eating partners. |
| G．They made you better at dealing with the tricky situations in daily life. |
2 . Twelve grams of moon arrived at Ferl’s laboratory in an undecorated delivery box. Ferl, a gardening expert at the University of Florida, had waited more than a decade for that moment. The small box of dirt held some of the last remaining unopened samples of moon dust, called regolith, collected by astronauts on the lunar missions. Despite months of practice, he lifted the sample with trembling hands. “It’s freaky, scary stuff,” he says, “mean, what happens if you drop that?” Ferland his team were about to become the first researchers to grow plants in actual lunar soil.
The experiment was part of a lunar research which aims to send humans back to the moon later this decade in a more sustainable way. Longer duration stays require astronauts to have a source of food. “All of human exploration has been driven by the ability to keep crews fed,” says Gil, a researcher not involved in the study. And Ferl’s experiment offers a significant first step in this journey.
To test the moon soil, Ferl’s team divided the samples into 12 pots of 900 milligrams a piece and planted seeds in them. The seeds developed successfully, but the plants had trouble growing healthy roots. The moon soil lacks important microbes, which play a significant role in regulating plant growth hormones (激素), reducing environmental stress, and absorbing essential nutrients. Without natural microbes, the plants struggled to absorb nutrients and manage stress. Additionally, the lack of water can cause the soil to become difficult to work with.
The seedlings failed to grow strongly in regolith alone, but Ferl hopes to continue studying how life might take hold in otherwise low-yield soil, with an eye toward both boosting humanity’s prospects off the planet and improving agriculture in low-yield soils here at home. “Most of us are not going to go to space,” he says, “But if we can engineer a way to produce these kinds of crops in such an unforgiving environment — like the lunar surface — we can apply that to meet our food challenges in areas that just can’t grow food anymore.”
1. How did Ferl feel when receiving the box?| A．moved and surprised. | B．scared but curious. |
| C．worried but relieved. | D．cautious and nervous. |
| A．To feed the crew of his research team. |
| B．To ensure food supply for space exploration. |
| C．To provide sustainable energy for lunar missions. |
| D．To send the astronauts back to the moon in a shorter time. |
| A．Adding microbes and watering it properly. |
| B．Dividing regolith equally and managing stress. |
| C．Growing healthy roots and making regolith dry. |
| D．Choosing suitable seeds and regulating hormones. |
| A．The original goal of the study. | B．The limitation of space farming |
| C．The application of the experiment result. | D．The factors causing the experiment failure. |
3 . It is thought that music can make maths more enjoyable, keep students engaged and help case fear or anxiety they have about maths.
To find out more, Turkish researcher Dr Ayca Akin, from the Department of Software Engineering, Antalya Belek University, searched academic databases for research on the topic published between 1975 and 2022. She then combined the results of 55 studies from around the world, involving almost 78,000 young people from kindergarten pupils to university students, to come up with an answer.
Students took maths tests before and after taking part in the intervention and the change in their scores was compared with that of youngsters who didn’t take part in an intervention. The use of music, whether in separate lessons or as part of maths classes, was associated with greater improvement in maths over time. The integrated lessons had the biggest effect, with around 73% of students who had integrated lessons doing significantly better than youngsters who didn’t have any type of musical intervention. Some 69% of students who learned how to play instruments and 58% of students who had normal music lessons improved more than pupils with no musical intervention.
The results also indicate that music helps more with learning arithmetic than other types of maths and has a bigger impact on younger pupils and those learning more basic mathematical concepts. Dr Akin points out that maths and music have much in common, such as the use of symmetry symbols. Both subjects also require abstract thought and quantitative reasoning.
Limitations of the analysis include the relatively small number of studies available for inclusion. This meant it wasn’t possible to look at the effect of factors such as gender, socioeconomic status and length of musical instruction on the results.
Dr Akin adds, “Encouraging mathematics and music teachers to plan lessons together could help ease students’ anxiety about mathematics, while also boosting achievement.”
1. How did Dr Akin conduct her research?| A．By launching a questionnaire online. | B．By creating a data model. |
| C．By analyzing data worldwide. | D．By surveying university students. |
| A．Take maths tests. | B．Develop abstract thought. |
| C．Plan lessons with music teachers. | D．Learn more basic mathematical concepts. |
| A．Overall. | B．Sensitive. | C．Subjective. | D．Imperfect. |
4 . TikTok, the widely popular social media platform, has taken the world by storm with its short-form videos and addictive content. But did you know that there is also a Chinese version of TikTok?
The Chinese version of TikTok is called Douyin, and it has quickly become one of the most widely used apps in China. Launched in 2016 by Beijing-based tech company ByteDance, Douyin has attracted an enormous user base and reshaped the social media landscape in China.
So, how did Douyin gain such vast popularity in China?
One of the factors contributing to Douyin’s success is the large population of smartphone users in China. With over 1.4 billion people, China has a massive user base for social media platforms. Additionally, the rise in internet penetration and the availability of affordable smartphones have made it easier for people to access and use Douyin.
Douyin takes advantage of China’s culture of sharing and enjoying bite-sized content. In China. there has always been a strong demand for short-form entertainment, including popular formats like variety shows, quick comedy skits, and music videos. Douyin provides a platform for users to easily create and share short videos, allowing them to express their creativity and talent.
Douyin leverages the power of social network effects. Users can follow each other, like and comment on videos, and engage with a large community of like-minded individuals. This sense of belonging and community encourages them to spend more time on the platform.
Moreover. Douyin continuously improves its features and algorithms to enhance user experience and keep users engaged. The app uses advanced AI technology to analyze user preferences and provide personalized recommendations, ensuring that users see content that is relevant and interesting to them.
Overall, the rise of the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the large smartphone user base, the popularity of short-form entertainment in China, social network effects, and continuous improvements in features and algorithms.
1. How is Douyin different from TikTok?| A．Its algorithms. | B．Its target groups. | C．Its user experience. | D．Its main functions. |
| A．The popularity of long-form videos. |
| B．The low technology requirements to Douyin. |
| C．The large population of smartphone users. |
| D．The availability of different brands of mobile phones. |
| A．brings about | B．believes in | C．makes up for | D．makes full use of |
| A．Opinion — Description — Discussion | B．Topic — Argument — Emphasis |
| C．Introduction — Explanations — Summary | D．Main idea — Supporting examples — Conclusion |
5 . If you have the strange feeling that you’ve read this before, don’t be alarmed. It’s probably just déjà vu. Déjà vu is the strange feeling that you’ve experienced something before, while at the same time knowing that you haven’t. You visit a friend’s apartment and have the overwhelming sense you’ve been here before, but that can’t be the case. This is the first time you’ve ever visited this city. Still, the feeling may be so real that you almost know what you’ll find when you walk into the kitchen.
Experts estimate roughly two out of three people have had the experience at least once. The experience typically lasts no more than a few seconds and there’s no warning of when it’s about to happen, making it extremely difficult to study. Much that is known about déjà vu is based on surveys. Still, researchers have come up with novel ways to study it in the wild.
Anne Cleary, professor of cognitive psychology and memory researcher, used virtual reality (VR) to trigger (引发) déjà vu. Cleary and her team took subjects through a series of scenes in the video game, carefully designed so that the spatial layout (空间布局) of one scene was similar to another, even though the actual images were quite different. The subjects experienced déjà vu when a scene was similar to one they’d seen before, suggesting that a similarity in spatial layout between two places might lead to a déjà vu-like sense of familiarity in a novel place.
“There may be many different reasons that could all be true for why déjà vu can happen,” Cleary says. Though no one has yet explained what causes déjà vu, it’s a good thing that science finally got serious about studying the strange phenomenon. “I think déjà vu research has been shedding light on processes that are helping us to understand memory better at a wider level than just trying to understand déjà vu,” says Cleary.
1. Why does the author mention “visiting a friend’s apartment” in paragraph 1?| A．To draw a comparison. | B．To make an assumption. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To illustrate a concept. |
| A．Uncontrollable factors. | B．Unproven surveys. |
| C．Subjects’ mental state. | D．Similar spatial layout. |
| A．She compared similar scenes with the subjects. |
| B．She guided the subjects through a novel place. |
| C．She applied virtual reality to trigger déjà vu. |
| D．She depended on surveys to learn about déjà vu. |
| A．The accurate causes of déjà vu. | B．The phenomenon of déjà vu. |
| C．The significance of déjà vu research. | D．The procedure of déjà vu research. |
6 . The Internet’s carbon footprint is as bad as air travel. While it is difficult to measure precisely, estimates place it at over two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions(排放)—the same as the air travel.
Information may appear to spread around the world unseen to our eyes, but it actually passes through enormous data centers placed strategically about the globe, which store, organize and deliver everyone’s data. These centers are extremely energy intensive. In the EU, they consume close to three percent of its total energy usage and also require lots of water to prevent their computers from overheating. In the US, about a fifth of data centers draw water from already stressed water sources.
A typical spam email(垃圾邮件)emits around 0.03g of CO2 emissions, though longer messages read on a laptop can go all the way up to 26g. Now multiply that by 333 billion(roughly the number of emails that get sent every day in 2022). That puts all those work emails into perspective. One study found if every British adult sent one less “thank you” email a day, it would save 16, 433 tons of carbon a year. It even predicted that the ICT industry could account for up to a fifth of the world’s energy consumption by 2025.
However, there are measures that we can take to reduce our digital carbon footprint. For instance, you can unsubscribe from marketing and other spam emails and only subscribe to newsletters that you still regularly read. Have regular data checks where you delete old contact lists and other documents that no longer have any use. Keep a clean inbox and delete emails you no longer need.
1. Why does the author make a comparison in the beginning?| A．To present the digital carbon footprint. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of air travel. |
| C．To advise people not to travel by airplane. |
| D．To inform the disadvantages of the Internet. |
| A．It enjoys a wide popularity. |
| B．It has various kinds of functions. |
| C．It causes large energy consumption. |
| D．It has quite a complex mode of operation. |
| A．To draw the readers’ attention. |
| B．To illustrate a certain information. |
| C．To highlight the change of CO2 emission. |
| D．To stress the importance of reducing CO2 emission. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Unfavorable. | D．Concerned. |
The Amazon rainforest is home to a great
8 . In the United States, most of our electricity comes from power plants(发电厂) that burn coal and oil.
There are two big problems with using these things for electricity. First. their supply is limited(有限的). Second, burning them causes pollution. So to make sure we always have power and to keep our planet clean, we must find other ways to make electricity.
Some people think that wind power is our best choice. First, there will always be more wind. Also, wind power does not pollute the environment. Best of all, we don’t have to search for wind.
Today, less than 1 percent of our electricity comes from wind. But scientists have been developing better wind machines. As a result, wind power is getting more popular in this country.
Yet wind power may not keep growing so quickly in years to come. Why not? Many wind turbines(风力涡轮机)are needed to make much electricity. So wind-power companies try to build wind farms but are competing(竞争)with other uses for the land. A wind farm is a group of turbines placed close together in an area with frequent winds.
In places where companies try to build wind farms, people think that lines of turbines are ugly. Noise from turbines often troubles people. Also, turbines kill birds that fly into them.
Wind-power supporters disagree. They think the sight of wind turbines is lovely. They point out that people have gotten used to living near noisy highways. They say ways can be found to keep birds away from turbines.
In today’s world, we need clean and unlimited power sources more than ever. Unless a better power source comes along, people may just have to accept wind power as a part of their lives.
1. The underlined part “these things” in the second paragraph refers to _______.| A．frequent winds. | B．coal and oil. |
| C．power plants. | D．wind turbines. |
| A．How wind power works. |
| B．How wind power was found. |
| C．The development of wind power. |
| D．The advantages of wind power. |
| A．It is very expensive to build lots of wind turbines. |
| B．It is difficult to improve the wind power technology. |
| C．There are few people who accept it as a new power source. |
| D．Many wind turbines are needed and there is less space for them. |
| A．The Power of Wind. | B．The Role of Wind. |
| C．The Cost of Wind Power. | D．The History of Wind Power. |
9 . You know the feeling — your ears start to warm up, your tongue goes numb (麻木的), and you start sweating and taking deep breaths. You’ve just eaten something spicy, knowing it would be painful, but you chose to do it anyway. Are humans just masochistic (自讨苦吃的), or is there something else going on?
Spicy isn’t actually a taste like salty, sweet, sour and bitten — it’s a sensation.
This is what is happening chemically, but there is also a conscious side to choosing spicy food. Dr Tamara Rosenbaum, a Cognitive Neuroscientist, explains in an interview with the BBC that this is
Humans, one of the few mammals on Earth that developed a taste for capsaicin, started cultivating chilli peppers about six thousand years ago. Human intervention changed the chilli pepper to suit human tastes and needs — including the pepper’s colour, size and capsaicin content-helping to explain the many different types of chilli peppers now available.
| A．It lies in both science and history |
| B．where we get pleasure from a seemingly negative sensation |
| C．This is caused by a chemical compound called ‘capsaicin’ |
| D．It has something to do with human nature and body composition |
| E．why Steamed Fish Head with Chillies enjoys great popularity among Hunanese |
| F．Fast-forward to today, and our love affair with the chilli pepper is going strong |
| G．because we know that the burning sensation of chilli does not physically harm us |
10 . Blind people have long desired for brightness, but scientists don’t have the technology. To bring that one step closer to reality, Zhiyong Fan, a materials scientist of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, developed a new artificial eye recently. The device, which is about as sensitive to light and has sharper vision and a faster reaction time than a real eyeball, may outperform human eyes.
The human eye owes its wide field of view and clear eyesight to the retina (视网膜) — an area at the back of the eyeball covered in light-detecting cells. The design for a new artificial eye is based on the structure of the human eye and uses a friendly light-sensitive material. At the back of the eyeball, an artificial retina is lined with Nan scale light sensors (纳米级光感器). Those sensors measure light that passes through the lens (晶状体) at the front of the eye. Wires attached to the back of the retina send signals from those sensors to the processor, similar to the way nerve networks connect the eyeball to the brain.
“In the future, we can use this to replace damaged human eyes,” says the lead designer. In theory, this artificial eye could see more clearly than the human eye, because the artificial retina contains about 460 million light sensors per square centimeter while a real retina has about 10 million light-detecting cells per square centimeter. Besides, the artificial eyeball records changes in lighting faster than human eyes can — within about 30 to 40 milliseconds, rather than 40 to 150 milliseconds. Although its 100-degree field of view isn’t as broad as the150 degrees a human eye can take in, the device can see as well as the human eye in poor light.
Hongrui Jiang, an electrical engineer at the University of Wisconsin, though, thinks engineers need a much more practical and efficient way to produce vast series of tiny wires on the back of the artificial eyeball to give it superhuman sight, which is super hard to achieve.
1. Why does Zhiyong Fan develop the artificial eye?| A．To replace people’s real eyeballs. | B．To gain a sharper vision. |
| C．To help the blind regain their eyesight. | D．To help normal eyes perform better. |
| A．The design of the artificial eye. | B．The structure of the human eye. |
| C．The advantages of the artificial eye. | D．The material used for the artificial eye. |
| A．They have the same structure. |
| B．The artificial eye may see more clearly. |
| C．The human eye sees better in weak light. |
| D．The artificial eye takes in a broader view. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Favorable. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Satisfied. |
