2 . Adults with a poor education are also likely to have poor health, a growing body of evidence suggests. Study after study has confirmed the link, and now experts are zeroing in on the reasons for it and what can be done. “People with higher education tend to have better jobs, better income, and better benefits,” said David R. Williams, a professor of public health in America.

Those benefits, he said, go beyond health benefits to include such other factors as the flexibility to take a day off or part of a day to see a doctor. “People with higher levels of education tend to have more resources to cope with stress and life,” Williams said. “They have stress, of course, but also more resources to cope with it—such as access to a health club to exercise away the stress—than people with less education,” he said.

“Being better educated also means that a person is more likely to understand the world of modern medicine,” said Erik Angner, an assistant professor of philosophy and economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who has researched the link between education and happiness. “Modern medicine is incredibly complex. And if you lack the basic reading skills required to function adequately in the health-care environment, you might find it hard to effectively understand your medical care.”

A report issued by Williams’ commission found that, compared with college graduates, adults who did not graduate from high school were 2.5 times as likely to be in less than very good health. The report suggested that factors outside the medical system play an important role in determining people’s health. Access to medical care is crucial, but it isn’t enough to improve health. What’s needed, they suggested, is increased focus on schools and education—encouraging people to obtain more education.

Benjamin Franklin’s famous experiment with lightning has introduced     1     (generation) of children to science. However, new research suggests that the story may be fiction instead     2    fact.

Franklin    3     (fly) a kite during storm in 1752, when there was much interest in electricity. Franklin raised the kite with a piece of string     4     (tie) to it. A metal key was attached to the string. After     5    experiment, he said that lightning was a form of electricity.

However, neither the story     6    the details of the experiment are entirely true because scientists all agree that if Franklin had     7     (actual) touched the key, he would certainly have died from the     8     (electricity) shock. Scientists often question accepted ideas because they want     9     (establish) the facts.

In science, facts should    10     (prove) by experiments and research, and we should not always believe everything we read or hear.

The Amazon rainforest is home to a great     1     (various) of plant life; however, its soil is     2     (surprise) poor in nutrients. In fact, the soil in the region cannot support agriculture for more than a few years. If a scientist is shown a report     3     (list) the nutrients of that soil, he or she will probably think that only desert plants can survive in it! Then why is the soil so poor in nutrients? For one thing, the rainy season has     4     impact on the soil. In this season, the water level can rise to more than 12 meters.     5     the water goes away, it takes away the nutrients in the soil. For another thing, due to the Amazon’s hot climate, it is difficult for the soil     6     (build) enough nutrients. Dead plants and animals     7     (break) down more quickly. The nutrients are soon taken     8     by the roots of the plants deep beneath the ground. As a result, most of the forest’s nutrients are locked up in the plants     9     (them), thus allowing them to grow at a (n)     10     (believe) speed.

Who invented the ATM? There have been     1     (argue) for years over who should officially go down in history as “the inventor of the ATM”. Now the UK government is     2     (clear) saying it was James Goodfellow who invented the ATM.

Back in the mid-1960s, James Goodfellow was working     3     a development engineer for Glasgow firm Kelvin Hughes, and had been charged with inventing a way to enable customers to withdraw (取) cash from banks when Saturday opening ended. “Most people    4     (work) during the week couldn’t get to the bank. They wanted a solution. The solution was a machine which would issue cash on demand to a     5     (recognize) customer,” he said. “I set out to develop a cash-issuing machine, and     6     (make) this a reality, I invented the pin (personal identification number) and an associated coded token (代币).”

So far, the cash machine     7     (become) a world-conquering piece of technology. There are now 3 million ATMs worldwide, with     8     number forecast to hit 4 million by 2020. The good news for Goodfellow is     9     people are beginning to know him for his invention. Even     10     (good) for him, the Home Office has now officially recognized his other achievement.

8 . 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?     1    

Spicy isn’t actually a taste like salty, sweet, sour and bitten — it’s a sensation.     2    . When we eat foods containing capsaicin (辣椒素), our bodies are tricked into thinking the temperature is actually rising. In trying to relieve the burning sensation, our bodies release endorphins (内啡肽) which control pain and, at the same time, give a feeling of pleasure — like painkillers.

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     3    . Furthermore, we obtain pleasure from the other ingredients chilli is generally cooked and eaten with—including fat, sugar and salt. So — like skydiving — eating chilli is a form of thrill-seeking,     4    

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.     5    . We eat around 57.3 million tons of peppers globally each year, and chilli is a key ingredient in traditional dishes from Mexico to Korea.

9 . Winning a remarkable science award is really a big deal, especially if you are 12 years old. But Shanya Gill, a middle schooler from San Jose, California, won the top award in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for designing a fire detection system that is superior to existing ones, as stated in the press release.

“The top winners have exhibited boundless curiosity,” Maya Ajmera president and CEO of Society for Science, said in the press release. “Their remarkable research not only reflects their talent but also paves the way for an exciting new future.”

Shanya’s inspiration came after a fire destroyed a restaurant in her neighborhood during the summer of 2022, reported The Washington Post. “I had never really experienced something like that before,” she told The Washington Post about the early morning fire at Holder’s Country Inn, which started in the kitchen. “They had smoke detectors, and yet it still burned down,” she added.

After she studied fire statistics, Shaya spent over a year developing a fire detection system that she believes could have prevented the fire. Unlike traditional smoke detectors that sense active fires from the smoke in the air, Shanya’s thermal (热的) imaging device is designed to stop fires from occurring.

With a thermal camera and a tiny computer, the device detects when a heat source has been left unattended for ten minutes and sends a text message warning. Shanya wants to bring the costs down to make it even more common than hardwired smoke detectors.

“Shanya saw a problem, went after it and tried to solve it, and that’s what we need to encourage with all young people,” said Ajmera. She also highlighted the significance of supporting individuals, especially girls and kids of color, in STEM fields.

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.