Ultrasound（超声）is used widely in medical imaging, but in recent years scientists have started developing it for another use: stimulating nerves to treat disease. In two new studies in mice, researchers focused the sound waves on nerves in the spleen（脾）that communicate with the immune system, reducing symptoms. If the approach proves safe and effective in people, it could serve as a treatment for diseases such as arthritis（关节炎）.
In one study, led by scientists at the Feistein Institute and GE Research, mice receiving a few minutes of ultrasound treatment to the spleen nerve had a diminished symptoms to an injected（注射）poison. In another study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and their colleagues reduces symptoms of arthritis in mice by stimulating their spleen nerves for 20 minutes every day for a week. “Zeroing in on the spleen may provide a more precise approach than focusing on the vagus nerve（交感神经）, which connects with the immune system via a second nerve that stimulates the spleen.” says Hubert Lin, lead author of the latter study. “When we’re targeting the spleen we have less of an effect all over the body.”
“Little is known about how repeated ultrasound affects the spleen or whether it has other harmful effects,” says neuroscientist Denise Bellinger of Loma Linda University, who was not involved in either study. An ongoing clinical trial aims to assess the treatment’s safety in humans with arthritis. A bigger unknown is how ultrasound activates in general. Scientists are now exploring the use of ultrasound on other parts of the nervous system, including the brain. “We know how to control nerves with electricity, and we’ve been doing it for more than 100 years,” neuroscientist Kevin Tracey says, “But the idea of controlling nerve signals with ultrasound is a brand-new field.”
1. What do scientists expect of the new application of ultrasound?| A．It'll be applied in medical imaging |
| B．It'll be used to activate nerves to treat disease. |
| C．It’ll be applied in spleen transplantation. |
| D．It'll be employed to rebuild immune system. |
| A．Complicated. | B．Worsened. |
| C．Decreased. | D．Associated. |
| A．Side effect. | B．Time length. |
| C．The procedure. | D．The cost. |
| A．Assessing the treatment' s safety on humans. |
| B．Activating nerves in general with ultrasound. |
| C．Exploring the use of ultrasound on the brain. |
| D．Controlling nerve signals with ultrasound. |
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【推荐1】The Rise of Voice Technology
Voice technology has come a long way. Just a few years ago, it would have been unusable. But now, those who follow the technology know that it has got considerably better.
Writing with your voice raises several interesting questions. How difficult is it actually? Human speech involves a lot more starting and stopping with errors and the need for repairing broken sentences than you may think. Even gifted speakers make mistakes. To turn the spoken word into reasonable writing requires lots of planning. You’ll need some kinds of notes or other organisers to make it work.
Another question turning speech into writing raises is the style. How would writing make the change that people speak their writing rather than type? Chances are that it would come up with many more short sentences and more concrete language, which is good. It would probably also rely on prepared phrases a lot more often, which is not available when you are speaking quickly.
To confirm this, a column was not written, but dictated (听写). It was composed from brief notes written down for structure only, and it was edited for length, with all of the original errors kept in. Here were the results. The first was that the literal accuracy was extremely high. There weren’t many cases where the software had heard one word incorrectly and written down another. But the other result was that the readability of this column was rather bad. Obviously, the blame is not with the technology at all, which turns out to be rather good. Speaking into writing relies on a better human brain than the one we currently possess. Writing is hard. There’s a reason it can’t be done at the speed of speech, in real time.
To clarify the matter, this time paragraph breaks were added after the whole writing. Punctuations (标点) had to be spoken aloud, and after a full stop, the first word in the new sentence was capitalized automatically. Some minor punctuation marks were added to make it clearer. To improve accuracy, people “trained” the software beforehand, reading a prewritten passage aloud. Actually it turns out to be more effective. All of these ensure the satisfactory completion of turning speech into writing.
Language is the most important tool for human interaction, and voice is one beautiful part of language. With the maturity of modern technology, it has given birth to a great change in the human-computer voice interaction.
1. According to the passage, which helps to turn speech into writing in terms of style?| A．There is careful planning in advance. |
| B．Errors and broken sentences are avoided. |
| C．People type words as fast as they say them. |
| D．The writing contains more prepared phrases. |
| A．processing errors in a column. |
| B．adding minor punctuation marks. |
| C．increasing the number of brief notes. |
| D．integrating short paragraphs in writing. |
| A．human brains are responsible for poor dictated writing. |
| B．writing with voice promises to improve the quality of writing. |
| C．writing is an unnatural act that can hardly be learned and improved. |
| D．technology has a long way to go in the human-computer voice interaction. |
| A．Why people fully intend to turn speech into writing. |
| B．What role voice technology plays in improving readability. |
| C．Where the human-computer voice interaction is at an advantage. |
| D．How voice technology enables the change from speech into writing. |
【推荐2】We love to mimic the routines of the rich and famous, but they may be no more insightful than random behaviors. Beethoven, for example, counted exactly 60 coffee beans for each cup, which he used to power his composing.
Why do successful people follow unusually specific habits? And why are we so keen to read about them and mimic them in our own lives?
The answer lies in a powerful psychological process called “superstitious learning”.
That is not to say the resulting habits are completely lacking in benefits.
If superstitious behaviors arise as a by-product of our ability to form associations, then you would expect more superstitious people to perform better on implicit learning ― the brain’s ability to non-consciously pick up patterns ― and this was exactly what Elena Daprati, a neuroscientist at the University of Rome Tor Vergata found. “Superstitious individuals generally pick up on the cue and use it,” she says.
Often, the rituals that we acquire take very little effort.
| A．The brain is constantly looking for associations between two events. |
| B．Daprati suggests this may even be the reason that we persist in these behaviors. |
| C．Given these findings, we need not be embarrassed by the little rituals that pepper our days. |
| D．In some cases, when the association influences high-level decision-making, superstitious learning may be costly. |
| E．The scientific study of superstitious learning began in the late 1940s, with an influential paper by an American psychologist. |
| F．In everyday life, this associative learning might lead us to settle on a “lucky” pen that seems to deliver particularly good grades in exams. |
| G．By giving us a sense of self-determination, the adoption of rituals can help us to overcome anxiety, and may even bring about a noticeable boost in performance. |
【推荐3】Choosing to forget something might take more mental effort than trying to remember it, researchers at The University of Texas discovered. Their findings suggest that in order to forget an unwanted experience, more attention should be focused on it.
“Decades of research has shown that we have the ability to forget something out of our own free will, but how our brains do that is still being questioned. Once we can figure out how memories are weakened and come up with ways to control this, we can design treatment to help people rid themselves of unwanted memories.” said Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, the study's senior author.
Memories are energetic constructions of the brain that regularly get updated, adjusted and reorganized through experience. The brain is constantly remembering and forgetting information—and much of this happens automatically during sleep.
Their findings not only confirmed that humans have the ability to control what they forget, but that successful intentional forgetting requires more activity than what is required to remember.
“A proper level of brain activity is important to this forgetting mechanism (机制). Too strong, it will strengthen the memory; too weak, you won’t change it,” said Tracy Wang, lead author of the study. “Importantly, it's the intention to forget that increases the activation of the memory, and when this activation (激活) hits the “proper level” sweet spot, that's when it leads to later forgetting of that experience”.
The researchers also found that participants were more likely to forget scenes than faces. “We're learning how these mechanisms in our brain respond to different types of information, and it will take a lot of further research before we understand how to use our ability to forget,” said Lewis-Peacock. “Hopefully we can find out how we process and get rid of those really strong memories, which can have a powerful effect on our health and well-being.”
1. What remains a puzzle to researchers?| A．How our memories can be strengthened. |
| B．How our brains voluntarily forget something. |
| C．What effect unwanted memories have on our brains. |
| D．Whether our brains can voluntarily forget something. |
| A．Casual. | B．Unpredictable. |
| C．Active. | D．Permanent. |
| A．it requires less attention to forget than to remember |
| B．the more active the brain is, the faster it forgets |
| C．humans can't keep memories under control |
| D．humans forget faces less easily than scenes |
| A．What It Takes to Forget an Unwanted Experience |
| B．Strong Memories Have a Great Influence on Health |
| C．Forgetting Uses More Brain Power than Remembering. |
| D．How to Train Our Brains to Voluntarily Forget Something |
【推荐1】Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. For example, it may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer (乳腺癌) in ways that were not possible.
Rishi Rawat teaches AI at a University in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. He says, “You put information about cancer cells (细胞) into a computer and it will learn the cancerous growth patterns. The pattern recognition is very important to making decisions.”
At present, researchers have to take a thin piece of tissue (组织), put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cell-growth patterns. That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do it better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can quickly recognize patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.
The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick recognition of cancerous cell-growth patterns that is free of human mistakes. Rawat adds that the process could be done “for almost no cost for the patients”. But having a large amount of information about cells is important for a machine to effectively do its job. Once the cancerous growth pattern is recognized, doctors still have to treat the patient. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer.
David Agus is another researcher of the team. He believes, “Computers will help doctors make better decisions and look for those patterns that the human brain can't recognize by itself. But they will not treat patients.”
1. What’s the advantage of AI technology?| A．It treats breast cancer all by itself. |
| B．It provides free cancer treatment for the patients. |
| C．It recognizes the cancerous growth patterns faster. |
| D．It helps doctors make fewer mistakes in cancer treatment. |
| A．The process of treating cancers. | B．The process of adding color to cells. |
| C．The process of taking a piece of tissue. | D．The process of recognizing the cell-growth. |
| A．AI will not replace doctors. | B．AI will develop fast in the future. |
| C．AI can be useless in treating cancers. | D．AI can provide the doctors with treatments. |
| A．AI technology has a long way to go. | B．AI Makes Better Doctors. |
| C．Future Cancer Treatments will be successful. | D．AI Helps Pattern Recognition. |
【推荐2】We all know that a healthy life means getting both plenty of exercise and enough good-quality sleep, but reality often gets in the way. The new research indicates that doing enough exercise could make up for some of the unhealthy impacts of bad sleep. While the health benefits of exercise and sleep are nothing new, it's the relationship between them that is interesting in this particular study — it could even give doctors another option to suggest for patients dealing with sleep problems.
“We found those who had both the poorest sleep quality and who exercised the least were most at risk of death from heart disease, stroke, and cancer,” says epidemiologist Bo-Huei Huang, from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Participants were grouped into three levels of physical activity (high, medium or low) and were also given a sleep quality score from 0-5 based on the amount of shut-eye they got, how late they stayed up, insomnia, snoring and daytime sleepiness.
Those with the highest risk of dying from cancer or heart disease during the study period were those with the worst quality sleep and who didn't meet the WHO recommended guidelines for exercise. That risk went down for people with poor quality sleep but who did meet the exercise guidelines.
In the case of all forms of cancer, for example, those at the unhealthiest end of the sleep and exercise scale had a 45 percent higher risk of dying from cancer than those with good sleep scores who kept physically active. However, that risk just about disappeared for those who didn't score well on sleep but did score well on physical activity.
For now it's not clear why more exercise might make up for poor sleep, as far as our health goes. It could be that the increased activity is counteracting inflammation (炎症), or reducing irregularities in glucose metabolism, suggest the researchers.
“Considering that physical activity is perhaps more modifiable than sleep, our study offers people more health incentives to be physically active.” says population health researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, from the University of Sydney.
1. This research is of particular interest in that ________.| A．it’s in this study that exercise is known to be beneficial to sleep. |
| B．this study offers people more health treatments to be physical active. |
| C．it could enable doctors to cure patients of their sleeping condition. |
| D．the relationship between exercise and sleep is updated in this study. |
| A．Those who had the poorest sleep quality were most at risk of death from heart disease. |
| B．Those scoring lowest on sleep and exercise scale were more likely to die from cancer. |
| C．There’s no risk of cancer for those who didn't sleep well but did score well on physical activity. |
| D．It's evident that in terms of health more exercise could make up for poor sleep. |
| A．interacting | B．increasing | C．preventing | D．causing |
| A．A research findings report | B．A medical examination report |
| C．A poor sleep study report | D．A physical activity study report |
【推荐3】Most people know not to touch a jellyfish (水母), but some jellies can sting (蛰) you without touching them—by connecting tiny bits from their body that float off into the sea and move around independently.
Upside-down jellyfish throw small balls of stinging cells in a network of sticky mucus(黏液), to kill prey such as shrimp (虾). “It is as if we could spit out our teeth and they killed thing for us some now,” says Cheryl Ames at Tohoku university in Japan. “it's s a real revolutionary novelty.”
Upside-down jellyfish, several species of the genus Cassiopea, live in warm coastal waters off Florid a, Australia, the Red Sea and southerly parts of the Mediterranean. Their stings aren't generally seen as dangerous, but there have been occasional reports of “stinging water” around them. “It's really irritating. You're constantly being stung on any surface that's exposed,” says Ames.
Now Ames's group has found that this happens because the creatures shed hollow balls of stinging cells up to half a millimeter wide. Named cassiosomes, they carry hairs that can make them float around in circles to boost their chances of hitting prey. “It was a really amazing moment when we all took turns in looking through the microscope and saw there were tiny, little things moving about in the mucus,” says Ames. The jellies released cassiosomes and mucus when brine shrimp, their natural prey, were put in their tank. The cassiosomes could kill the shrimp within a minute. In the wild, the dead shrimp are then sucked into the jelliesꞌ body by their pulsating (有节奏地跳动) motions. And these jellies tend to float at the bottom of lakes, and extend their networks of mucus to float above them. “The mucus may not be easily visible to swimmers,” says Ames.
The unique feeding mechanism isn't the jellies main source of nutrients, They also have algae inside them, which photo synthesize (进行光合作用). And the reason why the jellies float upside down is to expose these plant cells to the sun. The cassiosomes also contain algae, which might provide the energy for them to float around—they could survive outside the jellies for up to 10 days in the lab.
1. What does Cheryl Ames think of the jelly fish's way to catch food?| A．Terrible. | B．Fresh. | C．Mysterious | D．Unacceptable. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Annoying | C．Amusing | D．Appealing |
| A．They are spread in the mucus released by the jellyfish. |
| B．They can send the shrimp to the jellies themselves |
| C．They can easily be noticed by the swimmers, |
| D．They use their hairy to attract the shrimp |
| A．To protect themselves from the sun. | B．To hide themselves from the enemy. |
| C．To transport algae to the cassiosones. | D．To get more energy provided by algae inside. |
【推荐1】Dry Ice is a unique substance which has many uses. Essentially, dry ice is frozen CO2. The first report of what we now call dry ice came from the French chemist Charles Thilorier in 1834. In 1924, the Drylee Corporation of America named the solid form of CO2 as "Dry Ice", which is what it is popularly called today.
At normal atmospheric pressure, CO2changes directly from solid to gas. It skips the liquid phase（阶段）which makes regular ice wet. Frozen CO2is also much colder than regular ice. But regular ice freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, CO2 changes from gas to solid at -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This extremely cold temperature makes it very dangerous to handle with bare hands. It can cause frostbite in a very short period of time.
Dry ice has been used for a variety of purposes throughout the past century. Its primary use is to refrigerate food when electrical refrigeration isn't available. Through the process of sublimation (when CO2 changes from solid to gas), it can maintain cold food for a long time.
If you've ever been to a play and seen heavy fog on the ground, it is likely that you have seen dry ice in action. This effect can be achieved because CO2 is heavier than air, so evaporated （挥发的）CO2 will sink and accumulate on the ground.
Another interesting use for this substance is to bait（诱杀）insects like mosquitoes. These insects have sensors which guide them to CO2. They find the high concentration of CO2 in dry ice quite attractive.
Mars has long been a mystery for human beings. We have been looking for evidence of life on Mars. In the 1960s scientists guessed that the polar ice cap of Mars was made of frozen CO2. More recent observations have shown that while the topmost layer consists of frozen CO2, the most of it is probably regular frozen water.
1. Frozen CO2 gets its name of "Dry Ice" mainly because______.| A．it is very easy to make it dry |
| B．we can't melt it and it doesn't get wet |
| C．it looks like ice at a low temperature |
| D．it is solid like ice at -109.3 degrees Fahrenheit |
| A．the shakes caused by cold |
| B．damage caused by freezing |
| C．a fever caused by being cold |
| D．a sharp pain caused by bums |
| A．freeze most of food in the next century |
| B．increase the production of farming |
| C．make a vivid fog effect on stages |
| D．help to improve the environment |
| A．Dry ice on Mars is near the polar. |
| B．Not much dry ice has been found on Mars. |
| C．The polar ice cap of Mars is unique. |
| D．No frozen CO, on Mars can be melt. |
【推荐2】Journalism (新闻业) is a fast-paced industry, requiring reporters to get the facts about newsworthy events and to write about them before a deadline (截止日期). It takes some skills to do this. At the same time, news reporters must follow strict requirements and have a deep understanding of news writing.
Know what you’re going to write about. Newsworthy events can happen anytime and anywhere. So reporters need to develop a good nose for news.
Get all the facts and look at the details. Be sure to look at a story from different angle (角度). Even if you are covering a popular story or topic that others are writing about, look for an angle that will make this one yours.
Check facts to avoid mistakes. Sources may also make mistakes and some may even deceive you. It’s wise to get in touch with other sources. In a shooting incident, for example, getting the facts from the police and from both the criminal (罪犯) and victim isn’t enough. You should also interview other witnesses who may give more information about the incident. Interviewing people and getting a firsthand source on your topic can be valuable.
Start writing the news. When it comes to the body of the article, the main information should be given in the leading statement. It is often a short one, including the basics of what happened, where and when it took place, who was involved and why it’s newsworthy. These details are the main point that informs the reader. Other information about the story follows. This form allows editors to cut off the last paragraphs if there’re space limits.
Check your article for mistakes. If time permits, leave the article for a moment and then read through it again with a fresh eye. Newspaper publications usually have someone check for mistakes but keep in mind that you’re the first line of defense. Grammar mistakes are embarrassing (令人尴尬的), and some mistakes may result in a lawsuit(诉讼).
1. What can we learn about journalism from the first paragraph?| A．It is developing fast. | B．It is very challenging. |
| C．It is very interesting. | D．It is popular worldwide. |
| A．Warn. | B．Assist. |
| C．Interest. | D．Cheat. |
| A．It begins with a summary. | B．It ends with a happy ending. |
| C．It has enough smart questions. | D．It gives opinions about the event. |
| A．By choosing a proper topic. | B．By checking it for grammar mistakes. |
| C．By filling it with enough details. | D．By removing boring facts from it. |
【推荐3】Pachyrhynchus weevils(球背象鼻虫）are found on most islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. If these weevils could fly. that would not be surprising. But they cannot. Why they are so widespread is therefore unknown. But it is one that Dr Huang Wenshan from Taiwan.China thinks he has solved.
One theory. which dates back to 1923. is that the insects are lifted up by a tiny air cavity(气腔）each has beneath its outer shell. which allows the insects to float.Dr Huang' s research into the weevils began when he noted that this theory had never been tested. He discovered. when he put it to the test. that the insects do. indeed, float. But floating in seawater does not do them much good. In his test. all 57 adults died within two days,Clearly.adult weevils are not good sailors. That does not.however. mean that young weevils are not.
Pactyrhyochas weevils have a preference for laying their eggs inside the fruit of a plant called the fish-poison tree. This reminds us of coconut trees. They drop their fruits into the ocean. which carries them away to start growing on distant beaches. Coconuts are protected from being eaten on their travels by having a hard. thick shell. Fish-poison-tree fruits are also protected from hungry sea creatures. But in their case, as their name suggests. the protection is chemical.
Given the relationship between the insects and the plant. Dr Huang wondered how their larvae(幼虫） would get along if they were deep inside a piece of fruit floating in seawater. So he tested this as well. His experiment showed that such larvae are tolerant of salty conditions. Out of 18 larvae thrown into seawater inside a piece of fruit, two survived for six days. Moreover. these larvae went on to develop into healthy. Sexually mature adults. Two larvae out of 18 surviving for six days at sea might not sound particularly impressive. But Dr Huang argues that such numbers would easily support island colonization(定殖）。
He observes,for example, that the Kuroshio Current, which carries water from the Philippines,past Japan and onwards into the Pacific. moves so swiftly that a piece of fruit caught in it could easily travel 90km in a day - thus solving the question of how a flightless insect can island-hop so effectively.
1. What did the 1923 theory suggest about Pachyrhynchus weevils?| A．They are able to fly very high. |
| B．They are able to float in water. |
| C．They lay their eggs inside a fruit. |
| D．They are widespread in the Pacific Ocean. |
| A．They are the food of hungry sea creatures. |
| B．They provide shelter for young weevils. |
| C．They are under the protection of thick shells. |
| D．They travel a long way to grow on distant beaches. |
| A．The Kuroshio Current. |
| B．Pachyrhynchus weevils. |
| C．The salty conditions of the sea. |
| D．The islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. |
| A．Travel. |
| B．Science. |
| C．Health. |
| D．Environment. |
【推荐1】At the end of 1978, China put forward a package of new thoughts on national development. The most important of them was to shift the priority of the nation to economic development, which has since become the central task of CPC organizations and governments at all levels. Economic growth was the primary measurement of the development of a region and performance of an official. It became national agreement that economic growth offered the solution to the problems facing China.
Seeing that manufacturing was a strong promoter of economic growth, China's central and local governments put great emphasis on it. But in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s the country was short of money to build up this capital-intensive (资本密集) sector, which requires buying equipment and land, building factories, and hiring workers. It therefore looked to foreign investors who were looking for opportunities in the Chinese market.
Foreseeing the multiple benefits of foreign investment including tax contribution, job creation, raise in local income, local governments raced to look for foreign capital. To compete against their peers, some regions offered extra favorable policies like tax cuts or breaks, discounted land prices or even free land. Some even went to the extent of lowering or abandoning environmental protection requirements.
While going after foreign investors, regional governments also struggled to seek domestic banks for loans to local enterprises. Meanwhile, they set up their own financing platforms to raise funds for local manufacturing and infrastructure (基础设施) to stimulate economic growth.
These efforts paid off. The economy rose rapidly all over the country, with few regions reporting GDP growth rate below 10 percent. A series of new infrastructure was completed, and manufacturing sprang in both rural and urban areas. But the side effects soon came up. The supply of low-priced or even free land to foreign investors led to a sharp rise in land development for industrial projects and a steep fall in farmlands. Realizing these problems, China began to correct its neglect of other aspects during the pursuit of economic growth.
1. What central task did the Chinese government advocate in 1978?| A．Environmental protection. | B．Economic growth. |
| C．Manufacture promotion. | D．Capital accumulation. |
| A．By loaning money from foreign banks. | B．By selling equipment and land. |
| C．By seeking foreign investors. | D．By raising funds from the public. |
| A．China's economy experienced ups and downs. |
| B．Foreign investment was a win-win policy. |
| C．GDP growth in many regions was below 10 %. |
| D．Policies were adopted for better environment. |
| A．China's Problems in Promoting Economy |
| B．China's Policy in Foreign Investment |
| C．China's Success in Fighting Against Poverty |
| D．China's Efforts in Economic Development |
【推荐2】An old man in a faded yellow shirt sat in a windowless room on a raised concrete form. The only source of heat came from somewhere beneath the plastic mattress and the rough blanket the blank-faced police woman had handed him after taking his thumb prints. He heard voices and metallic clang as the cell door swung open.
At the front desk a tired looking policeman handed the old man back his belongings, his worn-out cap and the Seiko watch that had stopped working the day his beloved Evelyn left. The policeman dramatically held the blue plastic bag at an arm's length to the old man who took it and made sure its contents were undamaged: the goat meat, palm oil, leaves and spices. He ignored the confused expression on the officer’s face and signed the document declaring he had been returned the possessions they had taken off him the night before.
No one spoke to him as he walked slowly towards the exit.
''Mr. Easy-nwa? '' He stopped and prayed to the God who now took care of Evelyn to please take him far away from this unhappy place of expressionless faces, clipped accents and people who did not even attempt to pronounce his name right.
''Ezenwa,'' He said and looked at a woman with tangerine lips, her name tag said Jessica Harlow, Social Services. ''A bit far from home'' she said as she drove fast and with confidence the way Evelyn used to. He wondered if she meant the 50 miles from Liverpool or the 50,000 miles from Enugu，a city in Nigeria. He did not bother replying as this woman had plenty to say about the weather, bad drivers, her daughter's school play...
At last she drew up outside the block of flats where he lived.
''Got here in the end''，said she seriously, ''Really Mr. Easy-nwa, if you keep getting lost, we will have to consider moving you into a home''.
''No need, I was not lost, '' he answered. He carefully rolled up the sleeves of the oversize bomber jacket he wore and turned on the tap to wash his hands, relieved the pipes were not frozen.
In a clean pan he placed the chopped pieces of goat meat. The herbs and spices that had taken him three months to track down, the uziza seeds had taken him into the heart of Granby Market in Liverpool, his uchanwu leaves down a shady back alley in Manchester, and yesterday, among other food items, the finest goat meat from a Sierra Leonean Butcher in Birmingham. That had taken some time, so much he missed the last train and when the police found him shivering outside the locked-up station, so cold he couldn't answer loudly enough the pink-faced big copper who yelled in his face, ''What's your name sir? '' spraying his face with spittle (唾沫)as he did so, leaving them with no choice but to search an exhausted, frozen old black man and finding him in possession of mysterious condiments (调味品)including a bag of dried bitter-leaf which could of course be mistaken for anything that resulted in him getting read his rights and charged with ...possession???
He lifted the lid of the bubbling soup, the room was filled with the rich and spicy scent of his culinary (烹饪的)effort. He served two bowls, taking the chipped one and placing the other opposite where Evelyn would have sat. He would tell her about his adventure, it was their anniversary and this was the perfect pepper soup to celebrate.
Ken Onyia, UK (Nigeria) Commonwealth Sport Short Story Prize
1. Why was Mr. Ezenwa taken to the prison for a night?| A．He was too weak to move. |
| B．He couldn't find his way back home. |
| C．He then had nowhere else to go. |
| D．He was suspected of possessing drugs. |
| A．his thumb print was taken immediately |
| B．the policeman was confused about what he had |
| C．a social worker was assigned to drive him back home |
| D．the policeman was so kind as not to damage his belongings |
| A．He collected all sorts of valuables as presents. |
| B．He cooked native food as a surprise for his wife. |
| C．He prepared a special Nigerian pepper soup carefully. |
| D．He travelled a lot, attempting to get his wife back. |
| A．Hopeless and pessimistic. | B．Affectionate and persistent. |
| C．Mysterious and troublesome. | D．Energetic and sympathetic. |
【推荐3】China’s Tianwen 1 Mars probe (探测器) conducted its fourth orbital correction on Friday evening, as the spacecraft makes ready for its arrival in orbit around Feb. 10, according to the China National Space Administration.
The name comes from the long poem Tianwen, meaning Heavenly Questions or Questions to Heaven, written by Qu Yuan, one of the greatest poets of ancient China. In Tianwen, this name conveys the Chinese nation’s steady effort in pursuing truth and culture of exploring nature and the universe. CNSA also unveiled ( 发 布 ) the logo of China’s planetary exploration missions, featuring the letter C, signifying China, international cooperation and capacity of entering space.
Tianwen I has flown for 197 days and more than 465 million kilometers on its journey to the planet. It is now around 184 million km from Earth and I. 1 million km from Mars. Depending on the two planets’ orbits, Mars is between 55 and 400 million km from Earth. Mars probe Tianwen I is seen in its first selfies in space on Oct. 1, 2020. The administration also published a black-and-white picture of Mars taken by Tianwen I, the first snapshot (抓拍的照片) from the Chinese craft.
Tianwen I, the country’s first independent Mars mission, was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, kicking off the nation’s planetary exploration program.
A successful landing would make China only the second nation to place a spacecraft on the Martian planet. China would also be the first to successfully orbit, land and deploy ( 部署) a vehicle in the same mission. According to experts, searching for signs of life on Mars will be the first and foremost scientific goal. China is open and inclusive in the development of its space technology not least because it believes that the exploration of outer space should help build a community with a shared future for mankind.
1. Why is Qu Yuan’s poem mentioned in the text?| A．To tell the origin of space exploration. |
| B．To describe space exploration vividly. |
| C．To highlight the importance of space exploration. |
| D．To show Chinese continuous struggle in space exploration. |
| A．function | B．development | C．operation | D．structure |
| A．To build a common future for man. | B．To prove our achievement in space research. |
| C．To discover signs of life on this planet. | D．To expand the understanding of the space. |
| A．Letter C Logo symbolizes creation between countries. |
| B．China was the first nation to land a spacecraft on Mars. |
| C．Tianwen I made its fifth orbital correction around Feb. 10. |
| D．Tianwen I started a new chapter in Chinese planetary exploration. |
