【推荐1】Scientists have solved the mystery of why the overwhelming majority of mammoth fossils(化石)are male.

Much like wild elephants today, young male Ice Age mammoths probably travelled around alone and more often got themselves into risky situations where they were swept into rivers, or fell through ice or into mud, lakes or sinkholes that preserved their bones for thousands of years, scientists say.

Females, on the other hand, travelled in groups led by an older matriarch who knew the landscape and directed her group away from danger.

"Without the benefit of living in a herd led by an experienced female, male mammoths had a much higher risk of dying in natural traps such as mud holes, rock cracks and lakes, "said co-author Love Dalen of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in a report published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The study used genetic data to determine the sex of 98 woolly mammoth fossils in Siberia Researchers found that 69% of the samples were male, a heavily unbalanced sex ratio, assuming that the sexes were fairly even at birth.

"We were very surprised because there was no reason to expect a sex bias in the fossil record," said first author Patricia Pecnerova, also of the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Therefore, researchers believe that something about the way they lived influenced the way they died.Most bones, tusks, and teeth from mammoths and other Ice Age animals haven't survived," explained Dalen.

"It is highly likely that the remains that are found in Siberia these days have been preserved because they have been buried, and thus protected from weathering."

These giant, tusked plant eaters disappeared about 4,000 years ago. While there is no scientific agreement about the causes of their disappearance from the planet, most believe that climate change, excessive hunting by humans and the spread of other animals into mammoth feeding grounds were influential factors.

1. The underlined word "matriarch" in paragraph 3 means _______.

A．figure head	B．female leader
C．experienced animal	D．mature mammoth

2. Why do the majority of mammoth fossils come from male animals?

A．Scientists find it easier to study male fossilized bones.

B．There were more male mammoths in comparison to females

C．Male mammoths were better able to adapt to the changing circumstances.

D．Male mammoths more frequently died in places where fossils could form.

3. Which of the following is suggested as a reason for mammoths dying out?

A．The increasing competition for food.

B．The cooling of the earth's temperature.

C．The disappearance of male mammoths.

D．The risky behaviour of younger mammoths.

4. What is the text type of the passage?

A．A newspaper article.	B．An academic essay.
C．A historical description.	D．A science fiction story.

【推荐2】In 1845, a deadly disease struck the farms of Ireland, killing all the Lumper potato plants. In another place or time, the death of a single crop species might not have been so important. But in Ireland, in 1845, people depended almost on the potato for food. The death of one species caused a terrible famine. Now, some scientists are worried that such a famine could happen again.

Over the centuries, farmers have discovered thousands of different species of food crops. Some can be grown in very hot or cold climates. Others are not affected by certain diseases. However, you won’t find many of these species in your local supermarket. To feed the seven billion people on Earth, most farmers today are growing only species of plants that are easy to produce in large numbers. Meanwhile, thousands of other species are becoming extinct.

For example, in the Philippines, there were once thousands of varieties of rice; now fewer than 100 are grown there. Experts believe that over the past century, we have allowed more than half of the world’s food varieties to disappear.

One solution to this problem is to collect and store the seeds (种子) of as many different plant varieties as we can before they disappear. The idea was first suggested by Russian scientist Nikolay Vavilov. In the 1920s and 30s, he collected around 400,000 seeds. More recently, others are continuing the work he began.

In the U.S. state of Iowa, Diane Ott Whealy wanted to protect historic plant varieties. She started a place called Heritage Farm, where people can store and trade seeds.

More importantly, the people at Heritage Farm don’t just store the seeds; they plant them. By doing this, they are reintroducing foods into the marketplace that haven’t been grown for years. These food species are not just special in flavor. They also offer farmers food solutions for the future, from the past.

1. What caused many people to die in Ireland in 1845?

A．Food pollution.

B．Poisonous potatoes.

C．An incurable disease.

D．Lack of enough food.

2. What does the underlined word “Others” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Species of food crops.

B．Potato plants.

C．Farmers.

D．Seeds.

3. Why does the author mention the Philippines?

A．To show many food species have disappeared.

B．To explain how to increase food production.

C．To stress the importance of food diversity.

D．To prove the necessity of growing rice.

4. Which statement would Diane Ott Whealy probably agree with?

A．It’s dangerous to grow new food species.

B．The work started by Nikolay Vavilov was useless.

C．Storing seeds and planting them are both important.

D．Foods grown from older seeds are cheaper but taste bad.

【推荐3】The last decade saw the rise of the field of “plant neurobiology (神经生物学)”. That debatable field is based on the idea that plants——which do not possess brains ——handle information in ways similar to complicated animal nervous systems. This thinking implies that plants could feel happiness or sorrow or pain, make intentional decisions and even possess consciousness. But the chances of that are “effectively zero," Lincoln Taiz and colleagues write in an opinion piece in Trends in Plant Science. "There's nothing in the plant remotely comparable to the complexity of the animal brain," says Taiz, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Some plants are capable of complicated behavior. Wounded leaves can send warning signals to other parts of the plant, and harmful chemicals can warn animals that eat them. Some plants may even have a version of short-term memory: Tiny sensing hairs can count the number of touches that come from a clumsy insect. But plants perform these with equipment that's very different from the nervous systems of animals, no brain required, Taiz argues.

He and colleagues point out methodological (方法的) faults in some of the studies that claim plants have brain-like command centers, animal-like nerve cells and changing patterns of electricity that are similar to activity found in animal brains. But beyond the debate over how these studies are conducted, Taiz's team argues that plant consciousness doesn't even make sense from an evolutionary (进化的) point of view.

Complicated animal brains advanced in part to help a living being catch a meal and avoid becoming one, Taiz says. But plants are rooted to the ground and rely on sunlight for energy, an inactive lifestyle that doesn't require quick thinking or outsmarting a predator (捕食者)——or the energetically expensive nervous systems that enable those behaviors.

“What use would consciousness be to a plant?” Taiz asks. The energy required to power awareness would be too costly, and the benefit from such awareness too small. If a plant worried and suffered when faced with a threat, it would be wasting so much energy that it wouldn't have any left to do anything about that threat, Taiz says.

Imagine a forest fire. "It's unbearable to even consider the idea that plants would be conscious beings aware of the fact that they're being burned to ashes, watching the young trees die in front of them," Taiz says. The frightening scene illustrates "what it would actually cost a plant to have consciousness."

Furthermore, plants have plenty to do without having to be conscious, too. With sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, plants create the compounds (化合物) that sustain much of the rest of life on Earth, Taiz points out. "Isn't that enough?"

1. According to Paragraph 1, a plant neurobiologist would most probably agree that ______.

A．plants are capable of independent thinking

B．plants are as biologically complex as animals

C．plants developed nervous systems for survival

D．plants feel emotions in the same way as animals

2. What does the underlined "one” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．A predator.

B．A meal.

C．An inactive plant.

D．A living being.

3. Which statement does Linchol Taiz believe?

A．Plants possess brain-like command centers.

B．The lifestyle of plants requires nervous systems.

C．It is unnecessary for plants to have consciousness.

D．Nervous systems enable plants to fight their predators.

4. Lincoln Taiz introduces a forest fire to ______.

A．suggest new ways to study the behaviors of plants

B．discuss the possibility of plants escaping a disaster

C．illustrate how plants make decisions in face of dangers

D．prove consciousness would do plants more harm than good

【推荐1】A strong imagination does children a lot of good. The following are 5 benefits of encouraging children’s imagination.
    1    As children play different roles, they explore relationships between family members, friends and co-workers and learn more about them. For example, playing a doctor, they imagine how doctors care for their patients; playing house, they learn more about how parents feel about their children.
Build self-confidence. Young children have very little control over their lives. Imagining oneself as a builder of tall buildings or a superhero defending the planet is giving power to a child.    2    
Help intellectual（智力的）growth.    3    Children who can see a king’s castle in a mound（堆）of sand are learning to think in an abstract（抽象的）way. This skill is important in school.
    4    Kids who play with their friends do a lot of talking. This helps increase their vocabulary, improve sentence structure and communication skills.
Work out fears.    5    When children role-play about the big, bad monster under the bed, they gain a sense of control over him and he doesn’t seem so big or so bad.

A．Develop social skills.

B．Practice language skills.

C．Be willing to share.

D．It helps them develop confidence in their abilities.

E．Imagination can help children help each other.

F．Using the imagination is the beginning of abstract thought.

G．Playing roles can help children work out their fears and worries.

【推荐1】It's surprising how much simple movement of the body can affect the way we think. Using expansive gestures with open arms makes us feel more powerful, crossing your arms makes you more determined and lying down can bring more insights(领悟).

So if moving the body can have these effects, what about the clothes we wear? We're all well aware of how dressing up in different ways can make us feel more attractive, sporty or professional, depending on the clothes we wear, but can the clothes actually change cognitive(认知) performance or is it just a feeling?

Adam and Galinsky tested the effect of simply wearing a white lab coat on people's powers of attention. The idea is that white coats are associated with scientists, who are in turn thought to have close attention to detail.

What they found was that people wearing white coats performed better than those who weren't. Indeed, they made only half as many errors as those wearing their own clothes on the Stroop Test(one way of measuing attention). The reserchrs call the effect "enclothed cognition," suggesting that all manner of different clothes probably affect our cognition in many differnt ways.

This opens the way for all sorts of clothes-based experiments. Is the writer who wears a fedora more creative? Is the psychologist wearing little round glasses and smoking a cigar more insightful? Does a chef's hat make the restaurant food taste better?

From now on I will only be editing articles for PsyBlog while wearing a white coat to help keep the typing error count low. Hopefully you will be doing your part by reading PsyBlog in a cap and gown(学位服).

1. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Body movements change the way people think.

B．How people dress has an influencee on their feelings.

C．What people wear can affect their cognitive performance.

D．People doing different jobs should wear different clothes.

2. Adam and Galinsky's experiment tested the effect of clothes on their wearers'______.

A．insights	B．movements
C．attention	D．appearance

3. How does the author sound in the last paragraph?

A．Academic.	B．Humorous.
C．Formal.	D．Hopeful.

【推荐2】Hundreds of friends on Facebook can’t replace a handful of close friends in real life, a study has found. In a recent study, researchers discovered that people with only a few friends were at least as happy as those with far more if many of theirs were online.

Social media, the researchers said, has encouraged younger people to have larger but more impersonal networks of “friends”. But instead of trying to amass friends, they added, a better cure for loneliness might be spending time with those you’re closest to.

Scientists from the University of Leeds did their study using data from two online surveys on 1,496 people by a non-profit research organization. People taking part in the study showed their ages, the make-up of their social networks, how often they had different types of social interactions, and their own feelings of well-being. They included details of how often and how they interacted (交流) with families or neighbors, and whether they included people who provided services to them in their networks.

The number of close friends someone had appeared to be the only thing which influenced how satisfied they were with their social life.

“Loneliness has less to do with the number of friends you have, and more to do with how you feel about your friends,” said Dr Wändi Bruine de Bruin. Actually, it's often the younger adults who admit to having a bad opinion of their friends.

If you feel lonely, it may be more helpful to make a positive connection with a friend than to try and seek out new people to meet.

1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “amass” in Paragraph 2?

A．Play the role of.	B．Think highly of.
C．Take advantage of.	D．Increase the number of.

2. What can be learned from the scientists’ study?

A．Scientists did one online survey on 1,496 people.

B．People surveyed mentioned new forms of social networks.

C．People surveyed showed their ways to interact with families.

D．The number of friends was the only cause of people’s happiness.

3. What makes people happy in social life?

A．Living alone.

B．Having close friends.

C．Having good appearance.

D．Making as many friends as possible.

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To advise us to make friends online.

B．To show us the importance of friends.

C．To present us with the findings of a study.

D．To tell us the problems causes by loneliness.

【推荐3】A new study suggests some language learning can take place during sleep. Researchers from Switzerland’s University of Bern say they discovered people were able to learn new language words during deep levels of sleep.

Much of the earlier research found that memories made when awake were strengthened during sleep. This supported the idea that information learned while awake is replayed and deeply embedded in the sleeping brain.

The researchers theorized that, if replay during sleep improves the storage of learned information while awake, the processing and storage of new information should also be possible during sleep.

They carried out experiments on a group of young German-speaking men and women, which centered on periods of deep sleep called “up-states”. They identified these slow-wave peaks as the best moments for sleep-learning.

The researchers observed individuals in a controlled environment during brief periods of sleep. Brain activity was recorded as pairs of words were played for the study subjects. One word in the pair was a real German word. The other was a made-up foreign word. For later identification purposes, the German words chosen were things clearly larger or smaller than a shoebox.

Each word pair was played four times, with the order of the words changed each time. The word pairs were played at a rhythm that is similar to actual brain activity during deep sleep. The goal was to create a lasting memory link between the false word and the German word that individuals could identify while awake.

When the subjects woke, they were presented with the false language words—both by sight and sound. They were then asked to guess whether the false word played during sleep represented an object smaller or larger than a shoebox. Results of the study found that a majority of subjects gave more correct answers about the sleep-learned words than would be expected if they had only guessed at random.

The researchers said they measured increased signals affecting a part of the brain known as the hippocampus. This brain structure is very important for building relational memory during non-sleep periods. The researchers also said memory was best for word pairs presented during slow-wave peaks during sleep.

The study suggests that memory formation in sleep appears to be caused by the same brain structures that support vocabulary learning while awake. The researchers say more studies are needed to support their findings. However, the experiments do provide new evidence that memories can be formed and vocabulary learning can take place in both conscious and unconscious states.

1. The underlined word “embedded” in Paragraph 2 probably means _____.

A．covered

B．moved

C．affected

D．rooted

2. In the experiments, the word pairs were played at a rhythm to _____.

A．pick out the made-up words	B．measure increased signals
C．copy brain activity	D．create a memory link

3. In the new study, the researchers discovered that _____.

A．new words can be learned during deep sleep

B．word guessing ability can be improved during sleep

C．information learned when awake is strengthened during sleep

D．the hippocampus determines the efficiency of language learning

4. The passage is mainly developed by _____.

A．giving typical examples and data

B．presenting research process and results

C．making detailed comparisons and contrasts

D．analyzing potential problems and solutions

【推荐1】Just how much does the Constitution （宪法）protect your digital data? The Supreme Court will now consider whether police can search the contents of a mobile phone without a warrant （(授权令) if the phone is on or around a person during an arrest.

California has asked the justices to restore the practice that the police may search through the contents of suspects' smartphones at the time of their arrest. It is hard, the state says, for judges to assess the implications of new and rapidly changing technologies .

The justices would be careless if they followed California's advice. They should start by rejecting California's weak argument that exploring the contents of a smart phone is similar to say, going through a suspect's wallet. The court has ruled that police don't offend against the Fourth Amendment（修正案） when they go through the wallet, of an arrestee without a warrant. In fact, exploring one's smartphone is more like entering his or her home. A smartphone may contain an arrestee's reading history, financial history, medical history and comprehensive records of recent correspondence.

Americans should take steps to protect their own digital privacy and should avoid putting important information in smartphones. But keeping sensitive information on these devices is increasingly a requirement of normal life. Citizens still have a right to expect private documents to remain private and protected by the Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches.

In many cases, it would not be very difficult for authorities to obtain a warrant to search through phone contents. They could still trump （打出王牌）the Fourth Amendment protections when facing severe and dangerous circumstances, such as the threat of immediate harm, and they could take reasonable measures to ensure that phone data are not deleted or altered while a warrant is on the way. The justices, though, may want to allow room for police to cite situations where they are entitled to more flexibility.

But the justices should not swallow California's argument whole. New technology sometimes demands fresh applications of the Constitution's protections. Orin Kerr, a law professor, compares the explosion and accessibility of digital information in the 21st century with the establishment of automobile use as a digital necessity of life in the 20th. At that time, the justices had to explain new rules for the new personal domain （领域）of cars. Similarly, the justices must sort out how the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution applies to digital information now.

1. The author's attitude toward California's argument is one of ________

A．disapproval.	B．tolerance.
C．indifference.	D．cautiousness.

2. The author believes that exploring one's phone content is comparable to

A．scanning one's correspondences.	B．handing one's historical records.
C．getting into one's residence.	D．going through one's wallet.

3. In paragraph 4 and 5, the author shows his concern that

A．citizens' privacy is not effectively protected.

B．principles are hard to be clearly expressed.

C．phones are used to store sensitive information.

D．the court is giving police less room for action.

4. Orin Kerr's comparison is quoted to indicate that

A．the Constitution should be implemented flexibly.

B．Principles of the Constitution should never be changed.

C．California's argument violates principles of the Constitution.

D．New technology requires reinterpretation of the Constitution

【推荐2】When I grow up

In kindergarten, my class was asked to draw pictures, showing what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our drawings were expected to display our dream occupations. I remember pictures of ballerinas dancing, firefighters putting out a blaze, and astronauts leaping across the moon.

My picture showed a figure with brown hair holding a box of orange juice beside a counter. Underneath was my handwriting: “When I grow up, I want to work at Market Basket because it would be fun to swipe (刷) orange juice across the scanner.” Out of everything, my five-year-old self wished to work at the local grocery store.

When we are young, questions of what we want to be when we grow up are common. Yet we are not expected to respond with an answer that is likely to come true. However, when we become teens, we are asked the very same questions twice as often. The difference is, now we are supposed to answer with confidence.

Teens are expected to know exactly what we want to be and how we are going to achieve that goal. However, not all of us can be so sure. Even though I am in high school, I cannot answer with certainty. But I don’t consider that a bad thing. How am I supposed to know what I will want to spend my time doing at age 40?

When I think about the future, I definitely don’t see myself working at Market Basket, but in reality, if that was what would make me happy, I would do it. So, the next time someone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, I will simply say “happy”.

Happiness is a destination for everyone. We may want to walk different paths in life, but we all want to be happy wherever we end up. Choose your path, but don’t worry too much about choosing wisely. Make a mistake or two and try new things. But always remember, if you’re not happy, you’re not at the end of your journey yet.

1. What did the author want to be when he was in kindergarten?

A．An astronaut.

B．A firefighter.

C．A dancer.

D．A cashier.

2. We can learn from the passage that _____.

A．kindergartners are able to display their dream jobs with confidence

B．kindergartners have limited imagination of their dream occupations

C．teenagers are supposed to be clear about what they want to be

D．teenagers stick to the path they chose when they were young

3. The author would probably agree that _____.

A．the principle of growth lies in human choice

B．happiness is the meaning of existence

C．it is never too late to correct mistakes

D．your future depends on your dreams

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Different stages of life.	B．Career guidance.
C．The real goal of life.	D．Career paths.

【推荐3】It's common that a Japanese-American bows on the phone—but only in Japanese. Behaviors and manners can become so routine that they appear even when there's no need for them.Those who are bilingual and bi-cultural know first-hand that how we behave can depend on what language we are speaking.Experts have shown that who you are in the moment can depend on the language you are using at that time.

This is because when you have an experience,the language you are using becomes associated with it.For bilingual people,this means certain memories are more closely associated with one language than the other-a phenomenon called language-dependent memory.For example,a childhood memory is more likely to be remembered when the language spoken during that childhood event is spoken again.

How we think and feel can thus change depending on what language we are using.For example,people who are bilingual have an intensified stress response when listening to the words of scolding in a native language.This may be,in part,because our early memories associated with learning a"bad”word or being scolded by our parents happened in our native language.

Because emotions play a key role in how we make decisions,people are often more sensible when making choices in the less emotional foreign language.When asked whether they would be willing to give one person's life to save a group,people who speak more than one language are much more likely to say"yes" when answering in a foreign language.The unpleasant feelings that can prevent us from making difficult choices are reduced when we're using a non-native language.

The Language we speak has an influence on how we think,feel,and even behave.In a way,knowing different languages can provide people with a variety of views through which to see the world.

1. Why is the example of Japanese-American mentioned?

A．To show the influence of culture is huge.

B．To show bowing is Japanese people's routine.

C．To show Japanese people are polite on the phone.

D．To show one's use of language affects one's behavior.

2. What does the underlined word"intensified"in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Worse.

B．Better.

C．Increased.

D．Limited.

3. When a person speaks a foreign language, he is likely to____

A．make a sound decision

B．prevent himself from danger

C．be influenced by other people

D．have difficulty making decisions

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．You Are Actually What You Are Speaking

B．Native Languages Make People Speak More

C．Different Languages Have Different Influences

D．Speak Your Native Language in Other Countries