We have a tendency to think highly of mankind’s impressive complex inventions. But sometimes, it’s the simple technologies that truly change the world. These little-known inventions maybe don’t appear incredibly complex at first glance, but they improved the lives of countless people.
A smokeless solar cooker for developing countries
The problem: Cooking in the developing world often requires large amounts of costly fuel and creates harmful smoke.
The solution: The Infinity Bakery and other similar solar ovens aim to reduce disease and save energy by offering an affordable, sun-powered cooker to developing communities. The oven, which concentrates the sun’s rays, is made from recycled oil drums, wood, bamboo and clay, so it can be produced locally and quickly.
Water pipes that monitor their own leaks
The problem: We lose between $12.5 million and $92 million worth of clean drinking water every year in the U.S. due to leaking pipes, according to a 2005 study by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The solution: “Smart Pipe” technology, which is still in development, would use sensors to monitor leaks in public water systems, making our water use more efficient. If brought to scale, this type of innovation could help communities detect leaks when they occur, and fix them early.
A shower that reuses its own water
The problem: Showers waste a tremendous amount of water and require a huge amount of energy. Every year, 1.2 trillion gallons of water are used to shower in the U.S. alone, according to the EPA.
The solution: The OrbSys shower promises to reduce water use by 90 percent and energy use by 80 percent. The OrbSys recycles shower water by pumping it through a filter in a closed-loop system, and the clean water that comes out of the filter only needs to be reheated minimally. The device could result in dramatic water and energy savings if used on a large scale.
1. Why is the Infinity Bakery fit for developing countries?| A．This kind of oven can be easily made and costs little. |
| B．There is much more sunlight in developing countries. |
| C．It can produce more food without giving off smoke. |
| D．Developing world is rich in the materials to make it. |
| A．It is used in developing countries. | B．It saves water by recycling. |
| C．It has not been put into practice. | D．It can fix the leaks by itself. |
| A．Energy-saving. | B．Sun-powered. | C．Water-based. | D．Environment-friendly. |
| A．New Ways Found to Protect Environment |
| B．Simple Inventions to Change the World |
| C．Developing World Benefits from New Inventions |
| D．Modern Technology Improves Living Condition |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Carla Brown discovered her interest in health and science communication as a teenager. One day when she was in her doctor’s office, she remembered looking at a poster on the wall, which listed directions for washing hands. She said to her mom, “When I’m older, I’m going to do things like that, but way better.” She has since gone in for a career to communicate health information in an unusual way—using gaming technology.
For her Ph.D. research, Brown looked into new antibiotics (抗生素) to treat diseases. Besides, she ran microbiology workshops to educate children about the right use of antibiotics. Through the workshops, she became interested in finding new ways to interest children in the learning process, so she came up with the idea of developing a card game they could play with one another. Named “Bacteria Combat”, the game asks players to light their competitors using cards standing for good and bad bacteria, as well as antibiotics. Some bacteria are not killed by antibiotic attacks, teaching game players about antibiotic resistance (抗性).
Brown, who was a good gamer when she was a child, gained funding to convert her card game into a mobile app. Then, upon finishing her Ph. D., she set up her own company called Came Doctor to develop computer games for education and health care organizations
In the company’s early years, Brown worked to develop Game Doctorin her spare time while she completed a project researching the effectiveness of science education games. She then worked for Public Health England for 1 year, designing teaching materials.
Last year, though, she decided to put her heart and soul fully in her company to see it grow well enough. It’s an experience that she has found challenging. but also fun- with similarities to the experience of playing an actual game. She shared her professional joys and challenges with Science Careers as part of the ongoing. “A Day in the Lite of a Scientist” series.
1. Which word can best describe Brown’s way to communicate health information?| A．Interesting. | B．Expensive. | C．Scientific. | D．Strict. |
| A．To help her invent new antibiotics. |
| B．To encourage the use of new medicines. |
| C．To trach kids proper use of certain medicine. |
| D．To lead kids to tell good bacteria from bad ones. |
| A．Fit. | B．Change. | C．Create. | D．Divide. |
| A．To work wholeheartedly for her company. | B．To work for Public Heath England. |
| C．To develop Game Doctor in her spare time. | D．To design scientific teaching materials. |
【推荐2】Joyce Loaiza, aged 81, lives alone, but when she returns to her apartment at a Florida senior community, she often has a chat with a friendly female voice that asks about her day. A few miles away, the same voice comforted 83-year-old Deanna Dezern when her friend died. In central New York, it plays games and music for 92-year-old Marie Broadbent, who is blind and in a hospice (救济院), and in Washington, it helps 83-year-old Jan Worrell make new friends.
The women are some of the first in the country to receive the robot ElliQ, whose creators, Intuition Robotics, say it is the only device to use artificial intelligence specifically designed to help many older Americans who live alone.
“It’s interesting. You can actually talk to ElliQ,” said Loaiza. “She’ll make comments like, ‘I would go outside if I had hands, but I can’t hold an umbrella.’”
The robot, which looks like a small table lamp, has an eyeless, mouthless head that lights up and swivels (旋转). It remembers each user’s interests and their conversations, helping plan future chats.
ElliQ tells jokes and plays music. On a video screen, it provides tours of cities and museums. It leads exercises, asks about the owner’s health and gives reminders to take medications. It can also host video calls and contact relatives, friends or doctors in an emergency. But none of the conversations are heard by the company, with the information staying on each owner’s robot.
The idea of ElliQ is for a robot that keeps seniors company by adapting to their individual personality and interests, said Dor Skuler, the CEO of the company. The average user talks with ElliQ more than 30 times daily, even 6 months after receiving it, and more than 90% report lower levels of loneliness, Skuler added.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By giving examples. | B．By listing numbers. |
| C．By telling a story. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．How ElliQ feels. | B．How ElliQ was created. |
| C．What ElliQ can do. | D．What people think of ElliQ. |
| A．It can lower the levels of complaints. |
| B．It adapts itself to different users. |
| C．It offers a connection between the seniors. |
| D．It can completely replace the company of the family. |
| A．AI Robot Opens a New World |
| B．AI Robot Relieves People’s Pressure |
| C．AI Robot Gets Popular with Young People |
| D．AI Robot Helps Seniors Fight Loneliness |
【推荐3】All American dollar bills (纸币) weigh the same, they’re the same size, and they’re made of the same material. “There are no physical marks for those with vision (视力) loss, who need an effective means of knowing how much it is, a $1 or a $100.” explains Vencer Cotton, director of technology and training at the Columbia Lighthouse for the Bind in Washington D.C.
NOW there is something that comes pretty close. Meet the iBill, a piece of plastic about the size of a large cigarette lighter. Equipped with one AAA battery, a couple of buttons and a speaker, the iBill is designed to be simple. A narrow opening allows for a U..S. Bill to be placed inside and upon scanning, it will say the amount the bill is worth. However, even though the iBill can do that job for you, it doesn’t mean it’ll tell you if a bill is real or even how much you have.
Created by Orbit Research, it will be the first money reader distributed by the U.S.Bureau of engraving and Printing (BEP). THE BUREAU WILL SOON BE SHIPPING iBills, free of charge, across the country. “It is my No. 1 choice,” Cotton says of the iBill, especially when it comes to sorting money as fast as possible.”
There are actually a bunch of apps (应用程序) that can do what the iBill can, made convenient by the iPhone’s voiceover functions. In particular, EyeNote was also developed by the U.S. BEP to help distinguish bills. Another app, called LookTel, offers recognition for a large number of countries’ bills and VisionHunt distinguishes different kinds of bills and offers many tools to the blind. “But a lot of blind people can’t afford an iPhone,” says Shawn Callaway, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Washington D.C.
1. The iBill was invented to .| A．pay for things at certain shops |
| B．help children sort out their money |
| C．help the blind recognize their money |
| D．tell whether a dollar bill is real or not |
| A．It is unbreakable. |
| B．It can’t calculate. |
| C．It can light a cigarette. |
| D．It costs a lot of money. |
| A．is much easier for poor people to accept |
| B．offers more useful functions to the blind |
| C．is the only one developed by the U.S. BEP |
| D．can tell the differences between many foreign bills |
| A．To encourage people to help the blind. |
| B．To talk about American dollar bills. |
| C．To ask people to buy the iBill. |
| D．To introduce a hi-tech tool. |
【推荐1】To look inside an ant nest is to meet with an alien civilization. The boiling mass of worker ants beneath an upturned stone is both strangely reminiscent of (联想到) human society and strikingly different. There is an organization that fascinates us and a long line of myrmecophiles (or ant lovers) leads back all the way to King Solomon, who in fact advised people to “go to the ant, consider her ways and be wise”. This was exactly the inspiration behind Planet Ant, a TV program showcasing what we know about the kingdom of ants, and what ants can teach us about the human world.
Like us, ants build structures, find food, defend their societies and manage waste, and-also like us-they must be well organized. For example, the leaf-cutting ants of Planet Ant have special waste disposal areas for storing harmful waste and a team of “waste-disposal ants” dedicated to keeping the nest clean. But ants achieve this familiar final result in a very different way to humans. Human societies have centralized control. In other words, someone tells us what to do. Ants, on the other hand, have decentralized control and neither the queen nor any other ant directs work. Ant workers are the final self-starters, following specific, but potentially flexible, rules in certain situations.
Chemical trails underpin much of this self-organization. Foragers (觅食者) lay a mix of chemicals known as trail pheromone (信息素) behind them as they walk. Other ants follow the trail and if they find food they reinforce it, laying more pheromone as they return to the nest. Stronger trails are more likely to be followed, so trails leading to food become progressively reinforced, while trails with no food at the end fade away.
This combination of positive feedback and evaporation (蒸发) produces an effective foraging system that is very good at finding the quickest routes to food. This simple guiding principle, and others like it, have provided some useful solutions to the complex problems faced by engineers, computer scientists and businesses.
1. Why does the author mention King Solomon in the first paragraph?| A．To provide a background. | B．To show admiration for him. |
| C．To stress the wisdom of ants. | D．To explain an abstract theory. |
| A．They get orders from their partners. | B．They choose to do only routine tasks. |
| C．They strictly follow the queen’s orders. | D．They follow their own senses and certain rules. |
| A．Decide. | B．Support. | C．Develop. | D．Calculate. |
| A．It comes from the food resources. | B．It appears before ants’ self-organization. |
| C．It leads the following ants to food. | D．It helps ants find their way back home. |
【推荐2】Everybody knows how important it is for students to get a good night s sleep every night. They aren’t able to do their best unless they sleep well. Most experts agree that the proper number of hours is eight, and this has been accepted as common sense for as long as I can remember. However, I was young once and I know that most of you get much less sleep than that----and sometimes this influence your schoolwork.
I read an article in a teachers’ magazine recently. They did a study of 848 students in Wales. Worryingly, the results suggested that teenagers are facing a new problem. They may go to bed and get up at proper times but a growing number wake up in the middle of the night, not to use the bathroom or have a snack (点心) but because of FOMO ---- the fear of missing out!
According to the article, schoolchildren suffer (遭受痛苦) because of an increasing trend (趋势) to wake up during the night to check social media. Afraid of missing a message or chance to take part in a discussion, teens wake up at all times of the night to go online and join up with social groups. All this happens when they should be sound asleep.
The report gives some worrying numbers. 23% of 12- to 15-year-olds wake up nearly every night to use social media. Another 15% wake up at night once a week for the same reason. As a result, one in three students are constantly tired and unable to do well at school.
So, I’d like to ask you to be responsible when it comes to social media. Be brave and turn off your phones and computers at night. The world won’t end and your social media will be waiting to greet you in the morning. I give you my word that you won’t have missed anything important.
1. What is the new trend among teenagers?| A．They get up too early in the morning. |
| B．They have difficulty in falling asleep at night. |
| C．They wake up at night to get something to eat. |
| D．They wake up in the middle of the night to go online. |
| A．By using examples. |
| B．By asking questions. |
| C．By making a comparison. |
| D．By showing research findings. |
| A．A fear of going online. |
| B．A fear of losing touch on social media. |
| C．A need to go out all the time. |
| D．A need to use the latest technology |
| A．It’s worrying. |
| B．It s encouraging. |
| C．It s hard to understand. |
| D．It s difficult to change. |
【推荐3】Sea otters (海獭) are pretty small compared to other marine mammals (哺乳动物).which means that, despite their fur coats, they tend to lose het quickly, and need lots of energy to keep up their body temperature.
"So they need to eat 25 percent of their body weight each day," says Sarah McKay Strobel, a sensory ecologist at UC Santa Cruz. "But in order to eat that much food, that means sea otters need to find all that food. " She studied the otter's senses, to solve the mystery of how they're such efficient food catchers. Vision isn't reliable, she says- it's pretty dark and muddy underwater, and crabs and other smaller animals tend to hide. Hearing is also tough for otters, in the noisy underwater environment. And sniffing's no good either. "When they're underwater they're holding their breath."
What's left is touch. So Strobel measured the sensitivity of the otters' paws and whiskers (须). She blindfolded an otter named Selka, then presented it with plastic plates carved with tiny grooves (沟槽). Selka's job was to select the plate with two-millimerter grooves, which she'd been trained to associate with tasty food, instead of plates with differently sized grooves.
Turns out, Selka could tell just a quarter millimeter difference in the grooves' with with her paws - above and below water - and hall a millimeter difference with her whiskers. "The fact that she was able to perform so well while moving extremely quickly I think is really interesting and suggests that sea otters have very quick decision-making abilities and very quick sensory processing abilities, which makes sense when you think about the type of lifestyle they lead and how quickly they need to find food."
For the record, humans can feel the difference too, but it takes us 30 times longer, which might make sense. After all, we live in environments where touch is less important in a hunt than sight and sound.
1. Why do sea otters eat much food?| A．To swim faster. | B．To stay warm. |
| C．To keep their fur thick. | D．To satisfy their good appetite. |
| A．An introduction to Selka. | B．The use of plastic plates. |
| C．An experiment on Selka. | D．The function of otters' touch. |
| A．Hearing is useless. | B．Touch is the most elective. |
| C．They have no vision. | D．Their smell works very well. |
| A．Sea otters have enough food to eat. |
| B．Humans are more sensitive than sea otters. |
| C．Sea otters respond very quickly in hunting. |
| D．Sea otters' whiskers work better than paws. |
【推荐1】Citizen science projects make it possible for you to collect real data that scientists can use in their research. Here are four examples of projects that you can take part in.
FrogWatch USA
Frogs play an important role in their ecosystems, being both predator and prey (捕食者和猎物). So, understanding their populations is one way scientists track wetland health. From February to August, citizens like you listen for the calls of specific species and record them in an online database. To make sure volunteers know what they are listening for, FrogWatch has a network of local chapter coordinators (协调者) who lead the training.
Globe at Night
You wouldn't be the only one wondering about the light coming into your sky from nearby lamps and cities. Scientists have big questions about this too. Globe at Night is an international project that has had volunteers take more than 100,000 measurements in 115 countries. In the past they only enlisted (征募) citizen scientists in the winter and spring, but since 2017 they have set observation dates for the whole year. The project welcomes volunteers who want to help observe light pollution that could affect wildlife, health, and energy consumption.
Did You Feel It?
The “Did You Feel It？” program depends on feedback (反馈) from anyone who feels the shaking or sees any damage as the result of an earthquake. This data helps to produce a map that is available within minutes — and updated rapidly — documenting where shaking and damage are the most intense (强烈的)．
GLOBE Observer
If you would rather take your own photos than look through images from a telescope, consider downloading the GLOBE Observer app. This app allows citizen scientists to take photos of clouds for comparison with satellite images. Become an observer and become part of a major source of global human observation of clouds.
1. Which project trains its volunteers?| A．Globe at Night. | B．Did You Feel It? |
| C．FrogWatch USA. | D．GLOBE Observer. |
| A．It's done in colder seasons. |
| B．It's done in wild fields. |
| C．It's timeconsuming. |
| D．It's ecofriendly. |
| A．Take pictures of clouds. |
| B．Improve satellite images. |
| C．Observe the sky with a telescope. |
| D．Upload cloud change data onto an app. |
【推荐2】Teaching idioms (习语) is a lot of fun. Here are some good books that can teach children idioms.
THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER
It has idioms that are widely used. Each idiom has a picture to go with it. It is for children in the 1st grade & up. It is written by Tamara James.
THERE’S A FROG IN MY THROAT
This book has 440 idioms about animals. Each idiom is given a short explanation to tell what it means. It is for children in the 2nd grade—6th grade. It is written by Loreen Leedy.
BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH
It shows a boy’s first day of school through idioms. It is for students in the 1st grade—4th grade. It is written by Serge Bloch.
MAD AS A WET HEN
It is a book for teaching classic idioms. It is for students in the 3rd grade—5th grade. It is written by Marvin Terban.
MY TEACHER LIKES TO SAY
It is about idioms used by teachers. It is for students in the 1st grade—4th grade. It is written by Denise Nelson.
1. Kids who love animals would most probably buy ________.| A．MAD AS A WET HEN |
| B．MY TEACHER LIKES TO SAY |
| C．THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER |
| D．THERE’S A FROG IN MY THROAT |
| A．It has many classic idioms. |
| B．It has some interesting pictures. |
| C．It is about the beginning of school education. |
| D．It is for children who are in the 2nd grade—6th grade. |
| A．Denise Nelson’s. | B．Serge Bloch’s. |
| C．Loreen Leedy’s. | D．Marvin Terban’s. |
【推荐3】Men hunted.Women gathered. But the discovery of a woman buried 9,000 years ago in the Andes Mountains with weapons and hunting tools challenges this widely accepted view. The woman, thought to be between 17 and 19 years old when she died, was buried with items that suggested she hunted big-game animals by spear (矛) throwing.
The objects accompanying people in death tend to be those that accompanied them in life. Although some scholars have suggested a role for women in ancient hunting, others have dismissed this idea even when hunting tools were uncovered in female burials.
To examine whether this woman found at this site was an exception, the researchers examined 429 skeletons at 107 burial sites from around 8,000 to 14,000 years ago. Of those, 27 individuals were buried with hunting tools—11 were female and 15 were male. The sample was sufficient to “justify the conclusion that female participation in early big-game hunting was likely nontrivial,” said lead study author Haas.
The findings add to doubts about “man-the-hunter” assumption about early humans since the mid-20th century. That theory assumes that it was men who went out and hunted, bringing home meat to feed women and children, who were responsible for gathering berries, plants and nuts to enrich the dict.
But recent research suggests hunting was very much a community-based activity, needing the participation of all able-bodied individuals to drive large animals, the study said. Meanwhile, the spears used at that time had low accuracy, encouraging participation, and using it was a skill learned from childhood. Women may also have been freed from child care demands by “allo-parenting”—raising children was a job shared by many.
“Our findings have made me rethink the most basic organizational structure of ancient hunter-gatherer groups, and human groups more generally,” Haas said.
1. The discovery of the buried woman shows ________.| A．she was killed by a big-game animal | B．she might use hunting tools when alive |
| C．women were good at throwing spears | D．women were buried alone after death |
| A．limited | B．direct | C．significant | D．passive |
①allo-parenting ②big-game hunting ③tasks of gathering ④less accurate tools
| A．①②③ | B．②③④ | C．①③④ | D．①②④ |
| A．most of our ancestors were buried with hunting tools |
| B．we should reconsider previous views on human groups |
| C．division of labor in hunter-gatherer society remains unchanged |
| D．the tomb found in the Andes justifies “man-the-hunter” assumption |
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations- UNESCO and National Geographic among them –have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, looking and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Tangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayans reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials- including photographs, films, tap recordings, and field notes- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has founded-the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project- Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the youngers.
Generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected.Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet. Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1. Many scholars are making efforts to ________.
| A．promote global languages |
| B．rescue the disappearing languages |
| C．search for language communities |
| D．set up languages research organizations |
| A．Having first records of the languages. |
| B．Writing books on language searching. |
| C．Telling stories about language users. |
| D．Linking with the native speakers. |
| A．The cultural statics in India. |
| B．The documents available at Yale. |
| C．His language research in Britain. |
| D．His personal experience in Nepal. |
| A．Write sell and donate. |
| B．Record, repeat and reward. |
| C．Collect, protect and reconnect. |
| D．Design, experiment and report. |
【推荐2】One of the problems damaging our planet is the number of things we throw away. Rubbish of all kinds is piling up in landfill and polluting our rivers and oceans. A more recent addition to the list of things we chuck away is e-waste — electronic items that are broken and not recycled. Now solutions are being found to give this stuff a new life.
Many millions of tonnes of televisions, phones, and other electronic equipment are discarded each year, partly because it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them, but also because we lack the skills to repair them. A UN report claims the 50 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year will more than double to 110 million tonnes by 2050, making it the fastest growing waste stream in the world.
However, there’s a growing trend for repair events and clubs which could be part of a solution to the growing amount of electrical and electronic junk. The BBC visited a Restart Project in London, which is one of many founded around the world. One of its volunteers, Francesco Calo, said that “this project allows you to reduce waste, extend the life of objects, and it helps people who cannot afford to get rid of items that have developed a fault.”
As many electrical items contain valuable metals, another idea is e-waste mining. An experiment at the University of New South Wales involves extracting (提取) these materials from electronic gadgets. It’s thought that doing this could be more profitable than traditional mining. With phones typically containing as many as 60 element, this could be part of the solution to our appetite for new technology.
These projects make total sense — collections of e-waste for recycling are “stagnating (停滞不前) or even decreasing” according to Ruediger Kuehr, of the United Nations University And in countries where there is no legislation, much of it just gets dumped. However, the European Union, for example, is trying to tackle the problem by insisting manufacturers have to make appliances longer-lasting and will have to supply spare parts for machines for up to 10 years.
1. According to the passage, electronic items are thrown away because ________.| A．they are totally useless |
| B．we have to recycle them |
| C．they will pollute our rivers and oceans |
| D．it’s cheaper to replace them than fix them |
| A．Growing trend for repair events. |
| B．E-waste generating cleaner energy. |
| C．Our being hungry for new technology. |
| D．Mining valuable metals in electrical items. |
| A．E-waste used to be the fastest growing waste stream in the world. |
| B．Tremendous amounts of e-waste are thrown away each year. |
| C．We can’t find the solution to the problem of c-waste. |
| D．Land-filling allows us to reduce e-waste. |
| A．Solving the Problem of E-waste |
| B．How to Stop Damaging Our Planet |
| C．Saying No to Throwing Away Things |
| D．How to Collect E-waste for Recycling |
【推荐3】I waited until my Ph. D. committee had left the room to break down. I had just failed my dissertation proposal defense (学位论文答辩)－a poor start to my fourth year of grad school (研究生院). My committee members had told me that my experiments were too small-scale, my ideas not deep enough. I realize now that they were pushing me because they believed in me. But at that moment, all I could hear was the voice in my head telling me that I’d failed.
For the next 4 months, I lacked focus at work. I no longer double-checked my experiments, and I had trouble finding the energy to even think about re-writing my proposal.
Actually, the outcome of my proposal defense wasn’t the only cause of my slump. After some thought, it dawned on me that I had been putting undue pressure on myself throughout grad school. To believe I was making good progress, I needed external validation-an award, positive results, or praise from professors I respected. When I didn’t get those things at every opportunity, I felt I was not on the right track. When I didn’t pass the defense, the failure confirmed my self-doubts. Eventually, as my loss of confidence became a bigger problem, I knew that I had to do something about it.
I decided that I needed to set healthier standards for myself. I did not have control over how much praise I received. The only thing I had control over, I realized, was the effort I put forth.
I went into my second proposal defense with a much more positive mindset (思维模式) along with grander experiments in my proposal and passed. I’m pleased to report that my new approach has helped me regain confidence in myself — and my work — and I’m more productive as a result. I hope that I can help other students realize that external validation is not always guaranteed, and if they are doing their best, that is good enough.
1. What directly leads to the failure of the author’s first defense?| A．Imperfection of his proposal. |
| B．His negative mindset. |
| C．The committee’s lack of confidence. |
| D．The choice of his experiments. |
| A．He was under a lot of pressure from his parents. |
| B．He made progress with the help of his professor. |
| C．He used to overemphasize the recognition he got. |
| D．Getting positive results helped him get over shyness. |
| A．Adaptable. |
| B．Ambitious. |
| C．Generous. |
| D．Outgoing. |
| A．We should spend more time reflecting. |
| B．We should be thankful for our failures. |
| C．We should focus more on our own effort. |
| D．We should keep calm in the face of failure. |
