Taking a break during the workday is important but how often do we actually make the time to do it? For most, an eight-hour workday just doesn’t seem enough and we end up wasting moments of peace to make room for more moments of productivity but according to a new study, skipping that lunch break could actually be hurting our performance.
Although it may seem amazing, taking time away from work to enjoy a short walk or a few minutes of mindful thought throughout the day can actually have positive effects on your end-of-day concentration and help you feel less tired after you are off work.
Scientists tasked workers in intellectually (智力上地) demanding fields — education, engineering and finance — with taking a short 15-minute walk or doing 15 minutes of mindful thinking during their lunch breaks every day for two weeks. The participants were asked to report how they were feeling near the end of the day, during, before and after the study. They also filled out short questionnaire every night, asking how much they enjoyed their lunch break. The results: those who took a break to walk or mindfully relax were significantly less stressed and able to perform better at the end of the workday than those who took no breaks. Mindful relaxation in particular helped people feel less anxious at the end of the day.
According to the study, walking in nature when one focuses and gets mindful relaxation can help to increase positive feelings and relieve stress.
So next time you think you should skip your lunch break to get that big project done, take a breath and consider giving yourself a moment of peace. It might just make you a more productive worker.
1. The first paragraph mainly talks about the phenomenon (现象) of_________________.| A．overwork for productivity |
| B．better performance on jobs |
| C．unsuitable working ways |
| D．peaceful work environment |
| A．To take a short break or mindful relaxation. |
| B．To report their feelings for several times. |
| C．To increase positive feelings and relieve their stress. |
| D．To answer face-to-face questions concerning their lunch break. |
| A．tell how to perform better |
| B．show the importance of attention |
| C．introduce the life of workers |
| D．advise people to take a lunch break during work |
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With the Mid-Autumn Festival coming, the time for crabs is around the corner! Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake in China are believed to be the best freshwater crabs.
“They are delicious, because the bottom of Yangcheng Lake is hard and the crabs grow strong by walking on such a hard surface,” said one sales manager in Suzhou.
Li Lei, a crab lover from Beijing, said “It’s very delicious! But there are too many fake Yangcheng Lake Dazha Crabs”.
“Maybe the crabs from other regions can appear to be glistening green back, white belly after people wash them, but the golden fine hair on crab claws is still a point of pride and is exclusive to Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake,” said the manager.
The best time for enjoying them is during September and October of Chinese lunar calendar. “When the season for crabs arrives, the Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake are flown to various cities so that people’s appetites can be satisfied,” said the sales manager. “They are really expensive here, sometimes more than 320RMB/500g, 10% of my salary!” said Li Lei.
Dazha Crabs are usually steamed or boiled for within 20 minutes before they come on the dinner table. They are often enjoyed with vinegar mixed with minced ginger to add flavor and get rid of the cold. People who are particular about how they eat crabs also need to have high-grade Shaoxing rice wine to warm their stomachs.
There is much work required to eat crabs. So much shell!Most people use both hands and teeth while eating Dazha Crabs. “The eating way is not graceful or elegant,” said Huck. “However, some professionals of eating crabs can use tools to take all the meat out of the crab without damaging a single bite and the crab can be restored to its original shape if the empty shells are pieced together!” said Han Mei, another Dazha crab lover.
1. What do we know about Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake from the text?| A．They belong to seawater crabs. |
| B．You must use tools to eat them. |
| C．The best time for eating them lasts over three months. |
| D．Vinegar, ginger and rice wine can be enjoyed together with them. |
| A．expensive | B．unique |
| C．entire | D．similar |
| A．The sales manager believes the living environment contributes nothing to the good taste of Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake. |
| B．Li Lei has mixed feelings about Dazha Crabs from Yangcheng Lake. |
| C．Han Mei thinks little of some professionalsof eating crabs. |
| D．Huck supports the way that most people eat crabs. |
【推荐2】As is often the case, it is human nature to lead a sedentary（久坐的）lifestyle and most of us are so involved in our busy schedules that we don't even notice our bad habits. Many worry about the right time or "right age" to start working out.
Master your mind. Most people argue that they are too tired or old to start exercising. Doing so is much easier than trying to change the busy lifestyle. Change your mindset and be more confident in improving your health.
Easy does it. Once you have chosen a fitness program, start slowly and increase it in stages. Begin with just a few minutes of gentle exercises and stretches.
Always warm up. Always remember to warm up your muscles before exercising. Gentle warm-ups will reduce your risk of injury, aches and pains, and increase blood circulation and flexibility.
Cool down. When you finish your routine, you need to cool your muscles and let your heart rate slow gradually.
| A．Don't overload your body. |
| B．Never ignore your potentials. |
| C．Tell your body to be more active and say, "I can do it." |
| D．However, nobody cares about what you have done for them. |
| E．Go next to some mild activity such as walking, jogging or cycling. |
| F．Cooling down will help your body to return to its pre-exercise level. |
| G．But it's never too late for them to start exercising and all they need is enough determination. |
【推荐3】How to Have a Successful Teenage Life
Everyone wants to succeed in their life, don’t they? Even as a teenager, you can achieve success in your life; it really isn’t that hard.
Do well in school. No matter how boring it is now, education will help you be a productive member in society. Try your best for excellence in school; listen to the teachers, do your homework, study, and get good grades.
Do good in your community (社区). Volunteering can not only improve your community’s status, it could make you happier. Studies show that people who volunteer are less likely to develop depression (抑郁) than people who don’t.
| A．Live life to the fullest. |
| B．Be nice to your parents and teachers. |
| C．Find chances to do volunteer work that interests you. |
| D．It will help you pass time and develop your personality. |
| E．Here are some important points that you may find helpful. |
| F．Keep in mind that they do the things they do because they care about you. |
| G．Doing so will help you get into a better university and have a bright future. |
【推荐1】Why should mankind explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent exploring and researching something with so few obvious benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth? These are questions that,understandably, are very often asked.
Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. What drove our ancestors to move from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and environments? The wider the spread of a species, the better its chance of survival. Perhaps the best reason for exploring space is this genetic tendency to expand wherever possible.
Nearly every successful civilization has explored, because by doing so, any dangers in sur- rounding areas can be identified and prepared for. Without knowledge, we may be completely de- stroyed by the danger. With knowledge, we can lessen its effects.
Exploration also allows minerals(矿物质)and other potential resources to be found. Even if we have no immediate need of them, they will perhaps be useful later. Resources may be more than physical possessions. Knowledge or techniques have been acquired through exploration. The tech- niques may have medical applications which ean improve the length or quality of our lives. We have already benefited from other spin-offs including improvements in earthquake prediction, in satellites for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick pans and mirrored sunglass- es are by-products of technological developments in the space industry!
While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows creative,brave and intelligent members of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The danger exists,but knowledge can help human beings to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.
While Earth is the only planet known to support life,surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to live on other planets. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future.
1. Why does the author mention the questions in Paragraphl?| A．To express his doubts. | B．To introduce points for discussion. |
| C．To compare different ideas. | D．To describe the conditions on Earth. |
| A．Humans have the tendency to fight. |
| B．Humans don't like to stay in the same place. |
| C．Humans may find new sources of food. |
| D．Humans are nature-born to do so. |
| A．survival chances | B．unexpected benefits |
| C．potential resources | D．physical possessions |
| A．Space exploration has created many wonders. |
| B．Space exploration provided the best value for money. |
| C．Space exploration can benefit science and technology |
| D．Space exploration may help us avoid potential problems on Earth. |
【推荐2】A new study suggests that the climate change diet might not be good for polar bears. With Arctic (北极) sea ice reducing, many polar bears have to go to land for their diets during parts of the summer.
A study looking at Hudson Bay polar bears tried to figure out if the creatures can keep their healthy weight levels on such a diet. Researchers found that the majority of the creatures are losing weight no matter what they do to try to increase it.
Some bears find a lot of food — berries, eggs, sea birds and so on. But to get such foods takes a lot of effort. The bears use so many calories trying to eat that they end up losing weight and burning more energy than they take in. Other bears go into a time of semi-hibernation (半冬眠). But they also lose weight. So either way — eating different foods or sleeping a lot — does not work.
Researchers found that 19 of the 20 bears studied dropped an average of 21 kilograms over three weeks of being studied. The research observed their calorie intake, energy use and breathing in the wild. The bears lost about 7 percent of their body mass on average in just 21 days.
Polar bears try to keep up their weight in the summer after a spring when they eat a lot and gain weight. In the area of the Hudson Bay where researchers studied, lack of sea ice has meant polar bears are on land three weeks longer than in the 1980s.
Last September, when Arctic sea ice hit its yearly low, there was about 2.6 million square kilometers less sea ice than the same time in 1979. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service lists the polar bear as a threatened species due to the loss of its sea ice habitat.
Overall, the research shows that it is unlikely that polar bears can adapt to living on land.
1. Why do polar bears lose weight even if they find much food?| A．They live a rather inactive life. |
| B．They use more energy than they take in. |
| C．They no longer have enough sea ice to rest on. |
| D．They have a hard time in keeping their body temperature. |
| A．They find no sea ice in summer. | B．They have to live on land longer. |
| C．They lose too much weight in spring. | D．They compete with other land animals. |
| A．Its living environment. | B．Human activity. |
| C．The changing temperature of sea water. | D．A drop in sea animals’ population. |
| A．Polar Bears Becoming Smaller and Smaller |
| B．Polar Bears Having to Adapt to Living on Land |
| C．The Arctic Ocean Losing Ice Faster than Ever |
| D．Climate Change Diet Not Good for Polar Bears |
【推荐3】Global heating appears to be making trees drop their leaves earlier, according to new research, contradicting the idea that warmer temperatures delay the beginning of autumn.
The finding is important because trees draw huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and therefore play a key role in managing the climate.
The rising temperatures also mean that spring is arriving earlier and,overall, the growing season for trees in the planet's temperate zones(温带地区） is getting longer. However, the earlier autumns mean that significantly less carbon can be stored in trees than previously thought, providing less of a brake on global heating.
The new research is based on a huge dataset of observations of European trees, experiments that varied light and CO2 levels, and mathematical models. It showed that as well as temperature and day length, the amount of carbon a tree has absorbed in a season is a key factor in determining when it no longer needs its leaves and drops them. The scientists liken the effect to a person becoming full after a heavy meal and being unable to eat more food.
Earlier models that did not include the amount of carbon a tree absorbs during a season indicated that autumn could be two to three weeks later by the end of the century on current emissions (排放） trends. But the scientists' new model indicates autumn may actually come up to six days earlier. Christine Rollinson, an ecologist at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, USA, said the earlier models were known to be simplifications but were the best available.
“The big challenge is that autumn has always been a bit of a mess,” she said. “Depending on where you are and which species you're looking at, there's some evidence that leaf fall is happening earlier and some that it's happening later. But understanding how well a tree grows during the season really helps explain that tree-to-tree variation.”
Rollinson said that we can't put all of the responsibility on to growing trees. We can cut emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation to address the climate emergency.
1. What is the result of rising temperature?| A．Later spring. |
| B．More carbon storage. |
| C．Shorter growth season. |
| D．Earlier autumn leaf-off. |
| A．Compare. |
| B．Owe. |
| C．Expose. |
| D．Reduce. |
| A．Disapproving. |
| B．Supportive. |
| C．Sceptical. |
| D．Unclear. |
| A．Offer a solution. |
| B．Voice dissatisfaction. |
| C．Show a new finding. |
| D．Present more evidence. |
【推荐1】There is a common belief that clutter (杂物) adds unnecessary stress to our lives and is holding us back from our dreams and goals. But is it true? Sabine Kastner of Princeton University, an expert on the subject who has been studying how the brain processes clutter for 20 years, may answer this question. “Not all clutter is bad. And our brains can deal with it.” She says, “The media often writes about clutter in a very simple, black-and-white way: Clutter affects the mind and we need to clear it out. But it is much more complex than that. For starters, our brains are designed to deal with clutter.”
“The attention system in our brains actually likes clutter because that is what it is used to. And it is using this cluttered environment to make meaningful selections from it.” In terms of how best our brains perform around it, Kastner says there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The idea that an uncluttered workplace is better is not “universally true.”
Some people need to see their work. If something is carefully put away, to them it does not exist anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. For other people, objects can stimulate their creativity and give them ideas.
Even there are other people who actually like that clutter. And they clutter their environment because it actually helps them. It almost like stimulating their brain to do something.”
However, other people are unable to work in a cluttered environment. Kastner notes that some people may get distracted by having lots of things around them. These people may need more organization and less clutter to work well.
Some people do not care either way. Whether the area is cluttered or clear they work the same. And for others it may depend on the project. For administrative work, they might need a clear workspace. But for more creative projects, they may need many things around them.
Our brains are all so different and that is what makes us who we are.
1. The passage begins with the belief to ________.| A．introduce the main topic | B．show the author's attitude |
| C．describe the harm of clutter | D．explain how to clear clutter |
| A．it affects the mind |
| B．it may get people less distracted |
| C．it is almost stimulating our brain to do something |
| D．it is using this cluttered environment to make meaningful selections |
| A．they can’t see clutter when they work. |
| B．they depend completely on clutter to finish their work. |
| C．objects around them can stimulate their creativity and give them ideas. |
| D．a cluttered environment can enable your brain to improve gradually. |
| A．Objective (客观的) | B．Disgusted (厌恶的) |
| C．Contradictory (对立的) | D．Critical (批判地) |
【推荐2】Where can you volunteer your time? Check out these 4 activities for excellent volunteer opportunities that require no previous experience.
Animal Rescue Shelters
Local animal shelters always need volunteers. Brush up your office skills by answering emails or phone calls, and providing general administrative assistance. Try making some connections among the staff or offering your dog walking services to the pet owners. It makes for a great part-time job, and plus, may turn into a full-time one.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity offers locally targeted volunteer opportunities. If you are interested in developing experience in home repair and building maintenance, check out its A Brush With Kindness campaign or the Women Build program, designed specifically to help women learn construction skills. Your experience can contribute directly to team-building and leadership ability.
Local Libraries
As a teenager, I volunteered at my local library for a few hours a week for a school project. I liked it so much that I ended up volunteering every week and developed a life-long love of books. Libraries badly need help to organize shelves and assist readers, and you may sometimes help set up and run public events, such as author signings and book fairs.
Art Museums
If you love art, working in a museum can be an invaluable experience. You can surround yourself with timeless works of art, soak up knowledge, and acquire administrative skills meanwhile. Get involved in the community by volunteering for family programs and children’s activities at your local museum.
1. What is an extra advantage when you volunteer in animal shelters?| A．Owning your favorite pet free. | B．Becoming a full-time dog walker. |
| C．Helping to build up your knowledge base. | D．Contribute to your own leadership ability. |
| A．At Habitat for Humanity. | B．At a local animal shelter. |
| C．At a local library. | D．At an art museum. |
| A．Helping design posters. | B．Helping with public events. |
| C．Organizing large book fairs. | D．Organizing books on the shelves. |
【推荐3】Membership Card
Fighting Fit is a members-only club. When you first join, we give you a computerized card. It has your name, photo and membership number on.
Please have your card with you every time you use the club. The card is for your use only, and there is a small charge to provide a new one if you lose it. Members are permitted to bring guests to use the facilities at the club. A visiting guest fee is charged for each guest.
Fitness Programs
Your Fitness Program includes a meeting with one of our skilled instructors. This will happen two or three weeks after you have joined. The instructor looks at your health, your current needs and the way you live, and organizes a program suitable for you.
Gymnasium
Our gymnasiums are the most modem in the area and have high quality exercise equipment. For safety reasons, you must wear sportswear and trainers while exercising, and please remember to take a small towel too. It is one of our rules that you wipe the equipment after use.
There is no limit to how long you spend in the gymnasiums, but we ask you to respect other members by only spending 20 minutes on each piece of equipment. There are experienced staff helping you in the gymnasiums at any time.
Locker Rooms
We have large male and female locker rooms. Please ensure that your property is kept in your locker at all times. Any belongings which are found in a locker overnight will be removed and taken to Lost Property.
Cafe
The Cafe offers free tea, coffee and soft drinks.
Suggestion Box
Members' suggestions are always welcome, and the suggestion box and forms can be found at reception. We try to respond within two days.
1. What does the Fighting Fit Health Club provide for its members?| A．A personalized program on their first visit. | B．A second membership card for free. |
| C．Help from the staff all the time. | D．Certain kinds of clothes and towels. |
| A．share your membership card |
| B．have free drinks in the Cafe |
| C．leave personal items in the locker for 24 hours |
| D．spend as long as you like on all equipment |
| A．A news report. | B．A notice board. |
| C．A guide book. | D．A reference book. |
【推荐1】Nonverbal communication is a broad term used to describe any method of conveying information without words. Whether intentional, based on societal cues (提示), or completely unconscious, common forms of nonverbal communication include body language and facial cues, fashion and personal clothing, hand gestures, as well as graphical signs and design.
It is important to note that nonverbal communication is really about a lack of words, rather than a lack of speech sounds. That means writing would be considered verbal communication while sounds like grunts (嘟哝) would not.
Nonverbal communication can be broadly divided into relatively universal forms and culturally dependent forms. Many facial expressions, for example, are relatively universal, with most cultures able to identify expressions of fear, joy, or anger. On the other hand, nonverbal cues like bowing, shaking hands,or flashing a peace sign are culturally characteristic, and therefore have little meaning outside of cultures that understand them.
Fashion is a form of nonverbal communication, and in many modern cultures is a hugely important way in which people telegraph things about themselves.
Gestures also act as a form of nonverbal communication. A wide range of hand gestures can be found in most cultures, and in the west there are some almost universal gestures, such as a wave goodbye, a thumbs-up to show everything is okay, or handy outspread to signify offerings.
Body language is one of the most studied forms of nonverbal communication, and deals with how the body rests, how it is situated in relation to other bodies, and the special distance between bodies. For example, turning towards a person when seated and speaking to them is a nonverbal cue showing interest, while turning away shows a lack of interest. Tipping your head slightly is a form of nonverbal communication to show curiosity or express that you are listening closely or what they are saying, while constantly looking away would show a lack of attention.
1. What is the purpose of the author in writing the text?| A．To explain what nonverbal communication is. |
| B．To introduce some universal body languages. |
| C．To compare nonverbal cues and verbal ones. |
| D．To discuss the cultural shock of communication. |
| A．smiling | B．grunting |
| C．bowing | D．screaming |
| A．Body language is the most frequently studied by scientists. |
| B．Body language relies on body movements to convey messages. |
| C．Body language can be used to express your different meanings. |
| D．Body language varies very slightly from one country to another. |
【推荐2】Imagine that you, a newly-graduated student, were looking for a single apartment. You wandered into a housing agent and learnt that there were three apartments available. The three apartments were almost the same in every respect except their distances to your workplace and street noise levels. Apartment A takes the longest to get to work; it is also the quietest.Apartment C takes the least time, but sits near a busy, noisy street. Apartment B is moderate (适中) on distances and street noise. Assume that you value convenience as much as quietness. Which apartment would you take?
You may find the decision somehow difficult. After all, all apartments seem similarly desirable, and each apartment has its unique advantages and disadvantages. Unable to figure out whether you should give up convenience for quietness, you are likely to end up with Apartment B—the one with relatively moderate value on convenience and quietness. Research calls this the “compromise effect”—under decision conflict, consumers tend to take the middle route, a tendency that grows increasingly obvious as the number of available choices increases.
What exactly motivates consumers to choose a middle or compromise option? You choose the middle apartment because you are determined to look for the “best” apartment—one that takes the least time to your office and at the same time lies in the quietest neighborhood. Unfortunately, such a satisfying option doesn’t exist in a compromise choice set-a shorter distance requires you to give up some quality sleep, and quietness at night comes at the price of hurry in the morning, particularly if you are late. It is a powerful psychological principle that losses can weigh twice as much as same-sized gains. Unwilling to give up either benefits, you are likely to end up with a compromise option -you don’t gain, nor do you lose.
1. The example of a student looking for an apartment is to __________.| A．explain the problem | B．describe the situation |
| C．introduce the topic | D．give the evidence |
| A．deal with decision conflict | B．give up convenience |
| C．gain rather than lose | D．find satisfying options |
| A．Reasons for a compromise. | B．Importance of a compromise. |
| C．Ideas against a compromise. | D．Benefits of a compromise. |
【推荐3】In ancient seawall built by Neolithic people to protect their village from sea-level rise over 7,000 years ago has been discovered by scientists. The 330-fbot wall, off the Carmel coast of Israel, was built with boulders from a riverbed over a mile away to create a buffer （缓冲器） between the Mediterranean Sea and the settlement of Tel Hreiz, researchers say.
In a study published in PLOS One, researchers led by Ehud Galili, of the University of Haifa, Israel, say this represents the oldest known coastal defense system in the world and a feat of engineering with "extensive effort invested by the Neolithic villagers in its conception, organization and construction."
At the time the settlement existed, sea levels were rising as global temperatures warmed following the end of the last icc age. The Mediterranean was rising by up to seven millimeters （0. 27 inches） per year. Over a lifetime, this would have equaled around 20 centimeters.
"This rate of sea-level rise means the frequency of destructive storms damaging the village would have risen significantly," Galili said in a statement. "The environmental changes would have been noticeable to people, during the lifetime of a settlement across several centuries. Eventually the accumulating yearly sea-level necessitated （vt. 使……成为必要，需要）a human response involving the construction of a coastal protection wall similar to what we're seeing around the world now. "
The Tel Hreiz settlement was first uncovered in the 1960s but the seawall was only identified in 2010 after a severe storm exposed it. Galili and his team then set about analyzing the remains of the submerged （水下的）wall.
They found it was almost 10 feet tall and was built around the same time as the village. Over the course of decades, the seawall would have suffered from marine erosion, the researchers say. After the sand layer was removed, waves and storms may have eventually dislodged boulders and stones.
Despite this "display of resilience" in the face of sea-level rise, the people of Tel Hreiz eventually left the village and, over time, both the seawall and village were lost to sea. "The seawall may have worked for a period," the team wrote, "however, ultimately it proved futile （无用的）and the village was eventually abandoned. The Tel Hreiz seawall represents the earliest example of a coastal defense of this type known to date. "
The team points to parallels with sea-level rise mankind is facing today. While the rate at the moment is considerably lower than what these Neolithic people were facing, it is expected that many of the world's coastal towns and cities will be impacted in the next century.
"Given the size of coastal populations and modern urban settlements, the magnitude of predicted future population displacement differs considerably to the impacts on people during the Neolithic,” the study said. “However, many of the fundamental human questions and the decision making relating to human resilience, coastal defense, local adaptation, technological innovation and decisions to ultimately abandon long-standing settlements remain ominously relevant. ”
1. In the ancient seawalls built by people in the Neolithic age, it is right to say that________.| A．it’s the old coastal defense system to protect villagers |
| B．it's first discovered in the 1960s after a severe storm |
| C．it was built to protect its villages from the rise of sea level |
| D．the seawall finally protected the village from damage |
| A．Building coastal protection wall. |
| B．Leaving the village to safe places. |
| C．Paying attention to the change of environment. |
| D．Researching technological innovation |
| A．recovery from disasters | B．positive Village |
| C．protective measures | D．the seawall |
| A．more seawall should be built to resist sea level rise |
| B．sea level rise will be a big problem for us |
| C．we should take more measures to prevent sea level rise |
| D．many people will be displaced in the future. |
