【推荐1】There’s a lot of anxiety around how young people, particularly teenagers, use the Internet but new research by Talk Talk suggests some of these fears may be overblown.

In a recent study, 2,000 young people aged 13—16 and the parents of the same teenagers, were interviewed about their attitudes to technology and loneliness.

The teens were mainly optimistic about technology and its uses. 51 percent said that during times when they felt lonely, tech provided a solution to their loneliness, enabling them to make new friends, receive support and advice, as well as allowing them to read positive comments online. However, social media was considered as cause for feeling lonely by 12 percent of teens, who said they felt lonely because they didn’t have many friends on social media.

When it comes to the parents, on the other hand there is an education gap between worrying about the Internet, and knowing what to do about it. For example, 70 percent of parents worry about their teens using the Internet, and knowing what to do about it. For example, 70 percent of parents worry about their teens using the Internet, but 65 percent said they did not limit the hours their teen spends using social media and tech, and 70 percent reported they don’t use parent protection controls and software. Around 37 percent said they feel ill-equipped or unsure about how to manage their teens online.

It seems like when it comes to the Internet, the main problem is with the parents not understanding what they’re doing. Research by Oxford University academics found there was little evidence linking screen time to mental health problems in teenagers. The study used a mixture of self-reporting techniques as well as time-use diaries.

We’re still learning about how things like social media affect our health and well being, but at least this research shows that the Generation Z (those born between 1996-2010) may have more of a hold on tech and its effects than their parents do.

1. What did the research by Talk Talk find?

A．More teens think tech helps rid loneliness.

B．Most parents limit their children’s use of the Internet.

C．Social media is destroying the parent-child relationship.

D．Teens prefer to communicate with their net friends rather than their parents.

2. How did most parents respond to their teens’ tech use?

A．They reported it to teachers.	B．They had no idea how to solve it.
C．They felt unsure if it was really worrying.	D．They began to control their teens screen time.

3. What is implied in the last paragraph?

A．Less social media, better health.

B．Social media is the main cause of loneliness.

C．Social media shouldn’t be allowed in high schools.

D．Don’t worry too much about teenagers’ use of tech.

4. The author develops the text mainly by ______.

A．giving typical examples.	B．providing research results.
C．stating different arguments.	D．presenting a cause and its effects.

【推荐2】For a wide range of diseases, diagnosis comes later in life for women than for men, according to a large Danish study. Researchers don’t know whether the later diagnoses are due to genetics, the environment, possible biases in the healthcare system - or some combination of reasons.

The study of health data from 6.9 million Danish people found that across hundreds of diseases, women on average were diagnosed when they were about four years older than the age at which the conditions were recognized in men. “We’re not just looking at one disease here, we’re looking at all diseases and we are looking at an entire population, from cradle to grave,” lead author Soren Brunak from the University of Copenhagen told Reuters Health by phone. On average, women received cancer diagnoses 2.5 years after men. They received diagnoses for metabolic diseases like diabetes 4.5 years later. “This actually surprised us quite a lot,” Brunak said. “Men generally have a tendency to get to the doctor later. So presumably the difference in onset is even larger.”

Brunak and his team considered incidence rates of diseases in the 18 broad categories of the ICD-10 diagnosis system managed by the World Health Organization. The study wasn’t designed to explain the causes of the differences. Another limitation is that researchers only looked at diagnoses made in hospitalized patients.

Dr. Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute, who was not involved in the study, pointed out to Reuters Health that the study therefore lacks information on age at diagnosis for people who didn't require hospitalization. “On the other hand,” she said, “being hospitalized is a sign of a serious illness, so that adds significance to the diagnosis and supports that disease onset may be later in women.”

Brunak’s study, published in Nature Communications, showed that the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis was a notable exception to the trend. Here, women were typically diagnosed before they suffered a fracture, while the opposite was true for men.

“I am fascinated by this study, which generally confirms all that I present in my Stanford course on Sex and Gender in Human Physiology and Disease,”said Marcia Stefanick, Director of Stanford University’s Women’s Health and Sex Differences in Medicine Center.

1. What can we know from the research?

A．Women were diagnosed four years later than men for any diseases.

B．Only the adults were involved in the research.

C．On average, women were diagnosed later than men for the same disease.

D．Women tend to go to the doctor later than men.

2. What does the underlined word “onset” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．spread	B．beginning
C．symptom	D．ending

3. What can we infer from the fourth paragraph?

A．Dr. Merz made proper comments on the research.

B．Dr. Merz was not willing to participate in the research.

C．Dr. Merz didn’t think much of the research.

D．Being hospitalized is a sign of getting a serious illness.

4. What’s Marcia Stefanick’s attitude towards the research?

A．critical	B．uninterested
C．favourable	D．indifferent

【推荐3】Unlike chemists and physicists, who usually do their experiments using machines, biologists and medical researchers have to use living things like rats. But there are three Nobel prize-winning scientists who actually chose to experiment on themselves – all in the name of science, reported The Telegraph.
1. Werner Forssmann (Nobel prize winner in 1956)

Forssmann was a German scientist. He studied how to put a pipe inside the heart to measure the pressure inside and decide whether a patient needs surgery.

Experiments had been done on horses before, so he wanted to try with human patients. But it was not permitted because the experiment was considered too dangerous.

Not giving up, Forssmann decided to experiment on himself. He anaesthetized (麻醉) his own arm and made a cut, putting the pipe 30 centimeters into his vein. He then climbed two floors to the X-ray room before pushing the pipe all the way into his heart.

2. Barry Marshall (Nobel prize winner in 2005)

Most doctors in the mid-20th century believed that gastritis was down to stress, spicy food or an unusually large amount of stomach acid. But in 1979 an Australian scientist named Robin Warren found that the disease might be related to a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori.

So he teamed up with his colleague, Barry Marshall, to continue the study. When their request to experiment on patients was denied, Marshall bravely drank some of the bacteria. Five days later, he lost his appetite and soon was vomiting each morning – he indeed had gastritis.

3. Ralph Steinman (Nobel prize winner in 2011)

This Canadian scientist discovered a new type of immune system cell called the dendritic cell. He believed that it had the ability to fight against cancer.

Steinman knew he couldn’t yet use his method to treat patients. So in 2007, when doctors told him that he had cancer and that it was unlikely for him to live longer than a year, he saw an opportunity.

With the help of his colleagues, he gave himself three different vaccines based on his research and a total of eight experimental therapies(疗法). Even though Steinman eventually died from his cancer, he lived four and a half years, much longer than doctors had said he would.

1. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.

A．present some dangerous experiments that Nobel prize winners did on themselves.

B．list difficulties that scientists went through in order to make important discoveries.

C．explain why some scientists chose to experiment on themselves.

D．introduce a few Nobel prize winners who did experiments on themselves.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?

A．Forssmann’s experiment ended in failure.

B．Forssmann had the pipe pushed all the way into his heart.

C．Barry Marshall succeeded by drinking some Helicobacter pylori.

D．Barry Marshall’s experiment on himself confirmed that most doctors’ belief about gastritis was correct.

3. The underlined word “gastritis” in Paragraph 5 probably means ______.

A．a kind of bacteria	B．a kind of stomach disease
C．a new type of therapy	D．a large amount of stomach acid

4. From the text, we can conclude that Ralph Steinman ______.

A．discovered a new type of cancer cell called the dendritic cell

B．tried different therapies containing the dendritic cell on himself

C．had his request to experiment on patients denied

D．believed that he was better than doctors at treating cancer

5. Where can we read such a passage?

A．In a newspaper.	B．In a poster.
C．In a textbook.	D．In a science book.

【推荐1】Archaeologists(考古学家)have discovered at least 58 shipwrecks(沉船)filled with ancient objects near the islands of Fournoi in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. The discovery is believed to be the largest collection of shipwrecks ever found in the Mediterranean. They gathered there over a long time period, from time of ancient Greece to the 20th century. But most of the ships are from the time of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine civilizations.

Peter Campbell is leading the underwater research of the wrecks for the RPM Nautical Foundation, a group that studies ancient objects. He said, "The excitement is difficult to describe. I mean, it was just unbelievable. We knew that we had come across something that was going to change the history books. "

The international team began the underwater study in 2015. They found 22 shipwrecks that year. That number has climbed to 58 with the latest discovery. The team believes there are even more secrets lying on the seabed below.

Campbell called it "one of the top archaeological discoveries of the century". He told Reuters, "We now have a new story to tell of a trading road that connected the ancient Mediterranean. "

The wrecks and their contents show ships carrying goods from nearby areas like the Black Sea, Greece, Turkey, Armenia and Italy. Other goods come from places farther away such as Spain, Sicily, Cyprus, Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa.

The team has raised more than 300 ancient objects from the shipwrecks, including many tall jars(广口瓶)with two ears used by ancient Greek and Roman people to carry liquid.

Campbell said, "Those jars are used mainly for transporting liquids and semi-liquids in the past, so the goods it would be transporting were mostly wine, oil, fish sauces, perhaps honey." He added that fish sauce from the Black Sea area was rare and precious in ancient times.

1. How did Peter Campbell feel about the discovery of the shipwrecks?

A．Excited.

B．Shocked.

C．Confused.

D．Terrified.

2. How many shipwrecks were found near the islands of Fournoi after 2015?

A．22.

B．36.

C．58.

D．300.

3. Which of the following might be very expensive in the ancient times?

A．Oil.

B．Wine.

C．Honey.

D．Fish sauce.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Seabed Secrets Attracted the Archaeologists

B．New Ancient Civilizations Were Discovered

C．Ancient Shipwrecks Tell Stories of Trade Roads

D．More Shipwrecks Exist in the Mediterranean

【推荐2】Academic learning is usually in the spotlight at school, but teaching elementary-age students “soft” skills like self-control and how to get along with others might help to keep at-risk kids out of criminal trouble in the future.

Once a program called Fast Track was started in the early 1990s for more than 7,600 children of 55 schools in America. They were identified by their teachers and parents to be at high risk for developing aggressive behavioral problems. The students were randomly divided into two groups; half took part in the intervention, which included a teacher-led curriculum, parent training groups, academic tutoring and lessons in self-control and social skills. The program, which lasted from first grade through 10th grade, reduced delinquency(少年犯罪), arrests and use of health and mental health services as the students aged through adolescence and young adulthood.

In another latest study, by looking at the data from nearly 900 students in previous findings, researchers found that about a third of the influence on future crime outcomes was due to the social and self-regulation skills the students learned from ages 6 to 11.

The academic skills, or hard skills like learning of physics, which were taught as part of Fast Track, turned out to have less of an influence on crime and delinquency rates than did the soft skills, which are associated with emotional(情绪的) intelligence. Soft skills might include teaching kids to work cooperatively in a group or teaching them how to think about the long-term consequences when they make a decision.

Researchers drew the conclusion that these soft skills should be emphasized even more in our education system and in our system of socializing children. Parents should do all they can to promote these skills with their children as should education policymakers. To the extent we can improve those skills, we can improve outcomes in delinquency.

1. Fast Track was intended for children who      .

A．were randomly chosen from their schools

B．had some problems with academic learning

C．often went against their teachers and parents’ wishes

D．were considered to have criminal trouble in the future

2. What can be learned about "the intervention" in Paragraph 2?

A．It included all the students.

B．It focused on social skills.

C．It improved health services.

D．It had positive outcomes.

3. Compared with soft skills, hard skills      .

A．almost have no influence on students

B．are more affected by students’ emotion

C．are mainly related to academic learning

D．offer children greater self-control abilities

4. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．Soft Social Skills Matter

B．Fast Track Helps Children

C．How to Prevent Delinquency

D．What to DO for Education

【推荐3】Since the day the car and the airplane coexisted people have dreamed of combining them into one all purpose, go — anywhere, do — anything vehicle. However, there are a lot of reasons why cars and airplanes have yet to join forces.

They have very different needs, like the number of wheels. The four wheels on a car distribute its weight and provide traction and stability. A 3-wheeled car is much more likely to roll when taking a turn at high speed. But airplanes have 3 wheels because when they're on the ground they don't need to take turns at speed, so a 4th wheel would just be unnecessary weight. Tricycle wheel arrangements are also better suited to landing in crosswinds.

Aircraft also have other needs like wings. Whether they're fixed wings like an airliner or rotary wings like a helicopter, to generate enough lift they have to be much larger than the restricted freeway lanes and parking spaces would allow. So most designs for flying cars have wings that are either detachable （可拆卸的）or foldable.

That hasn't stopped some people from trying, and now one Dutch company, PAL-V, thinks their Liberty design has made flying cars a practical reality.

In 2005, the company discovered the work of another Dutch company, Carver, which made 3-wheeled cars that leaned like motorcycles. As for generating lift, PAL-V chose a rotary design called autogyro. Unlike a helicopter, the rotor （旋转翼）of an autogyro is unpowered in flight. Instead, the air flowing over it causes it to spin and generate lift. Autogyros also have short takeoff and landing requirements, so setting one down in an emergency is less dangerous than in a fixed-wing aircraft.

The Liberty received road certification in Europe in October of 2020, hoping to deliver to their first customers starting in 2022.

1. What can be learned from Paragraph 1?

A．Flying cars have long been dreamed of by humans.

B．The coexistence of cars and airplanes satisfies people.

C．The car and the airplane are less popular nowadays.

D．Cars and airplanes were invented at the same time.

2. Why are the needs like wings and the number of wheels mentioned?

A．To compare vehicles like cars and airplanes.

B．To explain the functions of wings and wheels.

C．To present two major problems to be solved.

D．To show the basic rules of vehicle designs.

3. What is the advantage of Liberty over a traditional airliner?

A．It can be controlled more easily.

B．Its take-off needs less space and time.

C．It consumes less power when flying.

D．Its landing is less dangerous in emergency.

4. What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

A．Europe gives Liberty a warm welcome.

B．Flying cars will replace the other vehicles.

C．Liberty can be seen globally once marketed.

D．PAL-V succeeds in making flying cars a reality.

【推荐1】It is reported that a record-breaking high-speed rail will connect Inner Mongolia in the north to Hainan in the south. According to the Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission，the proposed line will operate at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour（217 mph）．

Beginning in Inner Mongolia's Baotou city and running through southern Shaanxi， Hubei， Hunan， Guangxi and Guangdong， its final stop would be in Haikou city on Hainan Island，China's southernmost province．

Though the exact length of the proposed route has not been released，it will likely become the world's longest high-speed rail line as the journey by road between Baotou and Haikou is approximately 3，000 kilometers（1，864 miles） long． Currently， the world's longest high-speed rail line is almost 2，300 kilometers long （1，429 miles）， running from Beijing to Guangzhou．

The proposed rail is part of China's aim to create another "Silk Road of the 21st Century" and improve the country's transportation network while driving land development and urbanization（城市化） in some provincial areas．

Many of the provinces through which the high-speed trains will travel are near major bodies of water，such as the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi province，the Yangtzi River in Hubei and the South China Sea， where the line would end． It will also take passengers to popular tourist attractions including Zhangjiajie，Xi'an，Guilin and minority areas in western Hunan and Hubei．

"The country is now shifting its focus and investing in the western regions and economically underdeveloped areas，making up for China's long debt to these areas，" Tan yuzhi，professor of the School of Economics and Management at Hubei University for Nationalities， told local media． " The project will significantly narrow regional disparities（差异） and solve minority issues．"

However，Deng Hongbing，director of China University of Geosciences' Center for Regional Economic and Investment Center，said that if the north-to-south railway is to go ahead，there needs to be a sound ecological program in place to ensure the protection of these underdeveloped and ecologically sensitive areas．

1. What is the passage mainly talking about？ ______

A．China has decided to invest in the western areas．

B．Another high-speed train line is being planned．

C．The train will speed up to 350 kilometers per hour．

D．China has produced the best high-speed train line．

2. How many provinces will the proposed line cross？ ______.

A．9	B．8
C．7	D．6

3. Once the high-speed rain line is built，______ ．

A．It will be the most convenient high-speed rail line in China

B．It will benefit the underdeveloped areas a lot in the west

C．It will transport goods faster from north to south

D．It will do good to the environment alongside the line

4. What is Tan Yuzhi's attitude towards the proposed project？ ______.

A．Ironical	B．Doubtful
C．Puzzled	D．Supportive

【推荐3】During the outbreak of novel coronavirus, cities are locked down and borders are closed. Science, on the contrary, is becoming more open. And this "open science” is already making a difference.

Soon after the epidemic started in China, a researeh team from Fudan University in Shanghai successfully sequenced（测定序列）the DNA of the virus. But they didn't keep the information to themselves. Instead, they placed the sequences on GenBank, an open-access data platform, so researehers around the world could download them for free and start studying the virus.

Due to this openness, pharmaceutical companies across the globe are now able to work at the same time to develop a vaccine（疫苗）."There may be room for multiple different vaccines for different purposes and different age groups,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in the US, told Al Jazccra. "The bigger menu we have of vaccines, the more resilient（有适应力的）we'll be against coronavirus outbreaks in the future."

Major drug companies around the world are also sharing their study results. Remdesivir, a drug originally developed by US company Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola, is found to be promising in fighting against the novel coronavinis. Currently, two trials of the drug are already underway in China, and the results might be available as soon as April, according to The Verge.

This openness in science is going to be even more important in the future. “With climate change, increasing globalization, and population shifts, epidemics will not go away, and might even become more frequent,” Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School professor, told Harvard Magazine.

He said, “No one group can do everything. It has to be a coordinated approach. But I do think that the world has a greater sense of readiness this time to develop knowledge, drugs, and therapeutics（疗法）very rapidly.”

Every epidemic is indeed a crisis, but it can also be a learning opportunity. One redeeming（补偿的）factor of the COVID-19 outbreak is that it is helping science adapt for the better.

1. What does the article mainly talk about?

A．Coordinated efforts to fight the epidemic.

B．Something positive we've learned from the epidemic.

C．The significance of openness and sharing of scientific knowledge.

D．What needs to be done to prevent future epidemics.

2. What is the positive effect of the researeh team from Fudan University placing the genetic sequence of the virus onto GenBank?

A．They alerted the world to the danger of the virus.

B．They helped remove people's fear of the virus.

C．They showed the world how to produce a vaccine.

D．They invited collective efforts worldwide to develop a vaccine.

3. What is the author's purpose of mentioning Remdesivir in the text?

A．To introduce a possible cure for the epidemic.

B．To compare the treatment of Ebola and the novel coronavirus.

C．To prove that many drug companies readily share their discoveries-

D．To show that the novel coronavirus will soon be contained.

4. Which of the following would Dan Barouch probably disagree with?

A．Epidemics will be less frequent thanks to scientific development.

B．The world is becoming better prepared to deal with epidemics.

C．No single group can fight against the epidemics independently.

D．The increase in globalization may worsen future epidemics.