【推荐2】Great friendships made over time

What kind of relationship do you think will provide you with more life satisfaction, better health and complete happiness?     1       A familial (家庭的) one? Surprisingly, the answer is friendship.

However, it’s not possible to have true friends without first making regular friends. Have you ever thought about how long it takes to turn an acquaintance (认识的人) into a true friend?     2     According to lead study author Jeffrey Hall, we need to spend at least 80 hours with another person to create a true friendship with them.

    3     One group consisted of 429 adults who had recently relocated (搬家), while the other was made up of 112 freshmen from the University of Kansas. The results showed that the more time each person spent together, the faster friendship formed in both groups. But it seemed that Hall wasn’t satisfied with the result.     4     According to the survey, “casual” friends are generally formed after spending about 30 hours together. And people will go from casual friends to regular friends after another 50 hours. However, it takes a lot longer to get really close to someone: A “close” friendship takes about 140 hours to create and “best friends” need about 300 hours.

But spending time together isn’t the only factor (元素) when it comes to making friends. “It’s not so important to just be in the company of someone…     5    ,”   Since time is precious, Hall suggested taking advantage of our school years by making as many friends as we can.

A．Watch a movie together ?

B．It matters how you spend the time.

C．Hall surveyed two groups as they began new chapters in their lives.

D．A romantic relationship?

E．You can engage (参与) in friendly competition by playing video games.

F．A new study published recently might have the answer to that question.

G．He wanted to find out exactly how many hours it takes to form a friendship.

【推荐3】We all know that water is tasteless. But it happens from time to time: you pick up the bottle of water you didn’t finish yesterday, and it tastes strange. Most often, you tend to drop the bottle in the trash bin, believing that the water has gone bad. But is it true?

According to Time, of course not, taste has little to do with quality of water.

As is mentioned in Time, when water is exposed to the air for 12 hours, carbon dioxide interacts with the H₂O in the water, and the pH value lowers slightly. As a result, the water has a different taste.

“But it’s most likely safe to drink,” Norwegian expert Truls Krogh told Science Nordic. “If the water is covered and of good quality to start with, in principle it can last a thousand years. That’s because when water is fresh, it contains little organic matter. As long as water is held in clean glasses or bottles, no pollutants will enter it to harm our health.”

People in countries like the US, the UK and Australia usually drink tap water. According to Time, if tap water is drunk within six months, the chlorine (氯气) in the water will be enough to kill any bacteria and keep it safe to drink.

However, there are also some exceptions. If you accidentally put your fingers into water or store water in unclean containers day after day, microorganism (微生物) will enter the water.

With the help of surrounding temperature, and sunlight streaming through windows, these microorganisms multiply quickly. Sooner or later, the water will be full of the unfriendly bacteria. And if you drink the water too often, then you’re more likely to be ill.

And what about water in plastic bottles? Heat and plastic are a bad combination, US researcher Kellogg Schwab stresses. When plastic bottles are used at high temperatures, they produce a chemical called BPA. BPA is something that affects hormones (荷尔蒙) and research has tentatively linked it to “several health damage, including heart disease and cancer”, Time reported.

Schwab suggests replacing disposable (一次性的) plastic bottles with the refillable containers made of metal or glass to deal with BPA.

1. The purpose of the first paragraph is to ________.

A．show an example	B．draw a conclusion
C．introduce a topic	D．analyze a phenomenon

2. Which of the following may Truls Krogh agree?

A．Covered water can last for a thousand years.

B．If the water tastes different, we shouldn’t drink it.

C．Although kept fresh, water may still have much organic matter.

D．The water held in a clean container is likely safe to drink.

3. What does the underlined word “multiply” in paragraph 7 probably mean?

A．Increase.

B．Reduce.

C．Die.

D．Adapt.

4. What can be the best title of the passage?

A．Why Water Is Tasteless	B．How to Get Clean Water
C．Does Water Really Go Bad?	D．Learn to Protect Water

【推荐1】Can we give a hand to those endangered animals? Yes, we may only do a little bit, but together our small actions add up to a lot.

1. Protect wildlife habitat

Perhaps the greatest threat that faces many species is the widespread destruction of habitat. Cutting down forests, farming, and development all result in loss of wildlife habitat. In areas where rare species live, habitat destruction can quickly force a species to extinction. By protecting habitat, entire communities of animals can be protected together naturally. Parks and reserves are now all too often the only habitats that are left untouched by habitat destruction.

2. Reduce the threat of invasive species

The spread of non­native species has greatly reduced native populations around the world. Invasive species compete with native species for resources and habitat. They can even prey on native species directly, forcing native species towards extinction.

3. Place decals on windows

It is reported that as many as one million birds in the United States die each year because of collisions with windows. You can help reduce the number of collisions simply by placing decals on the windows in your home and office.

4. Slow down when driving

Many native animals have to live in developed areas and this means they must move in human­living areas. One of the biggest obstacles to them is that created by roads. Roads divide habitat and present a constant risk to any animal attempting to cross from one side to the other. So when you drive out, slow down and keep an eye out for wildlife.

1. What would be the best title for this passage? ________

A．How animals go to extinction	B．The importance of protecting wildlife
C．What to do to help save wildlife	D．How to protect wildlife habitat

2. People are advised to put decals on windows to________.

A．decorate the houses and beautify the environment	B．protect the windows from birds hitting
C．attract more birds to make homes nearby	D．avoid birds hitting the windows by mistake

3. The underlined phrase “prey on” in the passage means ________.

A．drive away

B．live with

C．kill for food

D．fight with

4. We can learn from the passage that________.

A．the habitats of many species have been destroyed

B．about one million birds are attacked by invasive species each year

C．perhaps the biggest threat to many species is that they are easily bumped by cars

D．invasive species only compete for food with native species

【推荐2】Crying is generally associated with negative emotions like being sad or frustrated, making this natural emotional state something that many people try to avoid. Yet a new study, which sought to better understand the physiological function of shedding tears, suggests that crying is actually kind of good for you. Specifically, it turns out that crying supports the regulation(调控) of breathing during a stressful event.

Sharman headed the research and said crying was previously thought to help humans deal with stressful situations, which led them to testing the idea. Researchers invited 197 undergraduate students to watch sad videos for 17 minutes. About half of them ended up crying. All of the students then participated in the Cold Pressor Stress Test. Researchers monitored their heart and respiration activity during this stress test.

Researchers were surprised when they found that those who cried were not better able to deal with the stress test than those who did not cry. However, they did come across an unexpected finding: evidence that participants who cried were better able to regulate their breathing.

“Firstly, crying doesn’t seem to provide any change to stress hormones(激素) or our ability to deal with physical stress to a degree that might be meaningful if you hurt yourself. Secondly, what was our main finding, is that crying seems to assist in keeping our body stable and calm by slowing down and regulating our breathing and our heart rate,” Sharman told PsyPost.

However, there are some limitations to the findings. “We don’t know if these reactions are typical in real-world settings where you might be crying because of sadness or loss, for example, or if there are differences if someone else is present with you when you cry, ” Sharman said.

1. What does the underlined word “respiration” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Breathing.	B．Brain.
C．Blood-pressure.	D．Muscle.

2. Why did the researchers do the research?

A．To help people to avoid negative emotions.

B．To better understand breathing in stressful situations.

C．To find out whether people cry when watching sad videos.

D．To prove an already existing thought about crying.

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．That crying helps regulate breathing was found accidentally.

B．Sharman is sure that the research findings agree with reality.

C．Crying is very helpful for us to deal with stress.

D．The undergraduate students are more likely to cry.

4. Where can you probably read the passage?

A．A biology textbook.	B．A health magazine.
C．A travel brochure.	D．A research report.

【推荐3】Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

The trend, then, was toward the “penny paper”—a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy) to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer’s office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny—usually two or three cents was charged—and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase “penny paper” caught the public’s fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

This new trend of newspapers for “the man on the street” did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业) were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.

1. Which of the following best describes newspapers in America before the 1830s?

A．Academic.

B．Unattractive.

C．Inexpensive.

D．Confidential.

2. What did street sales mean to newspapers?

A．They would be priced higher.

B．They would disappear from cities.

C．They could have more readers.

D．They could regain public trust.

3. What can we say about the birth of the penny paper?

A．It was a difficult process.

B．It was a temporary success.

C．It was a robbery of the poor.

D．It was a disaster for printers.

【推荐1】For most business speakers, the necessary stage time, structure, and conscious editing to bring about maximum effect just aren’t there — most people don’t have to speak often enough to get it. Conversely, the speakers who deliver their talk most tend to be the best and most polished. They know where the laugh lines are, they know what phrasing works best, and they know their timing. Just like standup comedians.

Standup comedy, at its basic principles, is a combination of material (what you say) and delivery (how you say it). It is no different than typical speeches or presentations. TV slots (节目时间) for new comedians tend to be under five minutes, which forces them to continuously refine and refine again in order to achieve maximum effect from each word. Conference organizers still tend to book speakers in 40-60 minute time slots but who, these days, has an hour to focus on one person? Some of the best speeches in history have clocked in at less than 20 minutes. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was 272 words and lasted two minutes. Winston Churchill’s “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” speech was 688 words. The most powerful emotional expression two humans can say to each other is just three words: “I,” “love,” and “care.”

Most people switch off at around the ten-minute mark. As mentioned in Brain Rules, studies by noted educator Wilbert McKeachie demonstrate that “typically, attention increases from the beginning of the lecture to ten minutes into the lecture and decreases after that point.” This is why the organization for online talk TED has shortened its earlier 18-minute format. They figured out that brevity is levity. However, many conference and event producers haven’t got it right. Most speakers can’t hold the attention of an audience for 40-60 minutes. It’s something even the best standup comedians battle with. Yet business speakers seldom ask for a shorter slot. They should.

1. What pushes new standup comedians to improve their presentations?

A．The limited given time.

B．The topic of their speeches.

C．The audience’s expectation.

D．The place of their performance.

2. Why does the author mention the best speeches in history in Paragraph 3?

A．To expand the influence of the two speeches.

B．To prove that powerful speeches can be brief.

C．To illustrate the power of emotional expressions.

D．To show how famous people shortened speeches.

3. Why did TED reset a time limit?

A．The organizers can’t book long TV slots.

B．The audience cannot focus for a long time.

C．The access to online speeches was limited.

D．The speakers tend to deliver short speeches.

4. What are business speakers advised to do?

A．To cut down their speech time.

B．To interact more with the audience.

C．To pay more attention to the contents.

D．To battle against the standup comedians.

【推荐2】Belly fat（stomach fat） has long been thought to be especially bad for your heart, but now, a new study adds more evidence to the idea that it may also be bad for your brain.

The study, from the United Kingdom, found that people who were overweight and had a high waist — to — hip ratio （a measure of belly fat） had slightly lower brain volumes （容量），on average, compared with people who were just over weight or had a healthy weight. Specifically, belly fat was connected with lower volumes of gray matter, the brain tissue （组织）that contains nerve cells.

“Our research looked at a large group of people and found obesity （肥胖）,specifically around the middle， may be linked with brain shrinkage （萎缩），” lead study author Mark Hamer, a professor at Loughborough University, said in a statement.

Lower brain volume， or brain shrinkage， has been linked with a higher risk of memory recession， which leads to being forgetful.

The new findings, published on Jan. 9 in the journal Neurology ， suggested that the combination of obesity （as measured by body mass index, or BMI） and a high waist—to—hip ratio may cause brain shrinkage.

However, the study found only a connection between belly fat and lower brain volume, but couldn't prove that belly fat actually caused brain shrinkage. It could be that people with lower volumes of gray matter in certain brain areas are at a higher risk of obesity. Future studies are needed to find out the causes for the connection.

1. What can we infer about belly fat from the new study?

A．Belly fat may have a bad influence on our brain.

B．Belly fat can help increase brain volumes.

C．Belly fat affects people's diet.

D．Belly fat is bad for our eyes.

2. Who most probably suffer from brain shrinkage according to the new study?

A．A tall and thin man.

B．A man with too much belly fat.

C．A short and thin man.

D．A man with normal body weight.

3. What does the underlined word “recession” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Going ahead.	B．Getting poor.
C．Getting active.	D．Going around.

4. What do the researchers need to study further according to the text?

A．The real cause of getting obesity.

B．The danger of getting too much fat.

C．The bad effect caused by belly fat and brain shrinkage.

D．The reasons for the connection between belly fat and brain shrinkage.

【推荐3】When I was 17, I read a magazine article about a museum called the McNay, once the home of a watercolorist named Marian McNay. She had requested the community to turn it into a museum upon her death. On a sunny Saturday, Sally and I drove over to the museum. She asked, “Do you have the address?” “No, but I’ll recognize it; there was a picture in the magazine.”

“Oh, stop. There it is!”

The museum was free. We entered, excited. A group of people sitting in the hall stopped talking and stared at us.

“May I help you?” a man asked. “No,” I said. “We’re fine.” Tour guides got on my nerves. What if they talked a long time about a painting you weren’t that interested in? Sally had gone upstairs. The people in the hall seemed very nosy (爱窥探的), keeping their eyes on me with curiosity. What was their problem? I saw some nice sculptures in one room. Suddenly I sensed a man standing behind me. “Where do you think you are?” he asked. I turned sharply. “The McNay Art Museum!” He smiled, shaking his head. “Sorry, the McNay is on New Braunfels Street.” “What’s this place?” I asked, still confused. “Well, it’s our home.” My heart jolted (颤动). I raced to the staircase and called out, “Sally! Come down immediately!”

“There’s some really good stuff up there.” She stepped down, looking confused. I pushed her toward the front door, waving at the family, saying, “Sorry, please forgive us. You have a really nice place.” Outside, when I told Sally what happened, she covered her mouth, laughing. She couldn’t believe how long they let us look around without saying anything.

The real McNay was splendid, but we felt nervous the whole time we were there. Van Gogh, Picasso. This time, we stayed together, in case anything else unusual happened.

Thirty years later, a woman approached me in a public place. “Excuse me, did you ever enter a residence, long ago, thinking it was the McNay Museum?”

“Yes. But how do you know? We never told anyone.”

“That was my home. I was a teenager sitting in the hall. Before you came over, I never realized what a beautiful place I lived in. I never felt lucky before. You thought it was a museum. My feelings about my home changed after that. I’ve always wanted to thank you.”

1. What do we know about Marian McNay?

A．She passed away.

B．She worked as a community leader.

C．She helped in the museum.

D．She wrote articles for magazines.

2. Why did the author refuse the help from the man in the house?

A．She disliked people who were nosy.

B．She felt nervous when talking to strangers.

C．She knew more about art than the man.

D．She mistook him for a tour guide.

3. How did the author feel about being stared at by the people in the hall?

A．Puzzled and annoyed.	B．Concerned and anxious.
C．Frightened and upset.	D．Delighted and excited.

4. What could we learn from the last paragraph?

A．People should have good taste to enjoy life.

B．People should spend more time with their family.

C．People tend to be blind to the beauty around them.

D．People tend to educate teenagers at a museum.

【推荐1】Some people asked me how I could suggest the expenses of billions of dollars for a voyage to Mars, at a time when many children on this Earth are starving to death. I know that they do not expect an answer such as "Oh, I did not know that there are children dying from hunger, but from now on I will stop any kind of space research until mankind has solved that problem! "In fact, I have known of this long before.

But I firmly believe that by working for the space program we can make some contributions to the relief and eventual solution of such serious problems as poverty and hunger on the earth. Two basic factors causing the poverty and hunger problems are the production of food and the distribution（分布）of food. In fact, large areas of land could be used far better if efficient methods of farming, fertilizer use, weather forecasting, field section, planting, crop surveys, harvest planning and so on were applied. The best tool for the improvement of all these methods undoubtedly is the artificial. Earth satellite Circling the globe at a high altitude, it can screen wide areas of land with a short time; it can observe and measure a large variety of factors indicating the status and condition of crops, soil, droughts, rainfall, snow cover, etc.

Besides, in modern society, there is a continuing great need for new basic knowledge in science if we wish to improve the conditions of human life on the earth. We need more knowledge in physics and chemistry, in biology and physiology, and particularly in medicine to cope with all these problems which threaten man's life: hunger, disease, overpopulation, pollution of water and the environment. In a way, the space age not only holds out a mirror in which we can see ourselves, it also provides us with the technologies.

1. The passage is mainly discussing about           .

A．whether the children's dying from hunger is the major problem

B．whether there is an effective way to avoid the global starvation

C．whether the author's suggestion has been taken into serious consideration

D．whether it is worth spending much money on the space research

2. According to the author, what plays an important part in dealing with poverty and hunger?

A．Food supply.	B．Methods of farming.
C．Government	D．Modern technology.

3. From the last paragraph, we can infer that           .

A．more basic knowledge is required to be learned

B．technologies can help to improve our living quality

C．we can live a more peaceful and happier life

D．there are different views on the space age

【推荐2】Essentially, everyone has two ages: a chronological(按时间计算的) age, how old the calendar says you are, and a biological age, basically the age at which your body functions as it compares to average fitness or health levels.

“Chronological age isn’t how old we really are. It’s merely a number,” said Professor David Sinclair at Harvard University. “It is biological age that determines our health and ultimately our lifespan(寿命). We all age biologically at different rates according to our genes, what we eat, how much we exercise, and what environment we live in. Biological age is the number of candles we really should be blowing out. In the future, with advances in our ability to control biological age, we may have even fewer candles on our birthday cake than the previous one.”

To calculate biological age, Professor Levine at Yale University identified nine bio-markers that seemed to be the most influential on lifespan by a simple blood test. The numbers of those markers, such as blood sugar and immune measures, can be put into the computer, and the algorithm (算法) does the rest.

Perhaps what’s most important here is that these measures can be changed. Doctors can take this information and help patients make changes to lifestyle, and hopefully take steps to improve their biological conditions. “I think the most exciting thing about this research is that these things aren’t set in stone,” Levine said. “People can be given the information earlier and take steps to improve their health before it’s too late.”

Levine even entered her own numbers into the algorithm. She was surprised by the results. “I always considered myself a very healthy person. I’m physically active; I eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet. But I did not find my results to be as good as I had hoped they would be. It was a wake-up call,” she said.

Levine is working with a group to provide access to the algorithm online so that anyone can calculate their biological age, identify potential risks and take steps to improve their own health in the long run. “No one wants to live an extremely long life with a lot of chronic diseases,” Levine said. “By delaying the development of mental and physical functioning problems, people can still be engaged in society in their senior years. That is the ideal we should be pursuing.”

1. Biological age depends on __________.

A．what the calendar says about our age

B．when we start to take outdoor exercise

C．whether we can adapt ourselves to the environment

D．how well our body works compared with our peers’

2. What does the author mean by saying the underlined part in Paragraph 2?

A．We are chronologically older than last year.

B．We might be less happy than the previous year.

C．We don’t have to celebrate our birthday every year.

D．We may be biologically younger than the year before.

3. What does the author want to tell us by Levine’s example in Paragraph 5?

A．It is necessary to change our diet regularly.

B．The test results may give us wrong information.

C．Waking up early in the morning is good for our fitness.

D．The algorithm can reveal our potential health problems.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Bio-markers Can Make Us Younger

B．Chronological Age and Biological Age

C．Old People can Still be Engaged in Society

D．Biological Age can Lag behind or Exceed Chronological Age

【推荐3】A new Japanese research has suggested that regularly eating mushrooms could help lower the risk of cancer. The researchers found that the men who consumed mushrooms once or twice a week had an 8 percent lower risk of developing cancer, regardless of how much fruit and vegetables, or meat and dairy products they ate—compared to those who ate mushrooms less than once per week. Eating mushrooms more often appeared to bring even bigger benefits, with those who consumed mushrooms three or more times per week showing a 17 percent lower risk than those who ate mushrooms less than once a week.

Eating mushrooms also appeared to be particularly beneficial among those who ate a large amount of meat and dairy products, little fruit and few vegetables. The findings, published in the International Journal of Cancer, are the first to suggest that there may be an association between eating mushrooms and a lower risk of cancer.

“Test-tube studies and studies conducted on living organisms have shown that mushrooms have the potential to prevent cancer” said lead researcher Shu Zhang. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study indicating the cancer-preventive potential of mushrooms at a population level.” Zhang added that, “mushrooms are a good source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, especially L-ergothioneine,” which is believed to help fight against stress, and that is cell imbalance caused by lifestyle choices such as poor diets and exposure to environmental poisons. This imbalance can lead to chronic inflammation, resulting in chronic diseases such as cancer.

“Considering the average American consumes less than 5 grams of mushrooms per day, which is lower than that consumed by the participants in this study (7.6 g/day), one would expect that even a small increase in mushroom consumption can offer potential health benefits,” said Zhang. However, Zhang added that, “Although our study suggests regular consumption of mushrooms may reduce the risk of cancer, we also want to emphasize that eating a healthy and balanced diet is much more important than filling your shopping basket with mushrooms.”

1. What is the new Japanese research about?

A．Healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of cancer.

B．Often eating mushrooms reduces the risk of cancer.

C．Drinking dairy products is good for our health.

D．Eating fruit and vegetables makes us healthier.

2. Who seem to especially benefit from eating mushrooms?

A．People who are over fat and having a poor diet.

B．People who are feeling over stressed.

C．People who consume much meat but few vegetables and little fruit.

D．People who consume many dairy products and suffer cancer.

3. Why can the mushroom help reduce the risk of cancer?

A．It avoids the stress from a disease.

B．It reduces environmental poisons.

C．It hell helps reduce weight.

D．It has a source of cancer-preventive.

4. What does the underlined word “inflammation” probably means?

A．A state of being physically healthy.

B．A state of keeping body balance.

C．A physical condition that someone needs to be on a diet.

D．A condition that a part of the body becomes red, sore and swollen.