Biologists from the John Innes Centre in England discovered that plants have a biological process which divides their amount of stored energy by the length of the night. This solves the problem of how to portion out（分配） energy reserves during the night so that the plant can keep growing, yet not risk burning off all its stored energy.
While the sun shines, plants perform photosynthesis（光合作用）. In this process, the plants change sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into stored energy in the form of long chains of sugar, called starch（淀粉）. At night, the plants burn this stored starch to fuel continued growth.
“The calculations are precise so that plants prevent starvation but also make the most efficient use of their food,” said study co-author Alison Smith. “If the starch store is used too fast, plants will starve and stop growing during the night. If the store is used too slowly, some of it will be wasted.”
The scientists studied the plant Arabidopsis, which is regarded as a model plant for experiments. To give the plants some math tests, the biologists let night arrive unexpectedly early or late for them.
During one of the exams, they shut off the lights early on them that had been grown with twelve-hour days and nights. Putting them into darkness after only an eight-hour day means they didn’t have time to store as much starch as usual. And this forced the plants to adjust their normal nightly rhythm.
Amazingly, even after this day length trick, the plants did very well in their exams and ended up with just five percent of starch left over at the end of the night. They had neither starved, nor stored starch that could have been used to fuel more growth.
The authors suggested that similar biological calculators may explain how a migratory bird, the little stint, can make a five-thousand-kilometer journey to their summer habitat in the Arctic and arrive with enough fat reserves to survive only approximately half a day more, on average.
The results of the study were published in e Life.
1. According to the passage, plants _________.| A．use little energy during the day |
| B．usually stop growing at night |
| C．waste a lot of energy at night |
| D．store starch during the day |
| A．They changed the plant’s light conditions. |
| B．They provided the plant with more starch. |
| C．They tried to keep the plant’s natural rhythm. |
| D．They attached a biological calculator to the plant. |
| A．nearly died of lack of food |
| B．used most of their stored energy |
| C．began to regulate their food store |
| D．stored enough starch for the next day |
| A．They may have a system to control energy consumption. |
| B．They often die during their long and difficult journey. |
| C．They leave the Arctic in summer every year. |
| D．They are unable to calculate the distances. |
| A．plants feel hungrier day by day |
| B．plants are good at storing energy |
| C．plants do math to survive the night |
| D．plants use starch to fuel their growth |
相似题推荐
Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake capitals of the world—Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey—rats will soon be man's new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal (信号). This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University, New York, says, "Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that." Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity!
The "rat project" is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, "It would be fantastic. A rat could get into spaces we couldn't get to, and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe." Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).
1. In the world earthquake capitals, rats will become man's best friends because they can ________.| A．take the place of man's rescue jobs |
| B．find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings |
| C．serve as food for people alive who are trapped in buildings |
| D．get into small spaces |
| A．the noise made by the rat |
| B．the rat's unusual behaviour |
| C．the signal sent by the radio on the rat's back |
| D．the smell given off by the person |
| A．at present rats have taken the place of dogs in searching for people |
| B．the "rat project" has been completed |
| C．people are now happy to see a rat in a building |
| D．now people still use dogs and robots in performing rescues |
【推荐2】Every spring flowers suddenly come out everywhere on the same day, as if they had an agreement with one another. But how exactly do plants “know” when to flower?
It’s a question puzzling biologists for years. But according to Science Daily, a US research group may have finally answered it—the secret lies in a protein called FKF1. This allows plants to sense the differences in day lengths so that they can tell the seasons are changing.
Researchers found the protein when they were studying a plant called Arabidopsis. They found it’s a photoreceptor (感光器). This means it’ s sensitive to, and can be activated (激活) by sunlight.
Plants produce the protein every day in the late afternoon throughout the year. If there’s no light at this time, for example, in winter when the sun goes down early, it may not be activated. But when spring comes and the days get longer, it can be activated by daylight and the plants “know” it’s time to flower.
Although researchers have only studied how the FKFI protein works in the Arabidopsis, they believe that the process is similar in many other more complex (复杂) plants, including crops like rice and wheat. This could be useful to the agricultural industry.
“If we can control the timing of flowering, we might be able to produce more crops by putting it forward or putting it off,” a leader of the study said. “Also, if we could control the timing of flowering in horticultural (园艺的) plants, they may be worth more money.”
What an amazing thing to think about this!
1. How do plants know when to flower?| A．They get messages from some insects. |
| B．They receive messages from other plants. |
| C．A certain protein tells them the time to flower. |
| D．Sunlight produces a protein in them to help them flower. |
| A．The study may benefit agricultural industry. |
| B．We may have plants that flower all year round. |
| C．Plants don’t flower in cold weather and short days. |
| D．Researchers found the protein by studying rice and wheat. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Unclear. |
【推荐3】Pandas are famously picky eaters. They only consume bamboo — a poor quality diet low in fat. But the creatures appear to have evolved to get the most out of what they do eat, according to a new study.
Their gut (肠道) bacteria change in late spring and early summer when bamboo is at its most nutritious — while protein-rich green shoots are coming out. The bacteria make the panda gain more weight and store more fat, which researchers said may compensate for a lack of nutrients later in the year, when bamboo plants have only fibrous leaves to chew.
“We’ve known these pandas have a different set of gut microbiota during the shoot-eating season for a long time, and it’s very obvious that they are chubbier during this time of the year,” said lead study author Guangping Huang, a researcher for the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
To investigate how the gut bacteria could affect a panda’s digestion, the team first collected the wastes of eight wild giant pandas in China’s Qinling Mountains during both leaf eating season and shoot-eating season and then examined how the waste samples differed. They found a bacterium called Clostridium butyricum was more abundant in the pandas’ guts during the season when they enjoy the fresh bamboo shoots.
To understand whether this bacterium helps the pandas gain and store weight, the researchers put the panda wastes they collected into lab mice. Then they fed the mice for three weeks with a bamboo-based diet that simulated (模仿) what pandas eat. Researchers found the mice which were transplanted with panda wastes collected during shoot-eating season gained significantly more weight than the ones which were not, despite consuming same amount of food.
“The gut bacteria were the only variable (变量) in this research,” Wei explained. However, Felix Sommer at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany, noted the number of pandas studied was small and that the experiment had only been performed once. Sommer also stressed the researchers had found a link, not a causal relationship between the bacteria and weight gain.
1. When do pandas get more weight with the change of their gut bacteria?| A．In late spring. | B．In late summer. | C．In early autumn. | D．In early winter. |
| A．Smaller. | B．Slimmer. | C．Taller. | D．Fatter. |
| A．The experiment lasted for less than three weeks. | B．Researchers collected bacteria from the lab mice. |
| C．Panda wastes have a vital effect on mice’s weight. | D．Different amounts of food led to an increase in weight. |
| A．Studies on Eating Habits of Pandas | B．Functions of Pandas’ Gut Bacteria |
| C．Characteristics of Pandas’ Daily Diet | D．Arguments over Pandas’ Digestion System |
【推荐1】There is some unwelcome news for students preparing for exams and officers putting in long hours—you don’t need that “refreshment (提神) break” as much as you may think.
Scientists believed it was not easy for people to continue their work if they felt the need to have a snack or a rest to make them feel better. They argued that the only way to regain willpower is by supplying more energy to our bodies with rest, food or entertainment.
But psychologists have challenged this theory, saying weak willpower is in your head. They found that a person’s mindset (理念) and belief about willpower determine how long and how well they’ll be able to work on a tough mental exercise. “If you think of willpower as something that’s limited, you’re more likely to be tired when you perform a difficult task,” said Professor Veronika Job. “But if you think of willpower as something that is not easily depleted, you can go on and on.”
The researchers led by Mr. Job designed an experiment to test the students’ beliefs about willpower. After a tiring task those who believed or were led to believe that willpower was a limited resource performed worse on standard concentration tests than those who thought of willpower as something they had more control over.
Mr. Job said, “Students who may already have trouble studying are being told that their powers of concentration are limited, and they need to take frequent breaks. But a belief in willpower as a non-limited resource makes people stronger in their ability to work through challenges.”
The findings could help people who are battling with temptation (诱惑): people following strict diets and doing exercise regularly to lose weight, people trying to overcome addictions, employees facing a tight deadline. Willpower isn’t driven by a biologically based process as much as we used to think.
1. What opinion did scientists have in the past?| A．Willpower was a limited resource. |
| B．It was hard to regain willpower. |
| C．Hardworking people seldom took breaks. |
| D．People could easily feel tired when working. |
| A．Given up. | B．Recovered. |
| C．Used up. | D．Changed. |
| A．Students benefit most from the research. |
| B．Frequent breaks are not good for learning. |
| C．Will power can be regained after people have a good rest. |
| D．The belief in willpower can change a man’s behaviour. |
| A．To explain the power of willpower. |
| B．To show us how to build willpower. |
| C．To tell us the ways of gaining willpower. |
| D．To introduce a new theory on willpower. |
【推荐2】Researchers used to think brain-to-body-size ratio revealed intelligence because it showed how a species devoted energy to its brain. They were utterly wrong. Other ratios better predict smarts, but there’s still no perfect metric. This ranking, by brain-to-body ratio, shows just how little we know about, well, knowing stuff.
1. Ants: 1: 7
There’s a reason why ants think as a group. With just 250, 000 brain cells per soldier, it takes a colony to rival the total neurons found in one human. Like all tiny creatures, their brains are enormous only when compared with their tiny bodies. Brains can be only so small and still function.
2. Tree Shrews: 1: 10
Lest you think this metric falls apart only in the insect world, the noble tree shrew has the highest brain-to-body ratio of any mammal despite its small size. Ten percent of its body weight is brain matter. But if these animals are smarter than people, they sure keep quiet about it.
3. Humans: 1: 40
As part of the ongoing effort to put human intellect on top, some scientists argue we should abandon brain-to-body in favor of “encephalization quotient,” or EQ, which quantifies brain mass relative to the average for animals of that type and size. Ours are 7. 4 times larger than expected.
4. Dolphins: 1: 78
Bottlenose dolphins’ ratio isn’t much to boast. They do better with EQ, clocking in around four or five times larger than average for their kind. Their smarts might be due in part to spindle cells—large neurons thought to enable complex behaviors in great apes and a select few other species.
5. Dogs: 1: 125
If man’s best friend seems less smart than his wild cousins, it might be because a wolf-size dog has a significantly smaller brain. We’ve bred them to a state of everlasting puppydom, so while one can hunt for itself, the other gets treats by being a very good boy. Who can say which species came out ahead?
6. Great whites: 1: 2, 500
Often dismissed as having a walnut-size brain, the great white actually has a larger, decentralized organ, Y-shaped and 2 feet long. Humans have around 62. 5 times more brain mass per pound of flesh, but a shark’s gray matter seems focused on specific skills—like smelling out seal blood.
1. The brain-to-body-size ratios are ranked in order to ________| A．hold readers’ interest by being scientific |
| B．capture the proportional relationship between the brain and intelligence |
| C．explain that intelligence is not necessarily linked to brain size |
| D．reveal that the larger the brain, the more energy a species devote |
| A．Tree shrews can make high-pitched sounds. |
| B．Tree shrews are no smarter than humans. |
| C．Smart as tree shrews are, they tend to keep quiet about it. |
| D．Humans should keep low-profile as tree shrews do. |
| A．Our human intellect comes out on top if measured by brain-to-body ratio |
| B．Thanks to spindle cells, dolphins can perform the same behaviors as great apes are capable of. |
| C．Despite their smaller brains, dogs are smarter than wolves because they are bred by humans. |
| D．The great whites’ decentralized organ contributes to its certain skills. |
【推荐3】Our most common dreams
Dreams have long confused us and their meanings can seem nearly impossible to understand.So we are always wondering：
Dreams can have complex meanings.But before we start explaining these dreams，there are a few things we should know：
●Understanding our dreams requires focusing on ourselves—no matter who else is showing up in them.
●We should take dream meaning literally(照字面地)．
Just as being nude in public means our body is exposed，a dream about it means we likely feel emotionally exposed.Maybe we're about to try something new or daring.If so，the fear is natural that we'll do nothing.A dream about falling might mean we feel like we're losing our balance emotionally.
●Our dream may represent a wish not an anxiety.
| A．Is it important to explain dreams? |
| B．What do our most common dreams really mean? |
| C．Anxiety is often explained as a key to a bad dream. |
| D．Early theory held that dreams are our deepest wishes. |
| E．Dreams describe what's going on in our life, nobody else's. |
| F．That is the same with a failing or the beginning of depression. |
| G．Similarly, a dream about taking a test could mean we'd like to show off our competency，at work or otherwise. |
【推荐1】For hundreds of years, researchers have been trying to answer what kinds of things have an impact on people’s emotions（情感）. How you feel is controlled by many things. Your emotions can be influenced by your personality, by the actions of others and by events around you. In addition, maybe you really don’t know your emotions can be affected by the weather as well.
People often say they feel pretty good when the sun is shining and bad when it is cloudy.
As a matter of fact, sunlight makes us feel good. When sunlight shins our skins, our bodies produce a vitamin. Vitamins are natural chemicals (化学物质) which we all need to stay healthy. Sunlight helps our bodies produce vitamin D and it can help our bodies to make a special chemical. This special chemical affects our brains(大脑) and makes us feel happy.
For example, there are long, dark winters of little sunlight in Sweden and Norway, so many people in these countries often feel sad. Without much sunlight, their bodies produce less vitamin D. Without enough vitamin D, their bodies make less of this special chemical which makes them feel good.
In order to help the people in these countries feel better, special “sunrooms” with artificial(人造的) lights have been built. People can go there and get “sunlight” for an hour or two!
The weather can also affect people’s emotions in other ways. Hot weather can make people angry because people feel uncomfortable when they are hot. In the same way, rain can make people angry because being wet can be unpleasant. As you can see, the weather can have an effect on the chemicals which control our brains. Through these ways, the weather can influence our emotions. Sadly, while the weather can change us, we can hardly change the weather.
1. Which of the following is true about vitamin D according to the passage?| A．It is a kind of artificial chemical made by scientists. |
| B．It makes us worried by affecting our brains. |
| C．It is needed by us all to keep fit. |
| D．It is in the sunlight. |
| A．We feel good when we are in the bright cool weather. |
| B．We will be happy when we are caught in the bad weather. |
| C．All people in Norway and Sweden feel sad in winter. |
| D．The more vitamin D you have, the happier you’ll be. |
| A．Why Do We Feel Sad? |
| B．The Weather Influences People’s Emotions |
| C．People Need More Vitamin D |
| D．We Can Hardly Change the Weather |
【推荐2】Would you give your Social Security Number to the clerk at the grocery store? Of course not, right? Yet, if you’re like most people, you wouldn’t hesitate to give out a different, but equally important number to the same person.
Experts now say that your cellphone number may be more pivotal than any other personal information in the eyes of spammers (垃圾邮件发送者) and identity thieves. In other words, instead of handing it out, you should guard that cellphone number with your life.
Today, your cellphone number will likely be with you for a very long time. That means if spammers get your cellphone number, it will be much harder to get rid of them. It also means that over the years, your cellphone number will be linked to a lot of personal information—from contact lists（通讯录) to bank card numbers, all information that hackers（黑客）would love to get their hands on.
A few years ago, German security researcher Karsten Nohl showed what he could obtain using only a person’s cellphone number. California Congressman Ted Lieu was given a new cellphone for a day and Nohl was given that cellphone number. Using just that number, Nohl was able to find Lieu’s location and movements throughout Los Angeles, read his emails and text messages, and record phone calls between Lieu and his staff. And Nohl did all of this from his office in Berlin using just a cellphone number.
Still think it’s a good idea to post your number on a noticeboard?
It’s safe to assume that Nohl is an expert when it comes to hacking, but even the ordinary thief can use your cellphone number to cause harm to you. When you sign up for an account online, you usually provide your email address and a password (密码). But if you forget that password, many of these companies will send you a password retrieval code (检码）via your cellphone. Let’s say you post something for sale online and you include your name, email, and cellphone number. You’ve now given a potential thief everything he needs to hack into any of your online accounts. Therefore, it just makes sense to protect yourself by guarding that number as closely as you would guard any other personal information.
1. What does the underlined word “pivotal” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Accessible. | B．Familiar. |
| C．Important. | D．Manageable. |
| A．Why people should protect their cellphone numbers. |
| B．Why people seldom change their cellphone numbers. |
| C．How to protect our personal information. |
| D．How to get rid of spammers. |
| A．Nohl is a real expert in hacking. |
| B．It’s necessary to fight against hackers. |
| C．Lieu’s new cellphone has powerful functions. |
| D．It’s easy to hack information via cellphone numbers. |
| A．It’s a good idea to sell something online. |
| B．It’s necessary to register several accounts online. |
| C．It’s common for people to forget their passwords. |
| D．It’s risky to post your cellphone number online. |
阅读下列短文，从每题中所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
You have heard the expression “horse sense”. As you may imagine, it came from the time when the majority of people traveled in vehicles drawn by horses. A horse does have a lot of common sense, and there are many true stories about horses having saved their drivers from danger of death.
Today for the most part, people travel by train, ship, airplane, and car, but very little by the use of horses. Modern vehicles are propelled by engines, and an engine does not have any sense. In case of danger, many horses could be depended on to help. Not so with the engine; the driver must do all the things.
In recent years, the speed of travel has increased greatly. With the increased speed comes greatly increased danger. The driver of a powerful engine needs to be careful. A moment of being careless may cost a life. In order to drive today, a person must be able to see clearly, and he must learn and follow carefully the rules for safety on the road. Greater attention is the price we pay for using a machine instead of a horse.
1. The passage mainly talks about ______.
| A．engines | B．safe driving | C．using horses | D．modern machines |
| A．repair | B．raise | C．push forward | D．made |
| A．a driver must know the rules of safety |
| B．a driver needs to be able only to tell red from green |
| C．an eye test is an important part of a driver’s examination |
| D．greater attention is needed for a driver while driving a machine |
| A．A driver must be able to see and hear well. |
| B．The driver of a car must follow the rules of safety. |
| C．Horses are known to have saved their drivers from injury. |
| D．It is better for vehicles to be pulled by horse than to be pushed by engine. |
【推荐1】Beaches are not only great for lying on and doing water sports, and in fact one of the best ways of enjoying them is a classic beach walk. Here at iWantSun.co.uk we’ve been searching the globe to find you the world’s best and most famous beach walks, and here’s our pick of the top. Click on the most interesting walks and join our tourist program.
The Footpath of the Gods, Amalfi Coast, Italy
The name says it all really and you truly feel excited there, walking along this wonderful mountain path, which offers some of the most striking views on the planet. The path begins at the town of Bomerano to charming Positano along the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Amalfi Coast. The whole walk will take you about four and a half hours to complete and pass over narrow rocky paths.
Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk, Australia
Sydney’s coastline is one of the most beautiful and diverse landscapes in the world. Here you have national parks, historic sites, shining and quiet beaches all in one place. Sydney’s Great Coastal Walk runs all the way from Barren Joey in the north to Royal National Park in the south and takes an unbelievable seven days to complete. However, if you’re not up to doing the full walk, there are many different parts of the walk that you can do right in the city itself. Walking from the city’s famous Bondi Beach to the sweeping curve(大半径曲线) of Bronte Beach takes just an hour, which takes in some top sceneries.
Great Ocean Walk, Australia
The Great Ocean Walk covers 104km along Victoria’s famous Great Ocean Road, located on the southern coast of Australia, from the holiday town Apollo Bay to the splendid Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are the area’s famous stone landmarks which stand out like giants from the sea. The walk passes through a range of landscapes and sights, from national parks, famous surfing spots and deserted beaches, to wild coastlines, waterfalls, lush(茂盛的) forests, historic lighthouses and ghostly(幽灵似的) ship wrecks(残骸). Day walks and shorter three-hour walks such as The Wreck Beach Walk or the Lighthouse Cemetery and Lookout Walk can also be enjoyed.
So next time when you’re looking for a beach holiday, don’t just think about the holiday towns and the sand, but consider a more active sun holiday. If you have interest in any of the above places, please contact us, and we can give you the best services.
1. When you arrive at Amalfi Coast, _____.| A．the scenic beauty can fill you with charm |
| B．the walking can be started from Positano |
| C．you must be fed up with the footpath |
| D．narrow rocky paths may trap you |
| A．It takes more than a week to complete. |
| B．It really has the longest coastline in the world. |
| C．It provides visitors with a variety of great landscapes. |
| D．It starts from Barren Joey in the south. |
| A．Apollo Bay is at the end of the Great Ocean Walk |
| B．visitors have various walking choices in the Great Ocean Walk |
| C．the Twelve Apostles stand below the surface of the sea |
| D．most visitors have to finish the 104 km walk quickly |
| A．an online advertisement | B．travel magazines |
| C．a handbook to tourists | D．a poster in a foreign travel agency |
【推荐2】Psycholinguistics is a field at the intersection (交叉) of psychology and linguistics, and one if its recent discoveries is that the languages we speak influence our eye movements. For example, English speakers who hear candle often look at a candy because the two words share their first syllable. Research with speakers of different languages revealed that bilingual speakers not only look at words that share sounds in one language but also at words that share sounds across their two languages. When Russian-English bilinguals hear the English word marker, they also look at a stamp, because the Russian word for stamp is marka.
Even more surprising, speakers of different languages differ in their patterns of eye movements when no language is used at all. In a simple visual search task in which people had to find a previously seen object among other objects, their eyes moved differently depending on what languages they knew. For example, when looking for a clock, English speakers also looked at a cloud. Spanish speakers, on the other hand, when looking for the same clock, looked at a present, because the Spanish names for clock and present—reloj and regalo—overlap at their onset (开始) .
The story doesn't end there. Not only do the words we hear activate other, similar-sounding words—and not only do we look at objects whose names share sounds or letters even when no language is heard—but the translations of those names in other languages become activated as well in speakers of more than one language. For example when Spanish-English bilinguals hear the word duck in English, they also look at a shovel, because the translations of duck and shovel—pato and pala, respectively—overlap in Spanish.
Because of the way our brain organizes and processes linguistic and nonlinguistic information, a single word can set off a domino effect (多米诺效应) that cascades (像洪水般倾泻) throughout the cognitive system. And this interactivity and co-activation is not limited to spoken languages. Bilinguals of spoken and signed languages show co-activation as well. For example, bilinguals who know American Sign Language and English look at cheese when they hear the English word paper because cheese and paper share three of the four sign components in ASL (hand shape, location and orientation but not motion).
What do findings like these tell us? Not only is the language system thoroughly interactive with a high degree of co-activation across words and concepts, but it also impacts our processing in other areas such as vision, attention and cognitive control. As we go about our everyday lives, how our eyes move, what we look at and what we pay attention to are influenced in direct and measurable ways by the languages we speak.
The implications of these findings for applied settings range from consumer behavior (what we look at in a store) to the military (visual search in complex scenes) and art (what our eyes are drawn to). In other words, it is safe to say that the language you speak influences how you see the world not only figuratively (比喻地) but also quite literally, down to the mechanics of your eye movements.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?| A．Languages we know determine our eye movements. |
| B．The words we hear remind us of similar words. |
| C．We look at objects even if no language is heard. |
| D．Translations of words in other languages can be activated. |
| A．American Sign Language | B．brain processes |
| C．oral languages | D．co-activation |
| A．Words are closely related to concepts in language system. |
| B．The combination of words and concepts activates language system. |
| C．The language we speak influences what we pay attention to. |
| D．What we speak in everyday lives controls how our eyes move. |
【推荐3】Have you ever heard a rumor spread around by students at your school? Rumors, like fake news, can often misinform individuals and lead them to believe false information.
In an attempt to settle this problem, the country of Singapore has passed a bill that bans companies and individuals from publishing false information online.
This law, known as The Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, has caused a public outcry (强烈的抗议), as the government has been given the power to remove content that it considers inaccurate or against the public’s interest.
Since Singapore’s citizens are part of different racial and religious groups, the government fears that rumors or fake news can increase tensions within an already small country.
With the new law coming into effect, Singapore’s government now has the authority to monitor news sites, social media platforms, and other databases of information to determine whether the content is falsified. The government can order for the removal of fake news, and publishers of this information can receive prison time and fines up to one million Singapore dollars!
Critics fear that the bill threatens their freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Since national issues and world news are generally discussed on online platforms, many are concerned that this new bill will prevent individuals from talking freely and having healthy conversations.
Several companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have offices situated in Singapore, meaning that the new law will affect their company operations. Social media companies in Singapore could face a decline in activity, as users may fear posting their opinions and being punished by the government.
Others are concerned that the law does not clearly state what a “false statement” is. Such an ambiguity might allow the government to misuse their power, even though the intention is to curtail the mow of false information and rumors throughout Singapore.
This law does give rise to several concerns related to freedom and privacy and it will be interesting to see what Singapore’s government will do to deal with this problem.
1. Why are some people against the bill?| A．They think the bill can’t get rid of fake news. |
| B．They belong to different racial and religious groups. |
| C．They think their freedom of speech may be harmed. |
| D．They don’t want to increase tensions in their country. |
| A．Punish publishers of fake news. |
| B．Monitor telephone conversations. |
| C．Prohibit certain people from going online. |
| D．Fine fake-news makers any amount of money. |
| A．Their users’ privacy may be disturbed. |
| B．Their income will increase very slowly. |
| C．Their illegal activities will come to light. |
| D．Their social media may become less active. |
| A．prove | B．accelerate |
| C．promote | D．decrease |
