【推荐3】You know the feeling — your ears start to warm up, your tongue goes numb (麻木的), and you start sweating and taking deep breaths. You’ve just eaten something spicy, knowing it would be painful, but you chose to do it anyway. Are humans just masochistic (自讨苦吃的), or is there something else going on?     1    

Spicy isn’t actually a taste like salty, sweet, sour and bitten — it’s a sensation.     2    . When we eat foods containing capsaicin (辣椒素), our bodies are tricked into thinking the temperature is actually rising. In trying to relieve the burning sensation, our bodies release endorphins (内啡肽) which control pain and, at the same time, give a feeling of pleasure — like painkillers.

This is what is happening chemically, but there is also a conscious side to choosing spicy food. Dr Tamara Rosenbaum, a Cognitive Neuroscientist, explains in an interview with the BBC that this is     3    . Furthermore, we obtain pleasure from the other ingredients chilli is generally cooked and eaten with—including fat, sugar and salt. So — like skydiving — eating chilli is a form of thrill-seeking,     4    

Humans, one of the few mammals on Earth that developed a taste for capsaicin, started cultivating chilli peppers about six thousand years ago. Human intervention changed the chilli pepper to suit human tastes and needs — including the pepper’s colour, size and capsaicin content-helping to explain the many different types of chilli peppers now available.     5    . We eat around 57.3 million tons of peppers globally each year, and chilli is a key ingredient in traditional dishes from Mexico to Korea.

A．It lies in both science and history

B．where we get pleasure from a seemingly negative sensation

C．This is caused by a chemical compound called ‘capsaicin’

D．It has something to do with human nature and body composition

E．why Steamed Fish Head with Chillies enjoys great popularity among Hunanese

F．Fast-forward to today, and our love affair with the chilli pepper is going strong

G．because we know that the burning sensation of chilli does not physically harm us

【推荐1】As a kid, Joanna Buckley wasn’t interested in science—until she had a chance to try it. That happened when she got a chemistry set as a gift.

“Over the course of a few weeks, I’d completed every experiment. But in the process, I polluted my parent’s dining room carpet and burnt the kitchen worktop with the spirit burner,” she says.

Now science is Buckley’s job. She works in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield in England. “I realize, first­hand, how important it is to have something or someone to show you why science is so great, ” she says. Now the good news is that citizen science appears.

Citizen science takes the fun of experimenting a step further than Buckley’s at­-home experiments. That’s because these experiments are real, looking for novel answers.

“Compared with a one­off experiment, what’s cool about citizen science is that students get that this has a purpose,” says Amy Prunuske, who teaches microbiology and immunology at a medical college. “Students want to do a good job, because they know scientists are going to use the new data in their own research.”

Jennifer Long’s job is to coordinate (协调) education and outreach. She agrees with Prunuske. “Kids like that it’s real. And they like that it’s important, and that it matters.” Citizen science projects have made big discoveries. One found a previously unknown galaxy cluster (星系团). Another project helped assess how much damage a big earthquake had caused in Japan. And one of the first citizen science projects helped scientists learn where monarch butterflies go every winter.

Some adults worry about teens losing interest in science. They hope that fun, exciting citizen science projects can help them keep engaged, Long says. And she has some evidence that it’s working. “Last year, we did have a couple of students say, ‘I really think I want to be a scientist now’. ”

1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?

A．To show experiments can make teens interested in science.

B．To prove failure is the mother of success in science.

C．To state that Buckley has a talent for science.

D．To praise Buckley for her strong will.

2. Why is citizen science more fun?

A．It needs to seek for new solutions.	B．It carries out experiments frequently.
C．It must carry out experiments in groups.	D．It is supposed to handle complex problems.

3. What can we know from what Prunuske said?

A．She participated in the experiment.	B．She took pride in what students took up.
C．Citizen science is popular with students.	D．Scientists are willing to employ students.

4. What is Long’s attitude towards citizen science?

A．Concerned.

B．Supportive.

C．Doubtful.

D．Unclear.

【推荐2】Early in the morning of June 29, 1991, Carrier and Morgenstern were watching the field. Although they could see nothing through the thick fog, they kept their camera running.

By 6 a.m. the fog began to lift. A remarkable pair of circles had been flattened. Stalks (主茎) were bent but not broken. Outside the circles the wheat was untouched. Muddy though the field was, there were no footprints or other marks. The circles seemed to have come from nowhere. “I can’t explain it at all,” Mike Carrier said to himself with his eyes wide open.

Carrier is not alone since the early 1980s, more than 2000 circles have appeared in farmer’s fields. Most circles form at night between May and August.

Some believe the circles are caused by deer or some other animals. Others think of UFOs. “The circles are messages given by those who come from outer space,” says Michael Green. “Perhaps they are trying to get in touch with us.”

Pat Delgado has done research on crop circles since 1981. He believes that they are caused by “some form of earth energy.”

Most scientists think that there’s no scientific basis to back up Green’s or Delgado’s theories. Some of them say, “ We think they’re nothing but hoax(骗局).”

In September 1991, Doug Bower and Dave Chorley told newsmen that since 1979 they had made circles throughout southern England to fool people who believed in UFOs.

Since the early 1980s, Dr. Terence Meaden has visited more than1000 circles. Now he thinks he may have the answer. He believes true crop circles are made by vortex(旋风) which can flatten the crop in circular patterns.

Now crop circles are still found in southern England each summer. Are they really the traces of UFOs?

1. On the morning of June 29, 1991, Carrier and Morgensern hoped to ________.

A．record the important thing	B．draw a conclusion
C．find a secret of nature	D．see something funny

2. When he saw the crop circle, Mike Carrie was ________.

A．satisfied	B．frightened
C．surprised	D．interested

3. Most scientists consider that theories of Green and Delgado are ________.

A．meaningful	B．reasonable
C．instructive	D．against the laws of science

4. According to the article we may know that all the crop circles ________.

A．are made by those who come from outer space

B．are nothing but hoaxes

C．are not hoaxes

D．can be explained by scientists