She is one of mankind’s oldest ancestors and is more than three million years old. New analysis of the arm bones of Lucy, an early hominid, suggests she was a tree climber. Lucy’s remains were uncovered in Ethiopia in the 1970s, with the 3.18 million-year-old skeleton(骨骼)being the most complete of any upright, walking human ancestor. Since she was discovered, researchers have debated whether she spent her life in the trees or spent time walking on the plains as well.
The new evidence from scans of her arm bones proves she spent time climbing and used her arms to pull herself up. The scans were compared with cross sections of humans and chimpanzees, which spend a mixture of time in trees and walking on all fours on the ground. They found that the arm bones were more heavily built, similar to those of chimps, while her lower limbs(下肢)would have meant she walked less efficiently than modern humans. Professor John Kappelman, at University of Texas, believes the advantage of his study was that it focused on characteristics that reflect actual behavior during life, suggesting that even when Lucy walked upright, she may have done so less efficiently than modern humans, limiting her ability to walk long distances on the ground.
Previous studies suggested that Lucy was just 4 feet tall and weighed just 65 pounds. Combining the new data paints a picture of an ancestor who may have spent a great amount of her time in trees. It also expands on evidence from earlier this year which claimed that Lucy may have died from a fall, most likely from a tree. The evidence suggests Lucy may have spent time on the ground, returning to the safety of the trees for food and to sleep, to avoid her enemies.
1. What did the researchers argue about after Lucy was discovered?| A．Where she lived. | B．How long she lived. |
| C．What she ate. | D．How she worked. |
| A．By her walking style. | B．By her heavily built arm bones. |
| C．By her strong lower limbs. | D．By her large cross sections. |
| A．have walked with bigger steps | B．have walked at a faster speed |
| C．have walked more efficiently than us | D．have walked a shorter distance than us |
| A．Guesses about Lucy’s characteristics. | B．Some evidence of Lucy’s health. |
| C．The safety of Lucy. | D．The ancestor of Lucy. |
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【推荐1】Personality may play only a small part in leadership effectiveness, but there is no doubt that some leaders have a certain magic that leaves peers envious and followers entranced. If you could bottle this leadership X-factor—charisma—the queue of interested executives would be a long-one. But what qualities can these often highly successful leaders be said to possess?
As individuals, charismatic leaders have highly developed communication skills, including the ability to convey emotions easily and naturally to others, says Ronald Riggio, professor of leadership and organizational psychology. “They are able to inspire and arouse the emotions of followers through their emotional expressiveness and verbal skills.”
“They connect with followers because they seem to truly understand others’ feelings and concerns.”
“And they are great role models because they have the ability to engage others socially and display appropriate role-playing skills that allow them to walk the talk” Professor Riggio says.
“One quality we like in our leaders is if they are seen to really represent us. We think someone is more charismatic, the more they represent our collective identity,” Professor Van Knippenberg says. In this way, a charismatic leader is somehow a larger-than-life version of ourselves.
Academics say that charismatic leaders also manage to stand out from the crowd. They might do this by being unconventional or by taking a different approach to problem-solving, for example.
“They are up for new things, and they are not stuck in the status quo. They are open to out-of-the-box thinking, etc. An optimistic, energetic quality helps us to see leadership qualities in them and makes us open to their influence,” he says.
“A lot of charismatic leadership, and leadership in general, is very contextual. It’s really good in entrepreneurial firms. It’s also good for turnarounds if the organization is in a bad state because it inspires”, says Kai Peters, the chief executive of Ashridge Business School.
But not every organization needs a charismatic leader. Leaders loaded with the X-factor can be narcissistic (自恋的), self-glorifying, exploitative and authoritarian. As Peters says: “Where it is a problem is where you have ‘look at me, I’m a star.’’’
1. Which word is closest in meaning to “charisma” in the first paragraph?| A．Charm. | B．Character. | C．Gratitude. | D．Optimism. |
| A．proper role-playing skills | B．subtle emotional expressiveness |
| C．marvellous problem-solving ability | D．unconventionality in the crowds |
| A．The one who has a heroical image. |
| B．The one who can speak for us. |
| C．The one who is a collective version of us. |
| D．The one who resembles us in characteristic. |
| A．Critical. | B．Approved. | C．Neutral. | D．Suspicious. |
【推荐2】Even though a lot of art galleries and museums are free in the UK, many people seldom visit them for fear that they won’t understand the art on display. They are afraid that other visitors may be more knowledgeable and that everyone else there understands what the artworks mean. But this simply isn’t true. Everyone is equal in front of an artwork and there are no wrong answers.
Modern art can be particularly difficult to understand and appreciate but enjoying an artwork is a natural gift. Do you like it or not? Do you want to find out more or not? It really is that simple.
A very well-respected art historian, Ernst Gombrich believed that a viewer completed the artwork, and that part of an artwork’s meaning came from the person viewing it. So, you see — even if you don’t have an art history degree, there really are no wrong answers, as the viewer is completing the artwork.
But there are things you can do to understand and appreciate art a little bit more. When I look at an artwork, I undertake a visual analysis. I look at the formal elements—color, texture, size. Imagine we’re viewing a painting. I look at the color; I look at the brush strokes; I look at what is being described. If you’re looking at artworks in a gallery, read the wall text at the side of the artwork. If staff are present, ask questions. Ask your fellow visitors what they think. Asking questions is the key to understanding more. But above all, have confidence in front of an artwork. If you are appreciating an artwork, then you are the intended viewer and what you think matters. You are the only critic that counts.
1. According to the text, why do people seldom visit museums?| A．Many art museums are free in the UK. | B．They are not interested in artworks. |
| C．The artworks there are not completed. | D．They aren’t confident in front of artworks. |
| A．Their meanings vary from person to person. |
| B．Asking questions is the key to understanding them. |
| C．It takes an art history degree to appreciate them. |
| D．They need an analysis of color, texture and size. |
| A．A diary. | B．An art magazine. | C．A novel. | D．A science report. |
| A．How to understand art | B．The power of artworks |
| C．The road to modern art | D．How to open an art gallery |
【推荐3】In recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have brought both excitement and concerns to various fields. One area where AI is making a profound impact is the medical field, particularly in the domain of diagnostics.
Al-powered diagnostic systems leverage deep learning algorithms to analyze medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. These algorithms can detect subtle patterns and anomalies that might be missed by human radiologists, potentially leading to earlier and more accurate diagnoses.
However, the integration of AI in medical diagnostics raises complex ethical questions. For instance, who should be held responsible if an AI system misdiagnoses a patient’s condition? Should AI algorithms be treated as medical professionals, with legal and liability implications? These questions become even more intricate when considering that AI systems learn from vast datasets of medical information, which might contain biases or inaccuracies.
Furthermore, the adoption of AI diagnostics could impact the role of healthcare professionals. Some argue that AI could enhance doctors’ capabilities by providing them with additional insights, while others fear that it might replace human expertise, leading to job losses and a potential decrease in the quality of patient care. Despite these challenges, proponents of AI diagnostics emphasize its potential to improve healthcare accessibility, especially in underserved regions where there is a shortage of skilled medical professionals. Al-powered diagnostics could provide preliminary assessments and recommendations, helping to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers.
1. What is the primary advantage of AI-powered diagnostic systems in the medical field?| A．They provide additional insights to doctors. |
| B．They replace the need for human radiologists. |
| C．They analyze medical images using deep learning algorithms. |
| D．They focus on detecting visible patterns in medical images. |
| A．The potential for AI algorithms to replace human doctors. |
| B．The reliability of AI algorithms in analyzing medical images. |
| C．The legal responsibility for misdiagnoses made by AI systems. |
| D．The biased data used for training AI algorithms. |
| A．AI could enhance doctors’ expertise and skills. |
| B．AI could lead to job losses in the medical field. |
| C．AI could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| D．AI could replace human doctors completely. |
| A．AI diagnostics could decrease the quality of patient care. |
| B．AI diagnostics could primarily serve regions with sufficient medical professionals. |
| C．AI diagnostics could bridge the gap in healthcare accessibility. |
| D．AI diagnostics could replace the need for skilled radiologists. |
【推荐1】Researchers in Norway say they have found what they believe is the world’s oldest runestone (符文石)—a stone with ancient writing on it.
Runes are the characters in several Germanic letters. These characters were used in northern Europe from ancient times until the change to the Latin letters. The origin of runic writing is unclear. The Norwegian researchers say the writing on the runestone could be up to 2,000 years old.
The runestone is square and flat. The runes carved into it may show the earliest example of recorded words in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic writings ever found” and “the oldest runestone ever found in the world”.
Kristel Zilmer is a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part. Zilmer said, “This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone.”
Runes have been found on stones and on home goods. Older runes have been found on other objects, also, but not on stones. The oldest known runic writing is on a hair tool made from bone. Zilmer said that the ancient writer might have used a knife or needle to make the runes.
Measuring 31 centimeters by 32 centimeters, the stone has several kinds of writings. Not all of them make sense. Eight runes on the front of the stone read “idiberug”—which could be the name of a person or family but not sure.
There is still a lot of research to be done on the rock, named Svingerud stone after where it was found.
The Museum of Cultural History is going to hold a public showing of the runestone for a month. The museum holds Norway’s largest collection of historical objects, from ancient times to the modern day.
1. Where have the oldest runes been found?| A．On a bone. | B．On a stone. | C．On the iron. | D．On home goods. |
| A．The content on it. | B．The person who found it. |
| C．The place where it was discovered. | D．The date when it was found. |
| A．The origin of the runes. | B．The shape and size of the runestone. |
| C．The meaning of all the runes. | D．The exact age of the runestone. |
| A．Origin of Latin Has Been Discovered |
| B．Runestones Show Life of Ancient People |
| C．Stone with Ancient Writing on It Is on Show |
| D．Researchers Discover World’s Oldest Runestone |
【推荐2】Scientists have solved a puzzle about modern humans, after research showed that a famous skull of a human ancestor found in South Africa is a million years older than experts thought. This discovery has changed what we know of human history.
The skull, which scientists have named “Mrs Ples”, is from an ape-like human relative from a species called Australopithecus africanus (南方古猿). It was found near Johannesburg in 1947 and, based on evidence from its surroundings, was thought to be between 2. 1 and 2. 6 million years old. This puzzled scientists, because although Mrs Ples looks like a possible early ancestor of early humans, the first true humans had already evolved by the time she apparently lived. For this reason, scientists had decided that Australopithecus afarensis, a similar species from East Africa that lived about 3.5 million years ago, was our most likely ancestor instead.
To get a more accurate age for Mrs Ples, a team led by Professor Darryl Granger of Purdue University in Indiana, US, used a new method to date the sandy rocks where the skull lay. They measured the amount of certain chemicals in rocks, which form at a steady rate when they are exposed to cosmic rays (宇宙射线) on Earth’s surface. Once rocks are buried, these chemicals stop forming and slowly disappear;the surviving amount reveals how much time has passed since the rock (or bones) were on the surface.
The new study shows that Mrs Ples and other australopithecine bones nearby are between 3.4 and 3.7 million years old. This means they lived at the same time as their East African relatives, so that either group could have given rise to modern humans. However, team member Dr Laurent Bruxelles pointed out that over millions of years, at only 2,500 miles away, these groups had plenty of time to travel and to breed with each other. In other words, the groups could quite easily have met, had children together and both been part of the history of modern humans.
1. What can we learn about Mrs Ples from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is a skull found in East Africa. |
| B．It is the most possible ancestor of humans. |
| C．It is a million years older than scientists expected. |
| D．It is proved to live between 2.1 and 2.6 million years ago. |
| A．By studying the effect of cosmic rays. |
| B．By calculating the forming rate of chemicals. |
| C．By locating the sandy rocks where the skull lay. |
| D．By measuring the surviving amount of chemicals. |
| A．Modern humans came into being in East Africa. |
| B．Mrs Ples travelled and had children with East African relatives. |
| C．The history of modern humans might begin 3.5 million years ago. |
| D．Ape-like species from Africa could have interacted with each other. |
| A．Historical Puzzle Unsolved | B．Ancestor Mystery Solved |
| C．Mrs Ples: The Earliest Human Being | D．Mrs Ples: A Famous Skull |
【推荐3】Lisa St. Coeur Cormier, a high school science teacher in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, found a tree root. When she took a closer look, she found the shape was very strange. She realized it wasn’t a tree root though it shared the same color. She felt it was hard to break and noticed an impression of bones of what looked like some kind of animal.
Cormier sent a photo of the find to Laura MacNeil who used her knowledge in this field to confirm that what Cormier had seen really was a fossil (化石). MacNeil runs tours of sites where prehistoric fossils have been found and also helps people identify fossils. She visited the site of Cormier’s find to take more photos of it.
MacNeil contacted John Calder, a scientist, who examined the fossil and led a team of scientists to study it. John Calder said it could be as much as 300 million years old. He said it’s probably from a reptile (爬行动物) of some kind — likely one that is unknown to scientists. Scientists spent 5.5 hours carefully digging out the fossil from the ground so they could study it more in-depth and find out exactly what kind of animal it is. That research could take a year or more.
“This is an important discovery here on Prince Edward Island. It is the second of the only two articulated skeletons (关节相连的骨头) found on PEI,” Laura MacNeil said. “This creature lived about 300 million years ago. This find tells us there is a great possibility for future scientifically important fossils that could be discovered on PEI. It will lead to more researchers paying a visit.”
1. How might Cormier feel when looking at the root carefully?| A．Satisfied. | B．Surprised. | C．Concerned. | D．Proud. |
| A．The scientists will have a detailed study on the fossil. |
| B．The scientists have identified the species of the fossil. |
| C．The scientists will keep the fossil under the ground. |
| D．The scientists discovered the first articulated skeleton. |
| A．Its long history. | B．Its wide popularity. |
| C．Its scientific value. | D．Its economic importance. |
| A．A scientist’s research on fossils | B．PEI is attracting more researchers |
| C．Cormier’s unforgettable tour in PEI | D．A science teacher discovered a fossil |
