Microplastics, those lasting relics of modern times, have occupied seemingly every part of the planet today, including the most distant reaches.
The Arctic is far from clean, though it's remote and rarely stepped in by visitors. Melanie Bergmann, a marine ecologist with the Alfred Wegener Institute, and her colleagues had been studying plastics on the Arctic seafloor since 2002. Large amounts turned up everywhere they looked. In deep sea, they found about 6,000 particles(颗粒)in every 2.2 pounds of mud. Sea ice was even more loaded—as much as 12,000 pieces per 34 ounces of melted ice.
Scientists measured microplastics in snow from this distant location and found levels they conclude could only have caught rides on the wind. The study raises concerns about how much microplastics pollute the atmosphere, bringing a potential health risk to people and animals that breathe them in. But they are less worried about the threat that breathed-in pollutants have to wildlife than about polluted snow leaving its load into water. “From an ecosystem angle, our biggest concern is what happens when that snow melts as the climate warms up,” Bergmann says.
The science on the health effects of microplastics is still going on. “For human health, we currently know very little,” says microplastics researcher Chelsea Rochman. "There is a lot of concern because we know we are exposed…. For wildlife, we know that microplastics may go into every level of the food chain.” Laboratory studies find some physical and chemical effects from microplastics exposure, but the findings vary by the plastic type, shape and size. “There's much more we need to do to clearly understand the effects," he says. "And further experiments will be carried out soon with application for equipment and financial support approved.”
Even worse is the threat from airborne nanoplastics in the area—too small to be noticed and may actually enter cells. Research on that also has been conducted and it could be a bigger problem, according to Rochman.
1. What is the data in paragraph 2 used to show?A.Visitors rarely step into the Arctic. | B.Sea ice is more polluted than deep sea. |
C.Microplastics are everywhere in the world. | D.The Arctic suffers serious microplastics pollution. |
A.Microplastics' entering the water ecosystem. | B.Human beings' breathing microplastics in. |
C.Wildlife's being threatened by micropollutants. | D.Microplastics pollution's worsening global warming. |
A.Their experiments lack financial support. | B.Effects of microplastics exposure are unknown. |
C.Animals are in a more risky situation than man. | D.Microplastics' effects on health require more study. |
A.Damage of microplastics to health. | B.Appeals for environmental protection. |
C.Findings about nanoplastics in the Arctic. | D.Measures to solve microplastics pollution. |
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【推荐1】Choosing to forget something might take more mental effort than trying to remember it, researchers at The University of Texas discovered. Their findings suggest that in order to forget an unwanted experience, more attention should be focused on it.
“Decades of research has shown that we have the ability to forget something out of our own free will, but how our brains do that is still being questioned. Once we can figure out how memories are weakened and come up with ways to control this, we can design treatment to help people rid themselves of unwanted memories.” said Jarrod Lewis-Peacock, the study's senior author.
Memories are energetic constructions of the brain that regularly get updated, adjusted and reorganized through experience. The brain is constantly remembering and forgetting information—and much of this happens automatically during sleep.
Their findings not only confirmed that humans have the ability to control what they forget, but that successful intentional forgetting requires more activity than what is required to remember.
“A proper level of brain activity is important to this forgetting mechanism (机制). Too strong, it will strengthen the memory; too weak, you won’t change it,” said Tracy Wang, lead author of the study. “Importantly, it's the intention to forget that increases the activation of the memory, and when this activation (激活) hits the “proper level” sweet spot, that's when it leads to later forgetting of that experience”.
The researchers also found that participants were more likely to forget scenes than faces. “We're learning how these mechanisms in our brain respond to different types of information, and it will take a lot of further research before we understand how to use our ability to forget,” said Lewis-Peacock. “Hopefully we can find out how we process and get rid of those really strong memories, which can have a powerful effect on our health and well-being.”
1. What remains a puzzle to researchers?A.How our memories can be strengthened. |
B.How our brains voluntarily forget something. |
C.What effect unwanted memories have on our brains. |
D.Whether our brains can voluntarily forget something. |
A.Casual. | B.Unpredictable. |
C.Active. | D.Permanent. |
A.it requires less attention to forget than to remember |
B.the more active the brain is, the faster it forgets |
C.humans can't keep memories under control |
D.humans forget faces less easily than scenes |
A.What It Takes to Forget an Unwanted Experience |
B.Strong Memories Have a Great Influence on Health |
C.Forgetting Uses More Brain Power than Remembering. |
D.How to Train Our Brains to Voluntarily Forget Something |
【推荐2】Stop those negative thoughts! When it comes to brain power, it appears your thoughts matter. That was the eye-opening conclusion of a study published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
For this study, scientists carefully measured the cognitive(认知)function of 292 middle-aged to older people over a four-year period. The cognitive assessments included measures of memory, attention and language.
The study subjects(实验对象)had their thinking patterns regularly monitored by responding to a series of questions over two of the four years. The thought-pattem questionnaires were designed to identify repetitive negative thinking (RNT for short). RNT includes often thinking about negative past events as well as future sources of anxiety.
About a third of the study subjects had PET scans(正电子发射计算机断层扫描)of their brains tomeasure levels of the abnormal brain protcins, tau and amyloid. Tau and amyloid build up in people affected with Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings? Study subjects with greater RNT-these repetitive negative thought patterns-exhibited a clear decrease in cognitive function and memory over the four-year period. What’s more, they had more tau and amyloid built up in their brains. It is well-documented that our thoughts have powerful, direct effects on our bodies, so these results aren’t surprising.
Thankfully, studies show that we can change our thought patterns through mental-training practices, with meditation(冥想)documented to be one of the very best.
As someone who often got trapped in negative memories of the remote past, I can speak personally to the remarkable power of meditation to relieve this destructive thinking pattern, and I encourage everyone to explore this practice. I meditate every day and gratefully achieve that goal about 90% of the time.
Feel free to share this post with friends and loved ones because one of the greatest gifts we can give is the gift of better health. Enjoy!
1. How is the subjects’ RNT determined?A.By measuring their blood level. |
B.By analyzing their questionnaires. |
C.By monitoring their behaviors. |
D.By examining their signs of diseases. |
A.Forgetting the negative past. |
B.Changeable thinking patterns. |
C.Worse body shape. |
D.Poorer brain function. |
A.Having brain scanned regularly. |
B.Buiding up our strength. |
C.Changing our study pattern. |
D.Practicing mental training. |
A.Favorable. | B.Doubtful. | C.Reserved. | D.Unclear. |
【推荐3】Like a phoenix (凤凰), some stars may burst to life covered in “ash,” rising from the remains of stars that had previously passed on.
Two fireballs covered in carbon and oxygen, ashy byproducts of helium fusion (氦聚变), belong to a new class of stars, researchers report in the March Monthly Notices. Though these burning objects are not the first stars found covered in carbon and oxygen, they are the first discovered to have helium-burning cores.
“That merger (并合) tells you the star must have evolved differently,” says study author Nicole Reindl.
The stars may have formed from the merger of two white dwarfs (白矮星), the remaining hearts of stars that exhausted their fuel, Reindl further explains. One of the two was rich in helium, while the other contained lots of carbon and oxygen. These two white dwarfs had already been orbiting one another, but gradually drew together. Eventually the helium-rich white dwarf “ate” its partner, leaving carbon and oxygen all over its surface, just as a messy child might get food all over their face.
Such a merger would have produced a star covered in carbon and oxygen to burn nuclear fusion in its core again, says Tiara Battich, a German astrophysicist.
To test this idea, Battich copied the evolution, death and eventual merger of two stars on his computer and simulated (模拟) the process. He found that putting together a carbon-and-oxygen-rich white dwarf and a more massive helium one could explain the compositions of the two stars observed by Reindl and her colleagues.
“But this should happen very rarely,” Battich says. In most cases the opposite should occur, because carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones. For the rarer case to occur, two stars slightly more massive than the sun must have formed at just the right distance and the right time.
"The origins story Battich proposes demands a very specific and unusual set of circumstances, " says Simon Blouin, a Canadian astrophysicist. “But in the end, it makes sense.”
1. What’s the newest discovery of the merger of two stars?A.It produces a mass of helium ash. |
B.It possesses a helium-burning core. |
C.It is covered in carbon and oxygen. |
D.It makes an oxygen atmosphere for life. |
A.By co-working with Rcindl’s team. |
B.By making astronomic observations. |
C.By building models on his computer. |
D.By testing the two stars’ compositions. |
A.the carbon-oxygen white dwarf “ate” the helium one |
B.the helium white dwarf “ate” the carbon-oxygen one |
C.helium white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones |
D.carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones |
A.The formation of stars makes sense. |
B.The burning of stars brings them to life. |
C.Stars inspire scientists to reflect on the universe. |
D.Star mergers can unfold in more than one way. |
【推荐1】A strong sense of smell is a key component of a healthy and enjoyable life. Yet our sense of smell is in decline as a result of an unnoticed threat to our health: air pollution.
Scientists are finding that anosmia, a loss of the sense of smell, is becoming a widespread problem among people of all ages exposed to PM2. 5 pollutants constantly, which are tiny particles (微粒) that can enter our bodies with every breath we take.
The reason, they suggest, is that the olfactory bulbs (嗅球), which are located in our noses and packed with nerve endings, are affected by exposure to air pollution. The tiny particles cause illness either in the bulbs themselves or in the brain, impacting our sense of smell over time, “Our data show the risk of developing anosmia with constant particulate pollution is 1.6 to 1.7 times higher,” says Ramanathan, a doctor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, America.
Ramanathan is an author of a recent study of nearly 2,700 patients, a fifth of whom had anosmia despite many of them being non- smokers.’ When he and his colleagues looked into the backgrounds of the affected patients, they found most of them lived in neighborhoods with significantly higher levels of air pollution.
The findings prove other studies with similar findings. One of these studies, conducted in a town in Italy, found that more than 200 teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25 suffered olfactory damage as a result of exposure to NO2, a common component in traf-fic emissions. “This is alarming as olfactory loss affects patient safety, well-being, and it is a predictor of poor health,” says Ramanathan.
Yet the loss of a sense of smell is a condition that is often overlooked though it can bring about numerous health problems. A sense of smell is linked to memory as well and life is a lot less fun without it. “People don’t remember what the pastry that they ate in childhood looked like, but they remember what the shop smelled like,” says Ramanathan.
1. How air pollution negatively influences our sense of smell!?A.It blocks the inside transport of information. |
B.It prevents the nerve system functioning normally. |
C.It leads to the brain requiring more time to respond. |
D.It results in diseases in the olfactory bulbs or the brain, |
A.Air pollution can rob us of our sense of smell. |
B.Smokers are more likely to suffer from anosmia. |
C.Traffic emissions contribute a lot to air pollution. |
D.Exposure to PM2.5 pollutants occasionally is harmless. |
A.Confusing and astonishing. | B.Complicated but treatable. |
C.Critical and concerning. | D.Disturbing but temporary. |
A.A travel brochure. | B.A science website. |
C.A biology textbook. | D.An art magazine. |
【推荐2】The World Health Organization warns that millions of people are dying every year from indoor air pollution. The WHO finds that poor cooking, heating and lighting technologies are killing millions of people each year. Indoor air pollution results from the use of dangerous fuels and cookstoves in the home. To help fight the problem, the WHO announces new guidelines aimed at reducing household pollutants.
WHO officials say nearly three billion people are unable to use clean fuels and technologies for cooking, heating and lighting. And they say more than seven million people die from exposure(暴露)to indoor or outdoor air pollution each year. Of that number, the WHO says about 4.3 million people die from household air pollution given off by simple coal cookstoves. WHO officials say indoor pollution leads to early death from strokes, heart and lung disease. The main victims(受害者)are women and girls in developing countries, where they usually stay at home and do the household work.
Carlos Dora, an official of the WHO, says people should not use unprocessed coal and kerosene indoors. He says opening a window or door to let out the harmful air will not improve the situation. It will only pollute the outdoors.
Nigel Bruce is a professor of Public Health at the University of Liverpool. He says researchers are developing good cookstoves and other equipment to burn fuels in a more efficient way.
WHO experts note some new, safe and low-cost technologies that could help are already available. In India, you can buy an induction cooker(电磁炉)for about $ 8.00. And in Africa you can buy a solar lamp for less than $ 1.00. But, this, the WHO says, is just a start. It is urging developing countries to use cleaner fuels and increase access to cleaner and more modern cooking and heating equipment.
1. What does the underlined phrase “the problem” in paragraph 1 refer to?A.Indoor air pollution. | B.Cooking habits. |
C.Poor cookstoves. | D.Use of natural gas. |
A.They are very weak. |
B.They are more sensitive to the indoor pollution. |
C.They are exposed to the indoor pollution more. |
D.They seldom do exercise outdoors. |
A.To open a window while cooking. |
B.To use unprocessed coal indoors. |
C.To promote the cleaner and modern cooking equipment. |
D.To popularize the traditional cookstoves at home. |
A.How to prevent pollution |
B.How to protect women and girls |
C.Indoor pollution kills millions each year |
D.The importance of health in developing countries |
【推荐3】The world’s coral reefs are in bad shape. Climate change has led to coral whitening. Overfishing has disturbed the ecosystems that keep reefs healthy. Poisonous runoffs from human industry are destroying the “rainforests of the sea.” A new study has highlighted another threat to coral reefs:plastics.
Researchers analyzed corals from reefs in Southeast Asia and Australia. Almost everywhere they looked, they saw bits of plastic, including chip wrappers, Q-tips, garbage bags.
The team estimates that at least 11 billion plastic items are trapped in coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific and that number is increasing alarmingly. This could spell disaster for the world’s reefs. The likelihood of the corals developing a disease jumps from 4 to 89 percent when corals come into contact with plastics.
Further investigations are needed to determine precisely how and why plastics make coral open to different diseases. But it seems that plastic debris(碎片)slices open the skin of the corals, exposing them to bacteria.
“Plastic debris can cause damage to coral tissues by accelerating invasion of bacteria or by exhausting resources for immune system function during wound-healing processes,” the authors of the study write. Drew Harvell, co-author of the study, says that plastics also “shade the light coral needs and cut off water flow.”
It is vital to preserve the health of coral reefs for a number of reasons. Many marine creatures make their homes within the reefs. Reefs also protect coastlines from waves and tropical storms, support fishing industries and generate billions of dollars for the worldwide tourism industry every year.
Throughout the research, scientists noticed that the plastics problem was not evenly distributed. Reefs near Indonesia had the highest amount of plastic rubbish, while reefs near Australia had the lowest. This could be because Australia has the best waste removal system. It suggests that there is a relatively easy fix to the issue.
“We can clean up the problem,” Harvell told Fears. “It’s so much easier than climate change.”
1. What does the underlined part in the first paragraph refer to?A.coral reefs | B.ecosystems |
C.runoffs from human industry | D.plastics |
A.By cutting off the food supply. |
B.By bringing bacteria to the sea. |
C.By speeding up the immune system function. |
D.By hurting the facial tissue and exposing them to diseases. |
A.To advertise for the waste removal system. |
B.To show optimism about solving the plastics problem. |
C.To praise the efforts made by the Australian government. |
D.To emphasize the importance of dealing with plastics problem. |
A.Threats to Coral Reefs. | B.Plastics Endangers Coral Reefs. |
C.Coral Reefs and Climate Change. | D.Protecting Coral Reefs for Our Future. |
【推荐1】Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which has been transporting all astronauts to and from the International Space Station(ISS)since 2011, typically carries a crew of three. However, the MS-14 capsule launched(发射)from a Russian spaceport in southern Kazakhstan on August 22, 2019, had just one passenger—a human-like robot named Skybot F-850.
The robot is the latest version of Russia’s FEDOR robots, which were initially designed to help with search and rescue efforts. Skybot is good at many human skills, including driving a car, having short conversations, and even telling jokes. But since it lacks some special sills, the spacecraft to the ISS was piloted from the ground by scientists from Russia’s space Agency. Roscosmos.
The six-foot-tall, 350-pound robot had another important task while on board. Without risking the lives of human astronauts, it helped Roscosmos researchers test the safety and flight experience of the new Soyuz-2.1, a carrier rocket, which carried the spacecraft into orbit. The feedback(反馈)will be important in determining if the rocket is safe to transport future human crews to space.
Though the launch into orbit went smoothly, Skybot’s arrival at the ISS was delayed by three days, from August 24 to August 27. The delay didn’t seem to bother the robot, which announced its arrival, “Sorry about the delay. Met with traffic. Ready to work now.”
Skybot’s two-week task is largely a test to measure its ability to work effectively in microgravity, and includes simple tasks like using tools. If all goes well, Russia hopes to send more advanced versions of the FEDOR robots to help astronauts with special tasks.
Earlier this year, the US space agency launched two little robots called Astrobees to help astronauts with daily chores, like finding lost pieces of equipment. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency’s social AI-powered CIMON spent a year assisting astronauts, before returning to Earth on August 27, 2019.
1. What is Skybot F-850 unable to do?A.Drive a vehicle like humans. | B.Conduct short conversations. |
C.Say something funny to people. | D.Pilot the spacecraft to the ISS. |
A.Two days. | B.Three days. |
C.Five days. | D.Fourteen days. |
A.is bound to take the place of human crews |
B.isn’t the first robot to help at the space station |
C.worked with two other robots to assist astronauts |
D.was launched to measure its security and flexibility |
A.A science experiment. | B.A news report. |
C.A technology guidebook. | D.A research paper. |
【推荐2】China's space program took a major leap recently when it successfully landed the Zhurong rover(登防车) on Mars marking the country's first landing on another planet. Teams then rolled the rove onto the Martian ground and begin a mission to search for evidence of water and signs of past life.
The touchdown makes China the second county in history to land a rover on the surface of Mars. After months in orbit around the red planet, the Tianywen-l Spacecraft released the Zhurong rover for a landing in Utopia Planitia, a vast plain that may once have been covered by an ancient Martian ocean.
“Landing safely on Mars is a huge challenge, especially for China's first soft landing attempt," said Long Xiao, a scientist at the China University of Geosciences, "But it is a necessary step for Mars and deep-space exploration."
Mars is significantly harder to land on than the moon, says Michel Blanc at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in France. But China has had a series of successful lunar missions that prepared it for a Mars landing.
China will openly share the data from Tianwen-1 and Zhurong the same way it has shared data from its lunar exploration missions, Long says, benefiting scientists around the world.
The mission will also set the stage for China’s next planned voyage to Mars---a sample---return attempt scheduled to launch around 2028.Beyond Mars, the country has plans to launch a Jupiter probe(探测仪), including a possible landing on the moon Callisto, to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid(小行星), and to send a pair of spacecraft toward the edges of the solar system.
“In the age of ocean exploration, China has a history of Zheng He's voyages to Southeast Asia and Africa," says Zhang Xiaoping at the Macau University of Science and Technology, referring to early 15th-century explorations. Zhang views China's Mars mission as a continuation of these Ming Dynasty journeys.
1. What can be known about the Zhurong hovers?A.It lands in an ocean on Mars. |
B.It provides evidence of life on Mars. |
C.It was transported to Mars by Tianwen-1. |
D.It marks the first human exploration on Mars. |
A.Lunar exploration is more difficult than Mars exploration. |
B.China made successful soft Manding attempts on Mars before. |
C.China's latest space exploration can benefit the whole world. |
D.Mars exploration is the significant step to prepare for lunar exploration. |
A.The specific task of Tianwen-1. |
B.The background of Mars exploration. |
C.The timeline of China's lunar exploration. |
D.The plan for China's further space exploration. |
A.To compare him with other explorers in history. |
B.To highlight the significance of Mars exploration. |
C.To praise his great achievement in ocean exploration. |
D.To inspire the readers' imagination in space exploration. |
【推荐3】When Peng Liyuan stepped off the plane in Moscow, the whole world wanted to know who dressed the elegant first lady. The reporter released the secret—Ma Ke.
Peng Liyuan has been wearing Ma Ke's designs for more than a decade, a fact that was only highlighted recently when she was on her first state visit, accompanying her husband President Xi Jinping. The elegant and attractive Peng, formerly a popular singer, has been compared with the US’ first lady Michelle Obama and France’s Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, since stepping off the airplane in Moscow on March 22. Suddenly, everyone was curious to know more about the first lady’s wardrobe.
Even so, Ma prefers a low-key approach. “If you eat a tasty egg why would you want to see the hen?” she says of all the media attention.
Ma’s relationship with Peng began 10 years ago after a concert in Guangzhou when a reporter told Peng she knew the designer behind the label Exception de Mixmind. Peng asked for an introduction because she was a fan of Ma’s designs and had been wearing them for years.
The two naturally became friends. Ma says: “The painting reflects the painter, and clothes reflect both the designer and the wearer. Someone desires fame and wealth, or love and sympathy; what you have in your heart is reflected in the design. Those who don’t share my philosophy won’t buy my clothes. Peng is a caring person, devoted to charity and environmental protection, which is exactly what I’m doing now.”
However, regardless of the brand, Peng’s support of Chinese labels has surprised millions of Chinese who favor foreign fashion brands.
“Instead she presented a vision of Chinese fashion, desiring to bring Chinese designers to the world stage,” says a western designer.
The first lady’s double-breasted coat and her black leather handbag aren’t available at any of Exception’s shops, though Exception’s physical stores do have seen a rising number of visitors.
1. The passage mainly discusses _________.A.the designer of the first lady Peng Liyuan’s dress, Ma Ke |
B.the friendship between Peng Liyuan and her designer |
C.Peng Liyuan’s clothes on her first state visit |
D.the reactions to Peng Liyuan’s first visit to Moscow |
A.it is hard to explain “Which came first, the egg or the hen?” |
B.paying such great attention to her was unnecessary |
C.the outcome was more important than the process |
D.her dissatisfaction with the media attention on her dress |
A.First ladies compete with each other whenever they are together. |
B.Peng’s suits can be bought in Ma Ke’s clothes stores. |
C.Ma Ke offered to design the first lady’s clothes through her friends. |
D.Peng had liked Ma’s designs long before she got to know her in the flesh. |
A.Peng wears the dress designed by a Chinese designer probably to support Chinese brands. |
B.Many citizens found Peng Liyuan’s choice quite unexpected. |
C.Black leather handbags like Peng’s are widely sold in bag stores in big cities. |
D.After Peng Liyuan’s visit to Moscow Ma Ke’s clothes became more popular. |