【推荐1】What kind of people can become scientists? When a group of researchers posed that question to ninth-and l0th-graders, almost every student gave such responses as “People who work hard“ or Anyone who seems interested in the field of science. ”

Many of these same students struggled to imagine themselves as scientists, citing concerns such as “I’m not good at science” and “Even if I work hard, I will not do well. “It’s easy for them to see a scientists work as arising from an inborn talent.

But for high school students, learning more about some struggles of scientists can help students feel more motivated to learn science. Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University and the University of Washington designed an intervention to change students’ beliefs that scientific achievement depends on ability rather than effort by exposing students to stories of how accomplished scientists struggled and overcame challenges in their scientific efforts.

During the study, the students read one of three types of stories about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Michael Faraday. Intellectual struggle stories: stories about how scientists “ struggled intellectually, ” such as making mistakes while addressing a scientific problem and learning from them. Life struggle stories: stories about how scientists struggled in their personal lives, such as not giving up in the face of poverty or lack of family support. Achievement stories: stories about how scientists made great discoveries, without any discussion of coexisting challenges.

Researchers found that students who heard either type of “struggle stories” improved their science performance after intervention, compared to students in the control group. The effect was especially pronounced for lower-performing students, for whom exposure to struggling stories led to significantly better science-class performance than low-performing students who read achievement stories. In addition, students who read struggle stories reported feeling more personally connected to the scientists. By recognizing a scientist’s struggles and introducing the growth mindset he or she applied to accomplish great works, the students were able to empathize (共情) with the scientists during their own struggles.

1. Why do students fail to imagine themselves as scientists?

A．They lack interest in science.	B．They are short of confidence.
C．They don’t have inborn talent.	D．They have no ability to study science.

2. What’s the purpose of the intervention?

A．To introduce some inspirational stories to students.

B．To expose students to scientists’great achievements.

C．To ensure students will become scientists in the future.

D．To clear students’ misunderstandings of scientific work.

3. The underlined word “pronounced” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.

A．noticeable

B．doubtful

C．minimal

D．long-lasting

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

A．Science Ability Has Nothing to Do with Efforts

B．Some Famous Achievement Stories

C．Scientists’ Struggle Stories Can Influence Readers’ Beliefs

D．How to Become a Scientist

【推荐2】Of all the creatures on the planet, the narwhal (独角鲸) is one of the strangest looking. It’s a whale which has a long tooth coming out of its head; that’s how it got its nickname, the unicorn (独角兽) of the sea. They live in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Canada, Russia and East Greenland. However, experts say some populations of narwhal could be extinct by 2025, and it’s all because of noise pollution.

Narwhals rely on echolocation (回声定位), which they use to find food and confirm their surroundings. The animal produces a sound wave which springs from an object. They pick this reflected sound up through their lower jaw, and information on features like size and speed passes to their ears.

However, increase in human activity in the sea, as well as climate change, has resulted in the Arctic Ocean becoming noisier, which means it’s more difficult for narwhals to rely on sound. Susanna Blackwell, who studies the effects of underwater noise on sea animals, told the BBC that there is noisier activity in the Arctic Ocean than ever because, as sea ice melts, new routes are opening. And while icebergs breaking have been part of the ocean sound for hundreds of years, man-made noise is much harder for animals to adapt to, particularly as these changes are so sudden.

Research in 2023 recorded the reactions of narwhals to the imitated noises made by a guard ship. The scientists marked and tracked the creatures and found that, on hearing these sounds, they ended deep dives and stopped clicking, the echolocation signal they use for finding food underwater. This is the same reaction that narwhals have to orcas (虎鲸), who hunt them, meaning human-made noise could touch the creature’s ‘threat button’.

So, what can we do? Charlotte Findlay, a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University, says “noise is actually quite easy to solve. We need to either turn it off or turn it down.”

1. What may be the main factor for extinction of narwhals?

A．Its hunters.	B．Noise pollution.
C．Its strange appearance.	D．Climate change.

2. How does a narwhal observe its surroundings?

A．By its long tooth.	B．By diving deeper.
C．By echolocation.	D．By springing a sound.

3. Why is it difficult for narwhals to rely on sound?

A．Sea animals affect narwhals’ activities.

B．The Arctic Ocean is nosier than before.

C．Human activities cause climate change.

D．Narwhals can easily adapt to sudden changes.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Survival Threat to the Narwhal	B．Great Power of Echolocation
C．Strange Looking of the Narwhal	D．Effective Ways to Reduce Noise Pollution

【推荐3】Did you ever notice your shadow at different times of the day? Shadows change as the day goes on.

In the morning the sun makes long shadows. In the middle of the day, the sun seems to be right over your head and your shadow is very, very small. As the sun goes down in the afternoon, shadows grow very long again. But the long afternoon shadows fall in a different direction from the long morning shadows.

Long, long ago people told time by the shadows. Put a piece of paper in the sunlight. Stand a pencil in a spool in the middle of the paper. The shadow of the pencil will fall on the paper and move as the day goes on. Use a watch and every hour marks the place where the shadow falls. Now your paper is a sundial（通过太阳辨别时间的日规）and you can tell every sunny day. Just look at your paper sundial and see where the shadow falls.

1. When do shadows change?

A．Shadows change in the evening.	B．Shadows change when it is raining.
C．Shadows change as the day goes on.	D．Shadows change when it is snowing.

2. What happens to one’s shadow as the sun goes down in the afternoon?

A．He can’t see his shadow.	B．His shadow becomes long again.
C．His shadow becomes short.	D．His shadow becomes ugly.

3. What does one need to make a sundial?

A．A pencil, a watch and a spool.

B．A watch, a piece of paper and a pencil.

C．A spool, a piece of paper and a watch.

D．A piece of paper, a pencil and a spool.

【推荐1】Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students buy cars with large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, weather and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.

Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tape. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.

There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music, about country life and love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music.

1. ___ kinds of music are mentioned in this passage.

A．Two

B．Three

C．Four

D．Five

2. When pop singers ____, they will become national stars.

A．make much money	B．make a CD or tape
C．are loved by all the young people	D．are wanted to sing on the radio

3. From the passage we know that country music is about the ______.

A．common life of Americans	B．country life of and love stories
C．life of workers	D．school life of in America

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?

A．All students in America like popular music.

B．Students with cars in America don’t like to listen to music while driving.

C．Adult drivers in America listen to music all the time while driving

D．Everyone in America wants to meet pop singers wherever they go.

5. What would be ten best title for this passage?

A．American music.

B．Pop music.

C．History of music.

D．Western music.

【推荐2】It is possible to do many simple tricks with numbers. Here is one trick. It has seven steps.
First, write down your house number. For example, if your address is 73 Lemon Street, you would write down 73.
Next, double it. In other words, multiply(乘) it by two. Then, add five to this doubled number. For example, if your address was 73 and you doubled it, you would get 146. Then, if you added five, you’d get 151.
So, to repeat the first three steps, write down your house number, double it, and add five.
Fourth, multiply this number by 50. In our example here, if you multiply 151 by 50, you’ll get 7550.
The fifth step is to add your age to this total. For example, if you’re 26 years old, you should add 26 to this total. In our example here, the result would be 7550 plus 26, you’ll get 7576.
Sixth, you have to add the number of days in a year, which is 365. In our example here, 365 added to 7576 is 7941.   
The seventh and final step is this: subtract(减) 615 from the number that you have. In our example, 7941 minus 615 is 7326.
The result here, 7-3-2-6, is the trick. The first part of the number is the address and the last part of the number is the age of the person. That is, 73 is the address that we started with, and 26 is the age that we used.
If you follow these seven steps with any address and the age of any person. You will get the same result.
1. According to the trick, what number can you get if you are 16 years old and your house number is 85？

A．1685

B．8516

C．8165

D．1658

2. How can your age number appear at the last part of the result?

A．It’s really a trick.

B．By taking all the steps except Step1 and Step 2.

C．By taking Step 6 and Step 7.

D．By taking all the steps.

3. What’s the secret of the trick?

A．It’s impossible to know.

B．By taking Step 2 and Step 4, we get the formula(公式)：your address number ×2×50.

C．By taking all the steps except 1 and 2, we get the formula: 5×50+your age number+365－615="your" age number.

D．Both B and C.

【推荐3】Nola （August 21, 1974 -November 22, 2015） was a northern white rhino who lived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido, California. At her death, she was one of only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world. The other three lived in Kenya. World Rhino Day, held on September 22, is to raise awareness（意识）of the less than 30,000 other rhinos left on Earth.

“Rhinos need our help today, not tomorrow. "Nola's lead keeper Jane Kennedy said. "Last year we lost over 1,200 rhinos just in South Africa. If we continue to lose more than 1,000 rhinos a year, in 10 to 20 years all the rhinos on the earth will be gone."

Unfortunately, most animals are in danger of dying out because of humans. Kennedy says, “Humans have either poached （偷猎）animals, or because there are over seven billion of us, we've taken up too much of the world's resources." Poachers illegally hunt rhinos for their horns （角）.They sell the horns for thousands of dollars per pound, to be used for art, jewelry, and decorations. Experts believe that one rhino is poached every eight hours.

In 1975, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research started the Frozen Zoo, a program through which researchers have collected cell samples（细胞样品）from more than 8,000 different types of animals, including the northern white rhino. Scientists hope that by studying the rhino cells, they will get greater understanding of it, and will find ways to increase its numbers.

At the San Diego Zoo, children and adults are welcome to visit and speak with zookeepers to learn about rhinos. For more information, go to www.worldrhinoday.org.

1. What is the purpose of setting up a World Rhino Day?

A．To honor a rhino named Nola.

B．To draw people's attention to rhino protection.

C．To let people know the importance of wildlife protection.

D．To tell people there are still a great number of rhinos left on Earth.

2. What can we infer from paragraph 2?

A．Rhinos will die out soon.

B．The number of rhinos is increasing.

C．Rhinos are under good protection.

D．Immediate action should be taken to protect rhinos.

3. What's the main cause for the decrease of rhinos, according to Kennedy?

A．Human beings' technology.	B．The limited natural resources.
C．The pollution of the environment.	D．Diseases found on their horns.

4. In which part of a newspaper can you read such a passage?

A．Science.

B．Sports.

C．Education.

D．Business