LONDON(AP)—Thousands of Britain’s iconic red phone boxes will be protected from removal under new rules, the U. K. ’s telecommunications regulator said Tuesday. The public payphone boxes may look like out—of—date relics in an age of common smartphones, but regulator Ofcom said they can still be a“lifeline”for people in need.
The regulator is proposing rules to prevent 5, 000 call boxes in areas with poor mobile coverage from being closed down. It said that phone booths in areas considered accident or suicide hotspots, and those that have had more than 52 calls made from them in the past 12 months, would also meet the criteria.
Ofcom said there are still around 21, 000 phone boxes across the country, and that almost 150, 000 calls to emergency services were made from phone boxes from May 2019 to May 2020. Some 45, 000 calls were also made to other helplines like the Samaritans.
“Some of the call boxes we plan to protect are used to make relatively low numbers of calls. But if one of those calls is from an unhappy child, or an accident victim or someone trying to kill himself, that public phone line can be a lifeline at a time of great need, ”said Selina Chadha, Ofcom’s director of connectivity. “We also want to make sure that people without mobile coverage, often in rural areas, can still make calls, ”she added.
BT Group, formerly British Telecom, says nearly half of the phone boxes in the U. K. have been removed due to the growth of the mobile phone industry. It said even if a phone box is scheduled for decommission, it can be adopted by its local community under a plan that lets governments or organizations buy the call box for just￡1. So far more than 6, 000 booths have been converted to mini community libraries, art galleries or storage units for life—saving public defibrillators(心脏除颤器).
1. Why is Britain making new regulations?| A．To reduce accident rates. | B．To popularize cell phones. |
| C．To increase calls from the boxes. | D．To protect its public phone boxes. |
| A．The overuse of emergency services. | B．The coverage of public phone boxes. |
| C．The sharp drop in calls from the boxes. | D．The importance of public phone boxes. |
| A．Change. | B．Removal. | C．Arrival. | D．Share. |
| A．They will cover the communities. | B．They will be sold cheaply to the locals. |
| C．They will be adapted for different uses. | D．They will serve as government agencies. |
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【推荐1】Residents(居民) in the poorest areas in the U.S. face a life expectancy(平均寿命) up to decade shorter than those in the wealthiest areas, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers from East Tennessee State University wanted to better understand how socioeconomic status was associated with health outcomes. To find out, they divided the country’s 3,141 areas into 50 new “states” (with 2 percent of the areas in each) based on household income rather than on geography.
The researchers broke down the data by county（郡，县） since they found state-level data may hide some “effect of socioeconomic differences on both the best-off and worst-off counties.” They then examined health data from the wealthiest and poorest “states” (top and bottom 2 percent) to see how residents differed on factors like smoking, clinical care and excessive(过多的) drinking. Researchers found that there was nearly a 10-year gap in the life expectancy of men with an average of 79.3 years in the wealthy counties compared to 69.8 years in the poorest. For women, the difference was slightly less：83 years in the wealthiest counties and 76 years in the poorest.
The study authors were cautious that while they found a connection between socioeconomic status and health outcomes, they did not analyze cause and effect. But they suggest that the data shows how policy makers should not just focus on state-wide initiatives (主动性) but more targeted efforts to help those most at risk. “With limited resources, methods of knowing the poorest areas exactly can be quite significant in the equal distribution (分配)of resources and programs to those communities that are in the greatest need,’’ the study authors wrote.
1. How did Researchers divide the areas?| A．By social status | B．By income |
| C．By health | D．By living places |
| A．The women difference is less than the man in life expectancy. |
| B．The wealthiest “state” like hiding their wealth. |
| C．Most health data is unbelievable. |
| D．Most poorest “state” smoke and drink a lot. |
| A．The researchers think their study is perfect. |
| B．People still don’t know the cause of life expectancy. |
| C．The government should learn something from the study. |
| D．The American resources distribution is not fair at all. |
| A．Ways to have a long life expectancy |
| B．Great income differences in the USA |
| C．The health problem in the USA |
| D．Men in richest 10 years longer in poorest |
【推荐2】Fathers in France will now get double the paid paternity leave. President Emmanuel Macron announced this week. Starting next summer, dads will receive 28 days paid leave. When a baby arrives in the world, there is no reason it should be just the mother who takes ('are of it, Macron said in the announcement.
It stands in sharp contrast to the dire state of paternity leave in the US, where there is no federal paid parental leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act grants some mothers and fathers the ability to lake 12 weeks unpaid leave and return to a protected job, depending on the size and type of the company. But the law leaves many parents at the mercy of the state in which they live (only three, California, New Jersey. and Rhode Island, grant paid leave) or their employers' individual plans.
According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, only 9 percent of US companies offer paid paternity leave to all male employees. Some companies offer more paid leave for mothers and less for fathers, essentially ensuring that taking care of a new child is a woman's responsibility.
Even when paternity leave is an option, many fathers don't take it, due to fear of losing their standing—or, even worse, their job. In fact, 76 percent of fathers are back to work within a week after the birth or adoption of a child.
Studies have shown that paternity leave can set the tone for fathers' long-term relationships with their children and families. Children whose fathers took at least two weeks of paternity leave reported feeling closer to their dads even nine years later, according to a joint study of sociology professors at Ball State University and Ohio State University, which also found that paternity leave is linked to lower divorce rates. In Europe, data found that fathers are “more likely to remain involved in parenting and to equally divide household chores with their partners if they take time off after their children arrive”.
1. How long can French fathers rest before announcement?| A．28 days. | B．14 days. | C．12 weeks. | D．4 weeks. |
| A．Horrible. | B．Wonderful. | C．Acceptable. | D．Positive. |
| A．They may take the risk of being unemployed. |
| B．It's women's duty to look after the new born child. |
| C．Their companies don't have the right to let fathers take it. |
| D．They are unwilling to accompany their wives and children. |
| A．Changes of the relationship of the family. |
| B．A science report made by sociology professors. |
| C．Some advantages of fathers' taking paternity leave. |
| D．The benefits of fathers' sharing household chores. |
【推荐3】Southern Europe is facing a water crisis that could lead to a decrease in food production, especially in agriculture. Decreasing agricultural production in Europe and reduced water resources are future dangers as worldwide temperatures continue to rise, the world's top climate scientists say.
Part of the Vinuela reservoir (水库) is seen dry due to lack of rain in La Vinuela, southern Spain, Feb. 22,2022. Declining agricultural production and reduced water resources are key risks as global temperatures continue to rise.
Spain is facing one of the driest winters on record. Juan Camacho，a farmer in the southern province of Granada，said," We are facing a drastic situation." In Portugal，authorities have limited the use of some reservoirs for hydroelectric（水力发电的）power and irrigation as the country experiences an unusual winter drought.
Located between Costa del Sol and the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain, Montes' land should have plenty of water. But with 41 percent less rain than average since October, dams contain almost no water. Private sources of water---such as ponds---that are supposed to last farmers through summer are empty.
"As farmers, we are used to dealing with drought," said Montes, who learned the job from his father when he was 14."But every year we see less and less rain. I fear for my livelihood."
As warming rises faster in Europe than the worldwide average, experts painted a picture of a divided continent. They suggest that the south would become increasingly dry and the north could take on a Mediterranean (地中海的) climate that might provide some increased crop production and forest growth, but with risks of its own.
Rachel Licker, a climate expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Associated Press, There are some vegetables and warm climate crops that might see benefits in the short term. The major crops that are exported and really form the basis of a lot of the economy are the ones that are likely to be negatively affected."
1. What is a major factor of a water crisis according to the passage？| A．Improper management. | B．Polluted environment. |
| C．Limited use of reservoirs. | D．A warmer climate. |
| A．Impressive. | B．Serious. | C．Positive. | D．Attractive. |
| A．This is the first time that the farmers have suffered so much from the drought. |
| B．Montes 'land has plenty of water because it has not been affected by the drought. |
| C．Northern Europe relatively doesn't suffer a lot partly due to the Mediterranean climate. |
| D．Private sources of water which include ponds can help farmers last through summer. |
| A．Droughts in Southern Europe | B．Reduced Food Production |
| C．A Water Crisis Hit Europe | D．Natural Disaster Strikes Often |
【推荐1】They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon, and she gave it to them. With little more than a pencil, a ruler and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson, who died at 101 on Monday, calculated (计算) the track that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong's history—making moonwalk, let it return to Earth.
Yet throughout Mrs. Johnson's 33 years in NASA and for decades afterwards, almost no one knew her name.
Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated, extremely capable yet largely unrecognized women who, well before the modern feminist (女权) movement, worked as NASA mathematicians. But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung. For some years at mid-century, the black women were forced to a double segregation (隔离). They were kept separate from the much large group of white women who in turn were segregated from the mathematicians and engineers.
Mrs. Johnson broke barriers at NASA. In old age, Mrs. Johnson became the most celebrated of black women who served as mathematicians for the space agency. Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film “Hidden Figures,” which was nominated (提名) for three Oscars, including Best Picture.
In 2017, NASA devoted a building in her honor. That year, The Washington Post described her as “the most celebrated of the computers” — “computers” being the term originally used to describe Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues, much as “typewriters” were used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.
She “helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space,” NASA's administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said in a statement on Monday, “even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human effort to explore space.”
As Mrs. Johnson herself was fond of saying, her term at Langley — from 1953 until her retirement in 1986 — was “a time when computers wore skirts."
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk. |
| B．Katherine Johnson’s contributions |
| C．The Apollo 11 mission to the moon. |
| D．Breakthroughs in moon exploration. |
| A．She helped invent the computer. |
| B．She was NASA's human calculator. |
| C．She calculated the track with computers. |
| D．She was quite capable of using computers. |
| A．Change the world for the better. |
| B．Use knowledge to wipe out ignorance. |
| C．Don’t judge a person by his appearance. |
| D．Never be limited by the labels given by others. |
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist. Choe found that Argentine ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I’m dead—take me away.”
But there’s a twist to Choe’s discovery. Choe says that the living ants—not just the dead ones —have this death chemical. In other words, while an ant crawls around, perhaps in a picnic or home, it’s telling other ants that it’s dead.
What keeps ants from dragging away the living ants? Choe found that Argentine ants have two additional chemicals on their bodies, and these tell nearby ants something like, “Wait—I’m not dead yet.” So Choe’s research turned up two sets of chemical signals in ants: one says, “I’m dead,” and the other set says, “I’m not dead yet.”
Other scientists have tried to figure out how ants know when another ant is dead. If an ant is knocked unconscious, for example, other ants leave it alone until it wakes up. That means ants know that unmoving ants can still be alive.
Choe suspects that when an Argentine ant dies, the chemical that says “Wait- I’m not dead yet” quickly goes away. Once that chemical is gone, only the one that says “I’m dead” is left. “It’s because the dead ant no longer smells like a living ant that it gets carried to the graveyard, not because its body releases new unique chemicals after death,” said Choe. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they drag away the body.
Understanding this behavior may help scientists figure out how to stop Argentine ants from invading new places and causing problems. Choe would like to find a way to use the newly discovered chemicals to spread ant killer to Argentine ant nests.The ants’ removal behavior is important to the overall health of the nest. “Being able to quickly remove dead individuals and other possible sources of disease is extremely important to all animals living in societies, including us,” says Choe. “Think about all the effort and money that we invest daily in waste management.”
1. The underlined word “twist” in Paragraph 3 means _____.
| A．an unexpected change | B．a clear mistake |
| C．an important key | D．a shocking conclusion |
| A．the sense of taste | B．the sense of smell |
| C．the sense of touch | D．the sense of sight |
| A．kill troublesome pests |
| B．solve the problem of endangered species |
| C．prevent further expansion of the ants’ territory |
| D．keep the balance of nature |
| A．Because it is easier to manage the living. |
| B．Because it can save money to deal with the waste. |
| C．Because it can provide more space for the living. |
| D．Because it can keep the living from suffering disease. |
| A．Dead or living? It is easy to judge |
| B．Pulling away the dead ants is a difficult task |
| C．Ant nests have great undertaking capacity |
| D．Leaving it alone or taking it away? Ants feel puzzled |
【推荐3】Birds rely on their keen sense of hearing to detect prey(猎物) and identify other birds on the basis of their songs. In fact, birds have better hearing than humans, so they hear with much more detail. So how do birds hear?
Birds and humans both have an inner ear and a middle ear. However, birds differ from humans in that they lack an external ear structure. Where humans have an outer ear organ, birds have a funnel-shaped(漏斗状的) opening that functions as their outer ear, located on each side of their head. These openings are usually positioned behind and slightly below a bird’s eyes and are protected by soft feathers.
The position of a bird’s head also plays a role in its hearing abilities. Scientists have determined that noises register(显示) at different frequencies on each side of the bird’s head. Depending on the angle from which the noise originates, it registers with a certain frequency in the left eardrum(耳膜) but with a different frequency in the right eardrum. This allows the bird to locate a sound’s origin.
Let’s take a look at owls. They are known for their extremely accurate hearing, which helps them locate prey at night. This hearing ability is partly due to the unbalanced arrangement of the ear openings, with one opening being lower than the other. Sounds register in these openings at slightly different times. Owls can use this time difference, which is only 30 millionths of a second, to determine whether the sounds are coming from their left or their right. Other birds of prey have small covers in front of their ears that help them determine whether sounds are coming from above them or below them. Some owls do appear to have ears on the top of their head, but those are actually feathers controlled by small muscles under the skin that do not affect their hearing at all.
1. According to paragraph 2, what is the major difference between birds’ ears and humans’ cars?| A．Size | B．Position. | C．Structure. | D．Function. |
| A．Each side of the bird’s head. |
| B．Sound quality around the bird. |
| C．The angle from which the noise comes. |
| D．The difference in frequencies between the eardrums. |
| A．To give examples. | B．To present the main idea. |
| C．To draw a conclusion. | D．To compare different opinions. |
| A．Different Senses of Birds | B．Amazing Abilities of Birds |
| C．The Secret of Birds’ Hearing | D．The Origin of Birds’ Hearing |
