Screen time is often considered the enemy when it comes to teaching kids to be active. However, a new research found that for 9 and 10 years old children greater social media use was related to some positive effects, including increased physical activity, less family conflict (冲突) and fewer sleep problems.
The findings come from an analysis of data from about 4,500 young people and their parents collected by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The study gathered information about how young people’s brains develop.
In the study, children self reported activities like watching TV, texting or visiting social media sites — and the time spent on each. They were also asked about whether they play mature (成年的) video games. They rated their time on them as never, once in a while and all the time. Kids and parents report on family conflict. Parents also kept track of how well the kids slept and filled out a checklist that assessed (评定) their children’s behavior.
The results haven’t been published yet, but are being presented Tuesday at the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Diego. Previous research has been done. largely in older kids or teenagers with less focus on younger kids. Communities and social networks can have beneficial effects, so kids who are using social media to build connections may see positive outcomes.
Do these findings mean that parents should ban TVs and sign their kids up for Twitter? Probably not. Psychologist Chris Ferguson of Stetson University says that the differences identified in the research are small.
1. What does the passage mainly about?| A．More screen time is needed by kids. |
| B．Screen time is the enemy of teaching kids to be active. |
| C．Parents should ban TVs and sign their kids up for Twitter. |
| D．A look at social media may have possible benefits for kids. |
| A．They carried out interviews. | B．They asked kids and parents to report. |
| C．They got the data from other scientists. | D．They downloaded the data from the Internet. |
| A．Objective. | B．Subjective. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful.. |
| A．A novel. | B．A travel guide. | C．A news report. | D．A book review. |
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【推荐1】Some bats sing just as birds and humans do. But how they learn their calls and melodies is a mystery—one that scientists will try to solve by researching the genes of more than 1,000 bat species.
The project, called Bat 1K, was announced on 14 November at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California. Its organizers also hope to learn more about the flying mammals’ echolocation ability—the ability to find directions in the dark; their strong immune systems that can defend against Ebola, a deadly virus; and their relatively long lifespans.
“The genomes of all these other species, like birds and mice, are well-understood,” says an expert at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. “But we don’t know anything about bat genes yet.”
Some bats show babbling behavior, including barks, chatter, screeches, whistles and trills, says Mirjam Knörnschild, a behavioral ecologist at the Free University of Berlin. Young bats learn the songs and other sounds from older male tutors. They use these sounds during courtship and mating, when they seek food and as they defend their territory against rivals.
Scientists have studied the vocal sounds of only about 50 bat species so far, Knörnschild says, and they know much less about bats’ communication than birds’. Four species of bat have so far been found to learn vocal sounds from each other, their fathers and other adult males, just as a child gradually learns how to speak from its parents.
Genetic studies have discovered at least one gene in bats that is linked to speech and language, called FOXP2. The gene is also known to have a role in how people learn language, and in vocal learning in song-birds. Researchers working on the Bat 1K project expect to find that other genes are also involved in communication, and that many more bat species have the ability to learn songs, calls and other sounds. “It’s not a rare trait,” Knörnschild says. “I’m becoming convinced that all bats are more or less the same in vocal learning.”
Bats’ echolocation ability has been studied for many years, partly because of its applications to sonar and radar. But scientists know very little about the vocal communication and social behaviour that drive how bats learn their songs and sounds, says Michael Yartsev, a neurobiologist at University of California, Berkeley. The study of vocal learning in bats is “nearly completely untapped”, he says—comparing it to the state of research into birdsong 60 years ago.
1. The project, Bat 1K is carried out mainly to ________.| A．do research on the genes of more bat species |
| B．research bats’ ability to find directions in the dark |
| C．study the way bats learn their calls and songs |
| D．learn more secrets about bats’ longer lifespans |
| A．scientists have studied only approximately 50 bat species so far |
| B．of all bats, only four species learn vocal sounds from each other |
| C．more than one gene linked to speech and language has been discovered |
| D．the gene FOXP2 has something to do with human language learning |
| A．quality | B．behavior | C．habit | D．gene |
| A．Scientists try to know more about bat genes. |
| B．Scientists seek keys to bats’ vocal sounds. |
| C．All bats are almost the same in vocal learning. |
| D．Bats sing just as birds and human beings do. |
【推荐2】Why does our body require warm covers but not our face when it’s cold? The following are the reasons.
Firstly, don’t forget that your head does have some insulation (隔热).
Secondly, the air temperature near your head won’t be as cold as the room, because the microclimate around your head will be warmed by heat lost from your head and by your exhaled (呼出) breath.
Then there is physiology. Your sensation of thermal (热的) comfort is primarily driven by skin temperature. This depends on blood flow to the skin. In a cool environment, the hands and feet reduce their blood flow to very low levels.
There are also differences in the impact of different body regions on the overall sensation of cold and thermal comfort. The temperature of the hands and feet dominate your overall perception of how cold you are.
| A．Remember to put a hat on. |
| B．It often has hair and is insulated by it. |
| C．The latter is warmed in the lungs to about 33℃. |
| D．There is nothing worse than going out in the cold with wet hair. |
| E．This is why you can’t fall asleep until your feet warm up in bed. |
| F．In contrast, the blood flow to the head doesn’t decrease as much. |
| G．Also, remember that the face is adapted to exposing to the elements. |
【推荐3】The sign of a healthy personal relationship is one that is equally mutual (相互的) —where you get out just as much as you put in. Nature has its own version of a healthy relationship. Known as mutualisms, they are interactions between species that are mutually beneficial for each species. One example is the interaction between plants and pollinators (传粉者), where your apple trees are pollinated and the honeybee gets nectar (花蜜) as a food reward. But how are mutualisms affected by other organisms that take those rewards without providing a service in return?
A team of researchers recently researched that question. They investigated the abilities of diverse communities of mutualists, comparing how each deals with cheaters. Cheaters are species that steal the benefits of the mutualism without providing anything in return. An example of one of nature’s cheaters is nectar robbers. Nectar-robbing bees chew through the side of flowers to feed on nectar without coming into contact with the flower parts that would result in pollination.
The researchers produced mutualisms in the lab using yeast strains (酵母菌株) that functioned as mutualist species. Each yeast strain produced a food resource to exchange with a mutualist partner. They engineered four species of each type of mutualists as well as two cheater strains that were unable to make food resources.
The researchers created communities of yeast that differed both in the number of species and the presence of cheaters. They found that communities with higher numbers of mutualist species were better able to resist the negative effects of cheaters because there were multiple species of mutualists performing the same task. If one species was lost from the community due to competing with a cheater, there were other species around to perform the task, showing that the presence of more species in a community can reduce the negative effects of cheaters.
Their results highlight the importance of having multiple mutualist species that provide similar resources or services, essentially creating a backup in case one species goes extinct. It’s similar to the relationship between grocery stores and suppliers. Grocery stores have multiple suppliers to ensure that there are always goods available should something happen to one supplier.
The future study is to explore the possibility of a mutualist species becoming a cheater. The group is testing if mutualists that perform the same function might set up an environment that allows one of those mutualist species to become a cheater since there are other mutualists around that can fill that role.
1. Which of the following can be an example of mutualism?| A．Farmers and crops. | B．Sunlight and plants. |
| C．Cities and wild animals. | D．Humans and global warming. |
| A．More communities of yeast are better than one. | B．More species of mutualists are better than one. |
| C．More species of mutualists lead to fewer cheaters. | D．More communities of yeast lead to fewer cheaters. |
| A．Nectar. | B．Honeybees. | C．Cheaters. | D．Apples. |
| A．Cheaters would become extinct. | B．Cheaters would act as mutualist species. |
| C．A mutualist species would switch to cheating. | D．Mutualist species and cheaters would work together. |
【推荐1】In the first year or so of Web business, most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market. More recently, as the Web proved to be more than a fashion, companies have started to buy and sell products and services with one another. Such business-to-business sales make sense because business people typically know what product they are looking for.
However, many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability. “Businesses need to feel they can trust the pathway between them and the suppliers,” says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research. Some companies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are given access to the company’s private Internet.
Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing. Until recently, Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to “pull” customers to sites. In the past year, however, software companies have developed tools that allow companies to “push” information directly onto consumers. Companies such as Virtual Vineyards are already starting to use similar technologies to push messages to customers about special sales, product offerings, or other events. But push technology has earned the contempt of many Web users. Online culture thinks highly of the notion that the information flowing onto the screen comes there by specific request. Once commercial promotion begins to fill the screen uninvited, the distinction between the Web and television fades. That’s a prospect that horrifies Net purists.
But it is nearly inevitable that companies on the Web will need to resort to past strategies to make money. A Web site selling the right kind of products with the right mix of interactivity, hospitality, and security will attract online customers. And the cost of computing power continues to free fall, which is a good sign for any enterprises setting up shop in silicon. People looking back 5 or 10 years from now may well wonder why so few companies took the online plunge.
1. All of the following statements are true EXCEPT that ________.| A．two major shifts in Internet commerce are mentioned in this passage |
| B．in some way, the Web acts as the pathway |
| C．“push” technology enjoys low reputation among Web users |
| D．many companies began to take the online plunge decades ago. |
| A．there should be no marketing messages in online culture |
| B．money making should be given priority on the Web |
| C．the Web should be able to function as the television set |
| D．there should be no online commercial information without requests |
| A．interactivity, hospitality and security | B．business-to-business sales |
| C．“push technology” | D．online marketing |
| A．pessimistic | B．hopeful |
| C．disappointed | D．indifferent |
【推荐2】Foldable phones are once again facing questions about their durability(耐久性).The Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola Razr are now both available to buy in the US-but early reports suggest the screens are easily damaged.
One media published photos of two layers of the Razr's display separating, affecting the touch screen. The Galaxy flip, meanwhile, boasts(自夸)a "flexible glass" display---but tests appear to show it scratching(刮擦)as easily as plastic.
In a statement, Samsung said the display had a protective layer, and had undergone extensive testing. "While the display does bend, it should be handled with care, "it said.
The Z Flip's "pretty thin glass" is one of Samsung's primary marketing messages for the new phone. But a durability test conducted by popular Zack Nelson, a regular buyer, suggested it was no more durable than soft plastic screen, and could even be dented(痕)by fingernail.
Nelson said Samsung's screen scratched exactly how plastic screen would react. "I don't know what material this is, but Samsung definitely shouldn't be calling it glass," he said. He found that the screen of the Motorola Razr scratched as easily but it is not marketed as "glass".
The Motorola Razr was put on sale 13 days ago in the US, but Raymond Wong, an editor says the flexible screen on his handset has already broken. The upper layer of the Razr's screen separated from the bottom, creating "a giant horizontal air bubble" for no apparent reason. He wrote that the fault appeared after 45-minute train ride during which the phone was in his pocket. The screen was completely warped from hinge-to-hinge with the top layer raised like a poorly applied screen protector. But Mr. Wong said that apart from the visual problem, the damage has affected the responsiveness of the touchscreen.
1. What attitude do the buyers have to the quality of Galaxy Flip and Razr?| A．Suspicious. | B．Objective. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Low price. | B．Portable style. |
| C．Extremely thin screen. | D．Protective function. |
| A．He is angry at its post-sale service. |
| B．He is strict in its screen materials. |
| C．He is disappointed at its unfair competition. |
| D．He is unsatisfied with its inexact statement. |
| A．Cheat always exists in business |
| B．Foldable phones may not be all that great |
| C．Different brands have their special features |
| D．Disadvantages of two kinds of phones |
【推荐3】Bird pattern carved on Yubi in Chinese, comes alive and circles around, while an audio guide introduces the cultural relic and the bird’s connotation (寓意). Such is the experience of watching a cultural relic through a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses at the Liangzhu Museum.
The museum displays various burial objects found in the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City in Hangzhou, showcasing the civilization of prehistoric rice agriculture and a state-level society between 3,300 B.C. and 2,300 B.C. The site was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in July 2019, providing profound and compelling evidence that Chinese civilization started 5,000 years ago.
Using AR to tell Liangzhu’s ancient story and let the young people sense and feel close to cultural relics through modern technology is an important task at the museum, making it a pioneer in using modern technology and a hot place for tourists.
“I found that most students were very curious about it, and it could inspire students to have the desire to learn more,” said Chen Xi, the AR glasses provider. “I’ve never seen this before. The illustration of the ancient wild birds above is not that clear. But with the AR glasses, I know what the ancient wild bird exactly looks like and how it is different from what we see on TV,” said Rong Mei, a visitor in her twenties. “Compared with traditional ways of appreciating a cultural relic, AR glasses guide has virtual images which help people visually understand the information behind the relic, such as in which life scenarios was the relic used, its function and its cultural connotation,” said Zhou Liming, director of the Liangzhu Museum.
From digitalization to intelligentization (智能化), the Liangzhu Museum took more than five years. It started to collect the digital information of the ruins and relics since 2015. It paves the way for the museum to deliver Liangzhu’s story through multimedia approaches to attract more people, especially the youth, as modern technology bridges the gap between young people and cultural relics.
1. What is the crucial significance of Liangzhu cultural relics?| A．Unearthing various prehistoric burial objects. |
| B．Representing the world’s earliest rice culture. |
| C．Enriching the UNESCO World Heritage List. |
| D．Confirming China’s 5,000-year-old civilization. |
| A．To inspire the curiosity of students. |
| B．To show the aim and effects of using AR glasses. |
| C．To highlight hi-tech brings people close to cultural relics. |
| D．To present opinions of appreciating cultural relics vary. |
| A．The discovery of the cultural relics. |
| B．The restoration of the ruins and relics. |
| C．The process of forming intelligentization. |
| D．The reconstruction of the Liangzhu Museum. |
| A．Stories behind the AR Glasses |
| B．Adventures in Liangzhu Museum |
| C．A New Chapter for Liangzhu Museum |
| D．An Encounter with the Prehistoric China |
【推荐1】Human’s appetite for sand could increase 45 percent within four decades, according to researchers who say unchecked consumption risks environmental damage and shortages of a key material for urban expansion. Growing demand for building sand — which is used to make concrete, glass and other vital construction materials – has already seen the rise of sand pirates (盗贼) , with dozens of islands disappearing in Indonesia as a result of casual mining.
Xiaoyang Zhong at Leiden University and his colleagues have calculated that global building sand demand will jump from 3.2 billion tonnes a year in 2020 to 4.6 billion tonnes by 2060. The figure is based on a central situation of future population rises and economic growth, and modelled using estimates of concrete and glass consumption, and the floor area needed in buildings.But there is no reliable estimate for remaining sand reserves, so it is unclear if the world can bear such a big increase. “Sand, and the sand crisis (危机), has been overlooked, creating severe environmental and social consequences. If we don’t act now, we may not have enough sand to develop our cities,” says Zhong.
However, Zhong’s team found that about half the projected consumption in 2060 could be avoided if countries take a suit of measures, including extending the lifetime of buildings, reusing concrete, creating more lightweight building designs and using other materials, such as wooden frames. According to the model, the single biggest reduction in sand use could come from more efficient (有效的) use of space: distributing less floor space per person in buildings, sharing offices, and so on. “It’s hard to say how realistic these measures are. But we want this to happen,” says Zhong.
The research only looked at sand used for glass and concrete in buildings, so is an underestimate of total future demand. Granular data on sand consumption for the 26 world regions studied is also lacking, and not detailed enough for country-level breakdowns.
Failure to act will add existing environmental pressures on reserves of sand in lakes and rivers first, but absolute shortages shouldn't be overlooked, says Zhong. “It would be very questionable if this growing demand could be met,” he says.
1. What may cause the environmental and social effects according to Zhong?| A．Sand reserves are not enough. |
| B．The sand crisis is overestimated. |
| C．Sand crisis isn’t paid much attention to. |
| D．The construction industry is lack of sand. |
| A．By reusing he building materials. |
| B．By lengthening the building’s lifetime. |
| C．By making use of space more wisely. |
| D．By preventing sand use completely. |
| A．It only studied the sand use in 26 areas. |
| B．It didn’t show the detailed data on sand use. |
| C．It didn’t take realistic measures on sand use. |
| D．It overlooked the total sand need in the future. |
| A．How we will take action to stop it. |
| B．Why its shortages are overlooked in most countries. |
| C．Whether the increasing sand need may be satisfied. |
| D．What damage the environmental pressures do to rivers. |
【推荐2】Air-crash investigators (空难调查员) Larry Vance and Anthony Brickhouse have details from certain jobs rooted in their memories. They could tell exact dates, locations, and fight numbers effortlessly Vance’s “big one” is Swiss Air Flight 11 in 1998. He was put in the position of dealing with all the families from very early on, many of whom held the hope that their relatives could have survived. All 229 passengers and crew died. Burning fabric; burning flesh. The smell catches in your throat, and stays in your mind long after you’ve left the scene. Investigations can take anywhere from days to years.
What can affect people in these jobs is the ongoing emotional damage, said Vivien Lee, a psychologist. But mental health assistance is often lacking within the industry. Evidence suggests that investigators, like first responders, can suffer from negative emotional effects, including frequent thoughts and PTSD (创伤后应激障碍) .
“One emotion of losing relatives is anger,” Brickhouse reflected. “And they’re looking to you to figure out what happened to their loved ones.” Depending on the size of the crash, that anger can come alongside a lot of international media attention.
But more often, Vance said, the questions he faces are perhaps even tougher to answer than what caused the crash. “How did my loved one die? What were they feeling? What were they seeing?” And tougher still: “Were they suffering?”
Listening to the black box recordings takes an emotional damage. He said it was more unbearable by knowing that he’s listening to the final minutes of someone’s life. Some people in his industry listen to a black box recording once and choose to never do it again, he said.
The knowledge that they’re doing an essential job can make the tougher aspects of the work a little easier. “The end result of your work is that you try to make the world a safer place, so that this doesn’t happen to somebody else,” Vance said.
1. What can be inferred about the air-crash investigators?| A．They often get throat problems. | B．They must have good memories. |
| C．They experienced the same accident. | D．They have to deal with many difficulties. |
| A．Helping them avoid air crashes. | B．Sending first respondents with them. |
| C．Offering qualified psychologists. | D．Teaching them how to communicate. |
| A．Finding the black box. | B．Answering the questions. |
| C．Smelling the burning things. | D．Investigating the cause of the crash. |
| A．Generous. | B．Easy-going. | C．Self-giving. | D．Independent. |
【推荐3】In a recent study of healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers discovered that our brains may replay memories of learning new skills when we rest.
NIH researchers have mapped out the brain activity that flows when we learn a new skill, such as playing a new song on the piano, and found that during short rest the volunteers’ brains rapidly and repeatedly replayed faster versions of the activity seen while they practiced typing a code. The more a volunteer replayed the activity the better they performed during subsequent practice sessions.
The study was conducted at the NIH Clinical Center. The team of Dr. Cohen, M.D. , senior investigator at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), used a highly sensitive scanning technique to record the brain waves of 33 healthy, right-handed volunteers as they learned to type a five-digit test code with their left hands. The subjects sat in a chair and under the scanner’s long, cone-shaped cap. An experiment began when a subject was shown the code “41234” on a screen and asked to type it out as many times as possible for 10 seconds and then take a 10 second break. Subjects were asked to repeat this cycle of alternating (交替的) practice and rest sessions a total of 35 times.
During the first few trials, the speed at which subjects correctly typed the code improved dramatically and then leveled off around the 11th cycle. In a previous study, Dr. Cohen’s team showed that most of these gains happened during short rests, and not when the subjects were typing. Moreover, the gains were greater than those made after a night’s sleep and were related with a decrease in the size of brain waves, called beta rhythms. In this new report, the researchers searched for something different in the subjects’ brain waves.
“We wanted to explore the mechanisms (机制) behind memory strengthening seen during wakeful rest. Several forms of memory appear to rely on the replaying of neural (神经的) activity, so we decided to test this idea out for procedural skill learning,” said Ethan R. Buch, Ph.D., a staff scientist on Dr. Cohen’s team and leader of the study. To do this, Dr. Buch developed a computer program which allowed the team to understand the brain wave activity associated with typing each number in the test code.
Interestingly, they found that the more a volunteer replayed, the better their performance was. “We were a bit surprised by these last results. Overall, our results support the idea that the replay activity during waking rest may be a powerful tool that researchers can use to help individuals learn new skills faster and possibly facilitate recovery from stroke.” said Dr. Cohen.
1. What have NIH researchers recently found?| A．The brain activity slowly flows when we learn a new skill. |
| B．The value of short practice sessions can’t be overestimated. |
| C．Short rest makes no difference to the neural replay of the activity. |
| D．The frequency of brain replay contributes to practice performances. |
| A．The process of the research. |
| B．The facilities of the research. |
| C．The application of the research. |
| D．The preparations of the research. |
| A．To distinguish the first 11 cycles from the later ones. |
| B．To confirm the role of neural replay in skill learning. |
| C．To explore the potential effects of procedural learning. |
| D．To find out the reasons for the changes in brain waves. |
| A．Acceptable. |
| B．Promising. |
| C．Shallow. |
| D．Dismissive. |
