【推荐1】While your pet fish may appear to be unaware of your presence, chances are that it knows you extremely well and can probably even identify you from a crowd of human faces!

To test if this was accurate, some scientists decided to study archerfish（喷水鱼）. These animals don’t have a sophisticated（复杂的）brain that is necessary to recognize the slight differences between human facial features.

They began by presenting four archerfish with images of two human faces. Initially, the fish spit at both. However, they soon learned spitting water at the one selected by the researchers earned them a food treat. After that, they focused primarily on that image. The researchers then took the experiment one step further by introducing 44 other human faces to the mix.

To the researcher’s astonishment, the trained archerfish were able to recall the learned image almost 81% of the time. And this accuracy improved to 86% when the researchers made the identification even harder, by replacing the colored photos with a set of black and white images and hiding the shape of the head.

The results of the study suggest that though having tiny brains, archerfish may have developed high visual discrimination abilities. While it is contrary to the previous theory that a sophisticated brain is necessary to recognize human faces, the researchers believe they do not recognize faces by recalling complex facial information like gender and identity, but more likely by discriminating between detailed   patterns. Even so, the fact that these archerfish could “remember” those faces demonstrates that they have an impressive memory for details that lasts much longer than the originally-thought 3 seconds!

This is not the first time researchers have realized how “smart” fish are. Previous studies have shown that fish can recognize those fish they have “socialized” with previously, and even recall complex three-dimensional maps of their surroundings.

1. What is the purpose of the study?

A．To describe archerfish are easy to teach.

B．To tell people archerfish like to be rewarded.

C．To prove archerfish can recognize human faces.

D．To show archerfish can easily develop a habit.

2. Why did the researchers use black and white images?

A．They could get these images easily.

B．Archerfish got tired of color images.

C．They wanted to make the task more difficult.

D．These images wouldn’t get ruined by water.

3. What conclusion did researchers draw in the study?

A．Archerfish have a 3-second memory.

B．Archerfish could distinguish detailed patterns.

C．Archerfish have a special form of communication.

D．Archerfish could remember complex facial information.

4. What can we infer from the text?

A．Fish are social animals.

B．Fish are as clever as humans.

C．Fish are able to tell different shapes.

D．The results shocked the researchers.

【推荐2】PTSD(战后创伤) is sadly a common affliction(折磨) for many soldiers who have witnessed conflict, an invisible wound that continues to cause incredible suffering long after the guns have fallen silent.

“A lot of us come home without realizing we are bringing the war home with us,"said Josh Marino, a veteran (退伍兵)of the Iraq war who suffered the effects of PTSD of suicide .

“i didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” Marino said. He wrote a goodbye note, grabbed a knife and went outside for a final cigarette in the rain. But then, from the deepest depth of despair came hope. Meowing out of the bushes next to him came a stray black and white kitten (小猫) which， according to Marino, “just walked up and started rubbing up against my leg and let me pet him. I came to life again and I broke down crying. I burst into tears.”

From this accidental encounter everything changed. Marino found a new purpose in life through the friendly cat, who he named Scout, and who he credits with saving his life. "I stopped thinking about all my problems, and started thinking about all his problems, and what I could do to help him, "Marino said. The bond between them was instant，but that wasn't the end of the story

Marino has made a video of his and Scout's remarkable story of healing and heartbreak which you can watch on the Internet. The story is dedicated to showing how animals can help humans through tough times, as well as humans can help them.It is a beautiful story that is sure to tug at your heart strings, showing just how powerful the bond between humans and animals can be. We love it, and we hope you do too!

1. What can we get from the first two paragraphs?

A．Taking part in the Iraq war had bad effects on Josh Marino.

B．Josh Marino wounded badly during the Iraq war.

C．PTSD is a kind of disease which cannot be cured now.

D．PTSD usually happens after the soldiers drop their guns.

2. Why did Josh Marino suddenly burst into tears according to the passage?

A．He just couldn’t help crying.

B．The little cat gave him hope to treasure life.

C．The wild little cat attacked him so badly.

D．He suddenly realized that the cat came to help him on purpose.

3. What is the best title for the passage?

A．PTSD- a disease cured by a soldier.

B．The man and the cat.

C．A rescue between a soldier and a cat.

D．How can a cat be used to stop suicide.

【推荐3】A dog is known as man's best friend because it can enrich its owner's life in many ways.

    1     Many teenagers suffer from periods of no self-confidence as they try to deal with adolescence(青春期) .

A teenager without self-confidence may be unable to tell his parents about problems. With a dog around, it can be a huge comfort. A dog offers its unconditional love.     2    

All dogs need exercise, so taking his dog for a walk is the perfect opportunity for a teenager to get outdoors and enjoy fresh air and physical activity.Exercise allows people to take control of their bodies, which is good for their life.     3    Exercise releases chemicals which improve self-confidence.

Dogs can help teenagers make new friends.    4     A dog is a great ice­breaker, making the teenager feel comfortable with people he meets. The more confident they becomes when out and about with his dog，the more his self-confidence will improve.

    5     If a teenager is developing dangerous habits such as drinking, more action may be required. In these cases professional help should be sought. Parents should ask a health professional (专业人士) for advice if they believe there’s a sign of a far more serious problem.

A．Pets offer an unconditional love that can be very helpful.

B．You don't have to worry about hurting your pet's feelings.

C．It simply accepts its owner for who he is and doesn't judge or question.

D．particularly, someone without self-confidence may find a pet dog helpful.

E．A teen may meet someone of the same age while walking his dog in the park.

F．In some cases, having a dog will not help improve a teenager’s self-confidence.

G．Many forms of exercise besides walking can be enjoyed with a dog, such as cycling.

【推荐1】A new website will allow anyone in the world to access millions of wildlife photos taken by camera traps.

Researchers in the field often use camera traps to photograph the lives of animals. These fixed cameras have a sensor （传感器） that is started by heat or movement, letting researchers monitor animals without disturbing them.

The traps can be used for months at a time, sometimes taking hundreds of thousands of pictures. But these images, and the valuable information they reveal, usually just sit on researchers’ hard drives, unavailable to anyone else, according to Jorge Ahumada, a scientist of environmental nonprofit Conservation International.

So Ahumada started creating an online platform where researchers could share their photos. Wildlife Insights was launched in December 2019 as the world’s largest camera-trap database, hosting over 4.5 million images.

As well as making images available to other researchers, the site uses Artificial Intelligence （AI） designed by Google to overcome a key problem with these kinds of photos: Camera traps produce lots of images to manually analyze, says Ahumada, many of which are blank images. Manually sorting and deleting these photos is a laborious task.

To solve that, after someone uploads images to the Wildlife Insights database, its AI examines if the images were taken from a camera trap and automatically removes all blank images. If there is an animal in the image, the AI will identify the species. Now the AI recognizes about 450 animal species, which Ahumada says will increase over time as more images are collected from all parts of the world.

Apart from collecting and reviewing the images, the platform will provide analytics （数据分析） that could show trends in species’ population for different projects. That information could help researchers understand whether a species is increasing its range or if its numbers are falling.

While open access is key, the platform has taken steps to make sure this information doesn’t get into the wrong hands. “You will have to ask Wildlife Insights for permission to get the locations of the images,” said Ahumada. “That is an examination process that we will manage carefully because we know that poachers （偷猎者） and other people with illegal purposes will use this information to find endangered species.”

1. What do we know about photos taken by camera traps?

A．They may be blank images.

B．They are available to all wildlife lovers.

C．They can be uploaded to the database by AI.

D．They can be used for photography competitions.

2. What does the underlined word “laborious” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Basic.

B．Major.

C．Tough.

D．Complex.

3. What’s the function of AI on the site?

A．Download photos from the platform.

B．Identify the location of the images.

C．Monitor animals through camera traps.

D．Remove blank images.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The importance of using AI.

B．The importance of keeping the information safe.

C．The importance of starting an examination process.

D．The importance of protecting endangered animals.

【推荐2】Have you ever been stopped in your tracks by a stunning view, or gobsmacked by the vastness of the night sky? Have you been transported by soaring music, a grand scientific theory or a charismatic person? If so, you will understand US novelist John Steinbeck’s response to California’s giant redwood trees, which can soar more than a hundred metres towards the sky. “They leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always,” he wrote. “From them comes silence and awe.”

Philosophers and writers have long been fascinated by our response to the sublime, but until a few years ago, scientists had barely studied it. Now they are fast realising that Steinbeck was right about its profound effects. Feeling awestruck can dissolve our very sense of self, bringing a host of benefits from lowering stress and boosting creativity to making us nicer people.

But what exactly is awe and where does it come from? “It’s a subjective feeling rooted in the body,” according to psychologist and pioneering awe researcher Dacher Keltner at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2003, he and Jonathan Haidt, now at New York University, published the first scientific definition. They described awe as the feeling we get when confronted with something vast, that transcends our frame of reference and that we struggle to understand. It’s an emotion that combines amazement with an edge of fear. Wonder, by contrast, is more intellectual – a cognitive state in which you are trying to understand the mysterious.   

You might think that investigating such a profound experience would be a challenge, but Keltner insists it’s not so hard. “We can reliably produce awe,” he says. “You can get people to go out to a beautiful scene in nature, or put them in a cathedral or in front of a dinosaur skeleton, and they’re gong to be pretty amazed.” Then, all you need is a numerical scale on which people can report how much awe they are feeling. Increasingly, studies are including a physiological measure too, such as the appearance of goosebumps (鸡皮疙瘩) – awe is the emotion most likely to cause them, and second only to cold as a source.     

In this way, Keltner and others have found that even mild awe can change our attitudes and behaviour. For example, people who watched a nature video that elicited awe – rather than other positive emotions such as happiness or pride – were subsequently more ethical, more generous and described themselves as feeling more connected to people in general.   Gazing up at tall eucalyptus trees left others more likely to help someone who stumbled in front of them.   And after standing in front of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, people were more likely to describe themselves as part of a group.   It might seem counterintuitive that an emotion we often experience alone increases our focus on others.   But Keltner thinks it’s because awe expands our attention to encompass a bigger picture, so reducing our sense of self.

“The desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small,” wrote Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist.   He was right.   In a large study, Keltner found that after inspiring awe in people from the US and China, they signed their names smaller and drew themselves smaller, but with no drop in their sense of status or self-esteem.   Similarly, neuroscientist Michiel van Elk at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, found that people who watched awe-inducing videos estimated their bodies to be physically smaller than those who watched funny or neutral videos.

The cause of this effect might lie in the brain. At the annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in Vancouver, Canada, in June, van Elk presented functional MRI scans showing that awe quiets activity in the default mode network, which includes parts of the frontal lobes and cortex, and is thought to relate to the sense of self. “Awe produces a vanishing self,” says Keltner.   “The voice in your head, self-interest, self consciousness, disappears. Here’s an emotion that knocks out a really important part of our identity.”   As a result, he says, we feel more connected to bigger or collectives and groups.

1. The underlined word “transported” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ________.

A．taken in

B．fired up

C．carried away

D．tuned out

2. According to the author, the “profound effects” of the feeling of awe enable us to ________.

A．hold more respect for redwood trees	B．enhance our connectedness to humanity
C．increase our self-consciousness	D．enjoy a completely stress-free life

3. According to Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt, the difference between “awe” and “wonder” lies in the fact that ________.

A．the former is beyond the range of our normal experiences while the latter of our intellect

B．the former involves a feeling of fright while the latter an element of puzzlement

C．the former has more to do with our body while the latter with our mind

D．the former is viewed as more personal while the latter more collective

4. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 imply?

A．It’s against our wish that awe makes us care more for others than for ourselves.

B．The feeling of awe automatically directs our focus to others from ourselves.

C．It’s common sense that awe, though felt alone, boosts our concern for others.

D．It seems odd that the emotion of awe tends to associate the individual with the world.

5. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A．Getting close to something awesome makes us happier and nicer.

B．Awe can cause physical reactions in our body just as cold does.

C．The huge desert and distant horizons affect our attitudes and confidence.

D．MRI scans suggest that the emotion of awe has biological connections.

【推荐3】Some of the World’s Finest Stained Glass (彩色玻璃) Artworks

La Sainte-Chappelle, France

While many say that Paris’ must-see cathedral (is Notre Dame do Paris, Sainte-Chapelle should also be high up on the list. Louis Ⅸ ordered it to be built in 1239 to house the Crown of Thorns, a famous relic from Constantinople. Within the ceilings of the church are fifteen of the world’s finest stained glass windows. Unfortunately, as a result of the French Revolution, one third of the stained glass had to be replaced.

The Chicago Cultural Center, the USA

While the Windy City might not house the nation’s winningest sports teams, it does have one of the world’s most eye-catching displays of stained glass. Today’s Chicago Cultural Center, which was designed as a library in 1887, has a 38-foot-tall Tiffany glass dome (圆屋顶) which is said to be the largest Tiffany dome in the world.

Erawan Museum, Thailand

The Erawan Museum, built in 1994, houses ancient, priceless Thai artworks, all of which are displayed within the building’s three floors, and is said to symbolize the three levels of the universe. The shiny stained glass is on the second floor, which museum owner Khun Lek Viriyapant considers to be the human level. Designed by German artist Jacob Schwarzkopf, the stained glass artwork shows five continents, with the sun delivering light, and therefore life, into all.

Saint Vitus Cathedral.Czech Republic

While the Czech church whose doors many travelers pass through every day was built way back in 1344, its amazing display of stained glass is a 20th-century donation from well-known Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha. The artwork is nothing if not fitting for Prague, the city in which the stained glass is displayed. After all, it is the modern-day Czech Republic from which dreamy bohemians (放荡不羁的艺术家) came.

1. Which of the following has the longest history?

A．Erawan Museum.	B．La Sainte-Chapelle.
C．Saint Vitus Cathedral.	D．The Chicago Cultural Center.

2. Where should you go if you want to see the earth-themed stained glass?

A．France.

B．The USA.

C．Thailand.

D．Czech Republic.

3. What is special about the stained glass in Prague?

A．It goes well with the city.	B．It is from a bohemian.
C．It is the largest of its kind.	D．Its donated by an ancient artist.