【推荐1】The History of Astronaut Ice Cream

Astronaut ice cream’s story begins in the 1970s with Ron Smith, the founder of American Outdoor Products. One day, Smith got a message from the company Goddard Air and Space Museum to make some of their freeze-dried foods. “Freeze-dried ice cream was used by the space program. They want to know if we can make it, so they can sell it in their gift shop.”

The initial product was a far cry from the neatly packaged bars you’ll see today: “It was frozen solid, and then cut with a bandsaw(电动带锯), if you can believe it.” Then, the ice cream was freeze-dried using a specialized machine, which turned the ice directly into gas. Finally, about three-quarters of an ounce was loaded into a package.

The product also probably got a boost from the unique economic conditions of the time: a long recession made small luxuries much more attractive. Ice cream is a good example of a small luxury—you absolutely don’t need it physically, but emotionally it can make you quite happy for very little extra expense. And, with its long shelf life, it could be stored in the cupboard until the desire hit.

Novelty(新奇的)treats like astronaut ice cream may be associated with childhood, but it’s adults who have given them their enduring popularity. And something especially magical happens when an ice-cream-obsessed kid grows up and creates one of the most famous candy shops in the country.

“I remember getting astronaut ice cream at a trip to a theme park during camp,” says Dylan Lauren, of famed Dylan’s Candy Bar. “I thought it was so neat that I could eat a sweet that’s also enjoyed in outer space. I savored each bite and kept half in my bed to show my parents after camp instead of eating the whole thing at once.”

Lauren’s stores have a nostalgia(怀旧之情)section, which always stocks freeze-dried ice cream. “I see from the reaction on customers’ faces that it is a highlight for adults to recall and for kids to see because it’s so cool,” she says.

1. Which is the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “recession”?

A．A period when the economy is difficult.

B．A movement that goes backward.

C．A state of feeling very unhappy and without hope.

D．An act of giving money to someone else.

2. According to Dylan, what is the message conveyed by astronaut food?

A．It is the popular student food served in the camp.

B．He used to keep the other half sweet for his parents.

C．It is the food free from any dirt and bacteria.

D．It is a treasure well-preserved in his childhood memory.

3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a boost to astronaut food?

A．The invitation from Goddard Air and Space Museum.

B．The special economic conditions of that time.

C．The establishment of candy shops on a national scale.

D．The emotional association with customer’s childhood.

【推荐2】When I was in high school and college, I went to fast food restaurants pretty often. Even until today, fast food is a popular choice among students. So, what makes fast food restaurants really popular year after year?

The food is not very expensive.     1    So, it is good to get something tasty to eat and still have some money left for a movie later.

Nowadays, many fast food restaurants open till late nights.     2    Most teenagers go there also because other boys and girls are there. It is fun to be there, as seen in fast food TV advertisements. It is cool.

    3    You can just order fries or you can also mix and match with plenty of choices, such as coke with French fries, sundae with apple pies, salad with burgers. And managers there will not stare at you for reading there for hours if you just order French fries and a cup of coke.

    4    They can have group discussions of school projects, small talk and even birthday celebrations.

You can try telling them some fast food is unhealthy, but I doubt if youngsters will listen.     5    Some of them go to a fast restaurant every week. The food there is cheap, delicious, and served fast.

A．Fast food does not have to be bad for you.

B．Many teenagers do not have much money.

C．Fast food is still popular with many of them.

D．At fast food restaurants, you choose what you want.

E．Today, fast food restaurants are offering healthier food.

F．A fast food restaurant is a good place for some activities for teenagers.

G．So, these places are comfortable and safe to hang out during late nights.

【推荐3】For those of us who can’t live without a morning cup, the latest assessments of the health effects of coffee are reassuring. Its consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of all kinds of diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, cirrhosis, liver cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer.

In fact, in numerous studies conducted throughout the world, consuming four or five 250 ml cups of coffee a day has been associated with reduced death rates. Published in 2015 in Circulation, a study of more than 200,000 participants followed for up to 30 years found that those who drank three to five cups of coffee a day, with or without caffeine, were 15 percent less likely to die early from all causes than those who escaped coffee.

As a report published in 2020 by researchers at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health concluded, although current evidence may not warrant (保证) recommending coffee or caffeine to prevent disease, for most people drinking coffee in moderation “can be part of a healthy lifestyle”. They found that consumption of three to five standard cups of daily coffee may in fact reduce the risk of several chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

It wasn’t always this way. Aside from the many health conditions coffee has been thought to cause, in 1991 it was even listed by the World Health Organization as a possible carcinogen (致癌物). But in some of the now-discredited studies, it was smoking, not coffee drinking that was responsible for the purported carcinogen hazard.

That’s not to say coffee warrants a totally clean bill of health. The most common ill effect associated with it is sleep disturbance. While Dr. Willett says “you don’t have to get to zero consumption to minimize the impact on sleep,” he acknowledges that a person’s sensitivity to caffeine likely increases with age. Some sleep well after drinking caffeinated coffee at dinner while others have trouble sleeping if they have coffee at lunch.

Some of coffee’s other benefits come from polyphenols and antioxidants. Polyphenols can inhibit (抑制) the growth of cancer cells and, lower the risk of type 2 diabetes; antioxidants, which have anti-inflammatory effects, can counter heart disease and cancer.

1. What can we learn about caffeine according to the studies mentioned in the passage?

A．Three cups of coffee a day with caffeine may make you die early.

B．Five cups of coffee a day with or without caffeine may do good to you.

C．Young men get more sensitive to caffeine than the elders.

D．There is no different sensitivity to caffeine between the young and old.

2. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．The more coffee people drink, the healthier they are.

B．Scientists guarantee people healthier if they drink coffee.

C．A few cups of daily coffee is likely to reduce some diseases.

D．People are urged to drink 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day.

3. What does the passage focus on?

A．The benefits of coffee.	B．The side effects of coffee.
C．The origin of coffee.	D．The development of coffee.

4. In which column of a magazine can we most probably find the text?

A．Nature.	B．History.
C．Health.	D．Business.

【推荐1】Strategically adding weak points along microscopic chains called polymers (高分子聚合物) actually makes them harder to tear, researchers report in the June 23 Science. Polymers are used in car tires, and therefore the findings could help reduce plastic pollution as tires wear down over time.

When tires rub against the road, they drop microplastics of rubber and plastic polymers, which pollute waterways and air. Every year, tires release an estimated 6 million metric tons of these microplastics into environment. Stronger polymers that break apart less easily could limit the amount of particles shed annually.

To make such tough materials, Stephen Craig, a chemist at Duke University, and colleagues added molecules called cross-linkers to the polymers. These cross-linkers connected these polymer chains to their many neighbors, and they were specifically designed to break apart easily. At the microscopic scale, the polymers act like a tangle (乱团) of spaghetti with the cross-linkers holding them all together and helping them keep their shape, says Craig’s collaborator Shu Wang, a chemist at MIT. When the team stretched the polymer spaghetti, the individual cross-linkers broke easily, as expected. But the larger tangle material required more force to break than they expected.

The secret to the increased toughness lies in the path the tear has to take, Craig says. The tear goes through the easy-to-break cross-linkers rather than through the tougher polymer chains. Each broken connection follows the path of least resistance but avoiding the long polymer chains means breaking many cross-linkers, which requires more stretching force overall.

This isn’t the first time researchers have used weak connectors to make polymers stronger. But unlike in similar materials, the increased toughness doesn’t come at the expense of other beneficial properties like stiffness (风度). Craig says he hopes the findings will help extend the lifetimes of car tires and plastics, potentially limiting annual microplastic pollution.

1. What benefit does the new material bring?

A．It meets the road standard.	B．It weakens plastic polymers.
C．It releases less microplastics.	D．It reduces the cost of car tires.

2. What can we know about the tangle material?

A．It follows the pattern of spaghetti.	B．It is designed to fall apart easily.
C．The polymers help keep its shape.	D．The larger tangle is harder to break.

3. What is the primary factor that contributes to the increased toughness?

A．The weakness of the cross-linker.	B．The strength of the polymer chains.
C．The number of the cross-linkers used.	D．The path the tear takes through the material.

4. What can we learn about the finding?

A．It initially uses weak connectors.	B．It sacrifices stiffness for toughness.
C．It lengthens the lifespan of car tires.	D．It removes annual microplastic pollution.

【推荐2】This week, both the US and the European Union (EU) announced their goals for reducing carbon dioxide. The EU’s newly approved goal is 55% below 1990 levels and the new US goal is 50% to 52% below 2005 levels.

Their goals sound very ambitious. However, the numbers aren’t quite what they seem, depending on what baseline year for those cuts. If you convert (换算) the European goal to the American-preferred 2005 baseline, it translates to 51% below 2005 levels. But if you compare them using Europe’s preferred 1990 as the baseline, the 50% minimum US cut is only 41%, far shy of the 55% EU goal. If you compare the numbers to 2019, the minimum the US would be cutting is about 40% from today’s level and the EU only 35%.

Why different baselines?

The idea behind different baselines goes back to the climate talks in 2009. Since developed countries have already put lots of carbon pollution into the air and they still wanted developing nations that were counting on fossil fuels for economic development to abandon the dirtier fuels, a solution was struck for the 2015 Paris agreement that allowed nations to voluntarily choose their own goals suitable to each country. Those nationally designed goals also included countries choosing their own baseline years. Naturally, countries tend to choose years in which they peaked (达峰) or near peaked on carbon emissions. For example, Europe, which took early action after the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, chose to keep that agreement’s 1990 baseline. This way, Europe gets credit for acting early.

“However, we should not just look at their numbers,” said Professor Nate Hultman from University of Maryland. The US goal includes methane (甲烷) and HFCs (氟烷) that trap more heat but don’t last as long as carbon dioxide. He said including those in the goals allows the US to pick low-hanging fruit to better reach its goal.

“Reducing methane and HFCs gets results more quickly than cutting carbon dioxide. But cutting them just buys us a little more time,” Nate said.

1. What can we know about the goals for reducing carbon dioxide?

A．They can be very misleading.	B．They are just influenced by baselines.
C．They can be compared directly.	D．They are too complex to be compared.

2. When did the US most probably peak or near peak on carbon emissions?

A．In 1990.

B．In1997.

C．In 2005.

D．In 2019.

3. What does the underlined word “those” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．The US's and EU's goals.	B．Methane and HFCs.
C．Carbon dioxide and HFCs.	D．The different baselines.

4. How did Nate Hultman most probably feel about the US’s goal?

A．Disappointed.

B．Satisfied.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Overjoyed.