Meng Wang is a professor of human genetics. She’s been doing experiments about one of the most exciting new areas of medicine — our microbiome (微生物群).
You can’t see it with the naked eye, but our microbiome is all over (and inside of) us. Recent studies show that it can influence how we behave and even how well we respond to different drugs. Wang says, “Sometimes our microbiomes make us sick, but on the other hand, they also play a very important role in keeping us healthy.”
Wang wanted to know whether our microbiome could influence aging. To test it, she decided to work with a kind of worm (虫子) that lives only two or three weeks. Her question was, what would happen if you changed a worm’s microbiome. Would it be able to live for longer?
Wang chose one of the types of bacteria (细菌) that lives inside a worm, changed its genes (基因) so as to make different varieties, and then fed this bacteria to the worms. Three weeks later — by the time they should have all died — she checked on them. To her excitement, she found that the worms had not died. Older worms usually act slowly. The ones with the new microbiomes, however, not only moved around more quickly in their old age, but were less likely affected by illness too.
Wang is now carrying out tests on mice to see whether changing their microbiomes can influence their lives in a similar way. There is a chance that one day we might take pills which do the same of us. How much longer could this possibly allow us to live for? “Personally, I think 100 is already a good number,” says Wang.
1. What influence does Microbiome have on us according to recent studies?| A．Impacting our behavior. | B．Lengthening lifespan. |
| C．Increasing drug resistance. | D．Leading to deadly illness. |
| A．The worms grew bigger in size. |
| B．The worms kept active at old age. |
| C．The worms were free from illness. |
| D．The worms developed into new varieties. |
| A．Man can live as long as 100. | B．Microbiome works on mice similarly. |
| C．More tests need to be made. | D．Wang will develop anti-aging pills soon. |
| A．Microbiome: the hope of longer life? | B．Tips for scientific research |
| C．Meng Wang: leading scientist of genetics | D．Into the world of Microbiome |
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【推荐1】When Eugenie George, a financial writer and educator from Philadelphia, first heard that her friend passed a financial counseling exam, her heart sank. She’d failed the same test weeks earlier. But then, instead of sadness, she called her friend, “I congratulated her and told her she inspired me.” George knew that being frank would remove her envy, but she was surprised when it shifted her attitude so she could share her friend’s happiness and experience her own, in turn.
Finding pleasure in another person’s good fortune is what social scientists call freudenfreude, which describes the delight we feel when someone else succeeds, even if it doesn’t directly involve us. Freudenfreude is like social glue, says Catherine Chambliss, a professor of psychology at Ursinus College. It makes relationships “more close and enjoyable.”
While the benefits of freudenfreude are plentiful, it doesn’t always come easily. In zero-sum situations, your loss might really sting (刺痛), making freudenfreude feel out of reach. If you were raised in a family that paired winning with self-worth, Chambliss says, you might misread someone else’s victory as your own shortcoming.
To help people strengthen joy-sharing, Chambliss and her colleagues developed a program called Freudenfreude Enhancement Training, featuring two exercises.
Show active interest in someone else’s happiness. To start, invite the bearer of good news to discuss the experience. Even if your heart isn’t in it, happiness can thrive when you make a heartfelt effort to engage with a positive activity. So when you speak with your friend, make eye contact and listen attentively. This should motivate you to keep going and make you feel as if your efforts will pay off with freudenfreude.
View individual success as a joint effort. “When we feel happy for others, their joy becomes our joy,” says psychologist Marisa Franco, author of the book Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Makeand KeepFriends. To that end, freudenfreude encourages us to look at success as a community achievement. “No one gets to the top alone, and when we elevate others, we’re often carried up with them,” she says.
1. Why does the author mention the example of Eugenie George in paragraph1?| A．To explain a role. | B．To introduce a concept. |
| C．To provide a background. | D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Li Ping feels sorry for his friend’s not having passed a test. |
| B．Li Hua feels happy that his father has given him a birthday present. |
| C．Lin Tao feels delighted for his deskmate’s having won the first award. |
| D．Liu Bin secretly feels glad that his classmate Li Li has lost her beloved bike. |
| A．The ways to achieve freudenfreude. |
| B．The reasons to experience freudenfreude. |
| C．The aims of carrying out two exercises. |
| D．The influences of performing two exercises. |
| A．Knowing others’ victories results in your envy. |
| B．Learning to share with others enhances your delight. |
| C．Celebrating others’ victories brings yourself benefits. |
| D．Witnessing others’ misfortune makes yourself unhappy. |
【推荐2】On Saturday 24 August 1918, it was raining cats and dogs and thundering over a city called Sunderland on the northeast coast of England. The storm lasted for only about ten minutes. People were surprised to see that it was not just rainwater falling from the sky. There were fish falling down, too! People came out to find out what was happening. They could not believe their own eyes. There were thousands of fish—sand eels (沙鳗)—lying on the ground. They were about seven centimeters long, and all were frozen solid (冻成硬块).
Sand eels swim together in large groups, often in sandy water, and are often found in large numbers in the North Sea, which reaches out to the east of Sunderland. How was it possible for these sand eels to fall from the sky and land on Sunderland?
Scientists believed the heavy thunderstorm that afternoon may have caused a waterspout (水龙卷). Waterspouts can be formed when strong winds move quickly in a circle over water. They are so powerful that anything less than one meter in length can be taken into them and forced into the clouds. The clouds carry whatever has been taken into them for long distances —sometimes over 150 kilometers. It’s very cold up there and everything soon freezes solid.
For hundreds of years there have been reports of small animals being taken into the sky through waterspouts. In 2009, dead tadpoles rained down on the city of Nanao in Japan. In 2012, fifty kilos of prawns fell from the sky over Sri Lanka. In 2017, fish fell on the coastal city of Tampico in Mexico.
It must be a very strange experience to see fish raining down on you. It would probably hurt if one fell on your head! With climate (气候) change and many reports of terrible storms, will the time ever come when it may really begin to rain cats and dogs?
1. What do we know about the sand eels that landed on Sunderland?| A．They were few in number. | B．They came in different sizes. |
| C．They were still alive when landing. | D．They probably came from the North Sea. |
| A．Clouds. | B．Waterspouts. | C．Strong winds. | D．The waters of the sea. |
| A．raining sea animals is not new in history | B．the environment is not pleasant in Japan |
| C．waterspouts can reach as far as Japan | D．different animals can fall in different countries |
| A．Our health. | B．Our environment. | C．The wild animals. | D．The news reports. |
【推荐3】It's a popular belief that a fish's memory lasts for only seven seconds. It may seem sad to think that they don't remember what they've eaten or where they've been, and they don't identify you or any of their friends — every moment in their life would be like seeing the world for the first time.
But don't be so quick to feel sorry for them. A new study has found that fish have a much better memory than we used to think. In fact, certain kinds of fish can even remember events from as long as 12 days ago. In the study, researchers from Mac Ewan University in Canada trained a kind of fish called African cichlids to go to a certain area of their tank to get food. They then waited for 12 days before putting them back in the tank again. Researchers used computer software to monitor the fish's movements. They found that after such a long break the fish still went to the same place where they first got food. This suggested that they could remember their past experiences.
In fact, scientists had been thinking for a long time that African cichlids might have a good memory. An earlier study showed that they behaved aggressively in front of certain fish, perhaps because they remembered their past “fights”. But until the latest findings, there was no clear evidence.
Just as a good memory can make our lives easier, it also plays an important part when a fish is trying to survive in the wild." If fish are able to remember that a certain area contains safe food, they will be able to go back to that area without putting their lives at risks, “ lead researcher Trevor Hamilton told Live Science.
For a long time, fish were placed far below chimpanzees, dolphins and mice on the list of smart animals. But this study has given scientists a new understanding of their intelligence.
1. According to Paragraph 1, people commonly believe that .| A．fish can return to the area where they've been before |
| B．fish can remember things that happened long time ago |
| C．fish can remember things for only seven seconds |
| D．fish can well recognize their friends |
| A．They treat other fish gently. |
| B．They often forget the area for food. |
| C．They may remember things for 12 days. |
| D．They are on top of the list of smart animals. |
| A．Fish having very bad memories. | B．Fish being smarter than we thought. |
| C．How fish improve their memory. | D．What we can learn from fish. |
| A．A geography textbook. | B．A science magazine. |
| C．A travel brochure. | D．A medical journal. |
【推荐1】In 2018, a well-known home furnishing company publicized a plan to become a circular business by 2030, ending waste with a commitment to use only renewable or reusable materials across its entire range. Coca-Cola, which produces 3 million tons of plastic packaging a year, has confirmed Sweden as the first market in which all its bottles will be produced from 100 percent recyclable materials. Countless other famous companies are also changing some of their production methods and processes to less rely on natural resources. This is the circular economy, in which reuse and recycling are superior to raw materials (原材料).
With the United Nations forecasting the world’s population to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, the stress on Earth’s natural resources will definitely increase. Against this background, the environmental benefits of the circular economy are clear: less waste goes into landfill and less water is used, resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions.
A recent study from Nielsen found that 81 percent of global customers feel strongly that companies need to carry out programmes that improve the environment. “Once a business has established or switched to a circular process, it is bound to be in line with the values of most consumers,” explains Chris Norman at GOOD Agency, which advises brands on sustainable strategies.
The industry of the renewable energy and waste management is rising. Promising upstarts have already appeared in a company called Cambrian Innovation, which has developed technology that decontaminates (净化) dirty water and creates a clean energy source. In the UK, Toast Ale is looking to addressing the issue of wasting food in a novel way, turning one of the most frequently wasted foodstuffs and bread, into beer. The business hit about £1-million profit in 2019, according to the founder Tristram Stuart.
What’s certain is that companies setting circularity within their business are finding ways to both save the planet and make a profit. It’s something that deserves to raise a toast.
1. What can we say about the plan of the home furnishing company in 2018?| A．It will do little to protect the environment. |
| B．It will help increase the company’s sales. |
| C．It is a wise decision that moves with the times. |
| D．It will get the company less competitive worldwide. |
| A．They have little idea of circular economy. |
| B．They are eager for products of high quality. |
| C．They need to pay more for the circular economy. |
| D．They push companies to turn to the circular economy. |
| A．People shouldn’t have wasted too much food. |
| B．Most beer in the UK is made from wasted food. |
| C．Water decontamination technology is fully developed. |
| D．Companies are making efforts in the circular economy. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Cautious. | C．Doubtful. | D．Negative. |
【推荐2】The Pharos, the great lighthouse of Alexandria, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It stood on the island of Pharos, in the harbor (港口) of the city of Alexandria. In 280 B.C., Ptolemy Ⅰ Soter, the ruler of Egypt, ordered the building of the lighthouse. Twenty years later, it was finished—the first lighthouse in the world and the tallest building on Earth, besides the Great Pyramid of Egypt.
The Pharos was designed by Sostrates, a Greek architect. Sostrates wanted to leave his name on the base of the lighthouse. But Ptolemy refused, ordering that only his own name appeared on the building. But Sostrates found a way to do that. At the base of the Pharos, Sostrates left a message containing his own name. Then he covered it with plaster (建筑石膏) and left Ptolemy’s name over it. After many years, the plaster disappeared and people knew the true architect of the lighthouse.
In 1302 and 1323, two strong earthquakes hit Alexandria, damaging the lighthouse. In 1326, it finally fell into the sea. Much of what we know about the lighthouse comes from the writings of Arabs who once visited the Pharos.
The Pharos was about 384 feet tall, the same height as a modern 40－story building. At the top of the lighthouse stood a large statue of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Under it was a beacon, the source of light for the lighthouse. The Pharos used two kinds of beacons. At night, a large fire created the light. During the day, a huge mirror made use of the sunlight to create the light.
It was said that the mirror was also used to set enemy ships on fire as they entered the harbor by directing the sun’s rays (光线) at them. While the idea is interesting, it is also clearly impossible.
1. Why did Sostrates use plaster at the base of the Pharos?| A．To follow Ptolemy’s orders. | B．To hide his name left on the base. |
| C．To protect the base from damage. | D．To make the lighthouse more beautiful. |
| A．For about 800 years. | B．For about 1,000 years. |
| C．For about 1,600 years. | D．For about 2,000 years. |
| A．The lighthouse. | B．The statue. | C．A large fire. | D．A huge mirror. |
| A．To explain why the Pharos was built. | B．To find more secrets about the Pharos. |
| C．To offer some basic facts about the Pharos. | D．To introduce the true architect of the Pharos. |
【推荐3】The World Health Organization says that 92 percent of the world’s population lives in areas of high air pollution. Experts say much of that pollution comes from vehicles fueled by diesel. Many cities in Europe have called for ending the production of diesel cars. They hope to replace them with electric vehicles as battery life for those vehicles improves.
London is one of the most heavily polluted cities in Europe. Levels of harmful gases in the city are regularly higher than limits set by the European Union.
Martin Williams, with King’s College London, says pedestrians often do not realize how close they are to air pollution sources because they cannot see them. “One of the difficulties of getting the message across to the public at large these days is that air pollution, although it’s a major public health problem, is actually invisible. Not like the smogs of the 1950s and 60s when not only could you see it, you could barely see anything else.”
Williams adds that toxic gases from diesel cars have led to public health concerns. He says people across Great Britain have died too early because of the pollution. “The main problem that you are breathing in are the particulates, the soot largely from diesel exhausts, which is the primary problem as far as public health is concerned. The other pollutant that’s more recently become an issue is nitrogen dioxide, again largely from diesel.”
Areeba Hamid is with the environmental group Greenpeace. She says, “It’s quite clear that the car industry is feeling the pressure of a public health crisis owing to air pollution in big cities in particular and the aftermath of the diesel-gate’ scandal, which is the reason why it’s looking to produce new electric models.”
Experts say electric cars could offer the answer to air pollution in major cities. They add, however, that the electricity should be created using renewable energy.
1. The underlined word “invisible” (Paragraph 3) probably means ________.| A．cannot be felt | B．cannot be seen | C．be very serious | D．be uncontrollable |
| A．toxic gases | B．soot | C．nitrogen dioxide | D．water vapor |
| A．by example | B．by process | C．by contrast | D．by classification |
| A．replace diesel cars with electric ones |
| B．reduce the number of diesel cars running on the roads |
| C．ask more citizens to live far away from big cities |
| D．improve the quality of oil used in diesel cars |
