A newly published study shows that chess players perform objectively worse and — make more suboptimal (次最优的) moves when there is more fine particulate matter (颗粒物) in the air.
“We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” says Juan Palacios, a co-author of a newly published paper detailing the study’s findings.
Scholars have produced many studies exploring the effects of air pollution on cognition. The current study adds to that literature by analyzing the subject in a particularly controlled setting. The scholars used three web-connected sensors inside the tournament venue to measure carbon dioxide, PM2.5 concentrations, and temperature, all of which, can, be affected by external conditions, even in an indoor setting.
To evaluate the matter of performance of players, meanwhile, the scholars used software programs that assess each move made in each chess match, identify optimal decisions, and flag significant errors. During the tournaments, the researchers examined and ruled out alternate potential explanations for the dip in player performance, such as increased noise. They also found that carbon dioxide and temperature changes did not correspond to performance changes. Ultimately, the analysis confirms that the findings are driven by the direct exposure to air particles.
The researchers also found that when air pollution was worse, the chess, players performed even more poorly when under time constraints. The tourmament rules required that 40 moves had to be made within 110 minutes; for moves 31-40 in all, the matches, an air pollution, increase of 10 micro-grams per cubic meter led to an increased probability of error of 3.2 percent, with the magnitude of those errors increasing by 17.3 percent. And while the focus of this particular study is tightly focused on chess players, the findings have strong implications for high-skilled office workers.
1. What does the study find about air pollution?| A．It becomes more and more serious in the gym. |
| B．It can help evaluate chess players’ performance. |
| C．It may affect more people with mental processes. |
| D．It can’t be affected by indoor surroundings. |
| A．To measure carbon dioxide and temperature. |
| B．To assess the performance of players. |
| C．To help players make great moves. |
| D．To distinguish players’ errors in time. |
| A．Limit. | B．Freedom. | C．Consumption. | D．Measurement. |
| A．Various reasons for chess players’ mistakes. |
| B．A new research on chess players’ performance. |
| C．Scholars’ concern about chess players’ health. |
| D．The influence of air pollution on chess players. |
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【推荐1】Naturalist Enzo Suma, who is now 40, lives in Puglia, a region in southern Italy whose long coastline faces the Adriatic Sea. Floating waste accumulates in this relatively enclosed part of the Mediterranean, unlike the open ocean, where the waste tends to be spread over a vast area. Feeling concerned about that, Suma makes it a habit to pick up the washed-up waste along the shore, especially after big winter storms.
One day, Suma was walking along the beach near his home when he discovered a bottle of Coke. Suma noticed on the bottle that the price, clearly printed on the bottom, was in lire, a currency (货币) that hadn’t been used in Italy since it was replaced by the euro in 2002. Could a plastic container have well survived in the Mediterranean, he wondered, for about two decades?
That led him to founding the Archeoplastica museum. It has a collection of about 500 unique pieces recovered from Italian shores and the Coke bottle is the first one of them. All collection demonstrates the unsettling life force of plastic waste in the environment. “Seeing that a product people may have used 30, 40, or 50 years ago remains still unchanged, you’ll feel different. It’s a great shock,” Suma said to a reporter. So Suma often exhibits selected pieces from the Archeoplastica collection at local schools around his hometown of Ostuni.
“The playful side of the work allows you to arrive at the less beautiful side of things,” Suma acknowledged. “Plastic is a kind of useful substance. But it’s unthinkable that a water bottle, made from a material designed to last so long, can be used for just a few days—or even minutes—before becoming garbage. Clean the beaches. Clean the oceans. Recycle. But if we are still throwing out plastics, none of those are going to be long-term solutions.”
1. What’s Suma’s concern about his living place?| A．Its long coastline is disappearing. | B．Big storms frequently hit the area. |
| C．Floating waste spreads over a vast area. | D．The waste pollution on shore is worsening. |
| A．They have a history of more than half a century. |
| B．They were quite valuable before turning into waste. |
| C．They’re more like educational exhibits than garbage. |
| D．They have stronger life force than ordinary plastic products. |
| A．Creative, devoted and socially responsible. | B．Enthusiastic, ambitious and adventurous. |
| C．Generous, cautious and humorous. | D．Curious, efficient and playful. |
| A．The birth of plastics has greatly served humans. |
| B．The key to tackling the plastic pollution is to stop littering. |
| C．The plastic problem can be solved by cleaning and recycling. |
| D．People should be more aware of the powerful functions of plastics. |
【推荐2】More cycling, better public transport and car bans...Places all over the world are taking a range of measures to lower traffic pollution.
Paris
Paris bans cars in many historic central districts on weekends, places odd-even (单双日的) bans on vehicles，makes public transport free during major pollution events and encourages car-sharing programs. A long section of the right bank of the river Seine is now car-free and a monthly ban on cars has come into force along the Champs-Elysees.
The Netherlands
Politicians want to ban the sale of all petrol cars from 2025, allowing only electric or hydrogen vehicles. The new law will allow anyone who already owns a petrol car to continue using it. Most cities encourage bicycle use.
Freiburg
Freiburg in Germany has 500km of bike routes and a cheap and efficient public transport system. One town, Vauban, forbids people to park near homes and makes car-owners pay $18,000 for a space on the edge of town in return for living without a car. People are offered cheaper housing, free public transport, and plentiful bicycle spaces.
Curitiba
The southern Brazilian city of two million people has one of the biggest and lowest-cost bus systems in the world. Nearly 70% of its people go to work by public transport and the result is pollution-free air and traffic-free streets.
Copenhagen
Copenhagen prioritizes (优先考虑) bikes over cars and now has more cycles than people. The city calculates that one mile on a bike is worth $0.42 to society, while one mile in a car is a $0.2 loss. Large parts of the Danish capital have been closed to vehicles for decades.
1. What will happen in Paris during major pollution events?| A．Historic central districts won’t allow cars in. |
| B．Car-sharing programs will raise money publicly. |
| C．People must obey the odd-even traffic restrictions on weekends. |
| D．People can take public transport free of charge. |
| A．put 500km of bike routes into full use |
| B．only allow the sale of electric or hydrogen vehicles |
| C．completely forbid the use of petrol cars |
| D．own the biggest and lowest-cost bus system in the world |
| A．Freiburg and Copenhagen | B．Park and Curitiba |
| C．Paris and Freiburg | D．Curitiba and Copenhagen |
【推荐3】Around 40 million tonnes of electronic waste, known as e-waste, is produced every year. This includes electrical or electronic equipment that has been discarded. But where does it all go? In the US alone, 100 million mobile phones, 41 million computers and over 20 million televisions are thrown into landfills in a year. Even for standard waste this is a big headache, because any materials that are buried in the ground can’t be easily recovered and recycled. Recycling electronics can save energy and means that less of Earth’s natural resources need to be mined.
Failing to recycle e-waste is extremely damaging the environment due to the nature of the materials used in modern devices. While heavy metals and chemicals improve a device’s safety and user experience, these components become poisonous if they’re not dealt with properly. Your old phones, Gameboys, kettles, microwaves and more can end up in landfills, leaking their harmful contents into the soil, water and air. Not only does this kill wildlife and destroy ecosystems, but the accumulation of poison can impact human health too. As heavy metals and chemicals flow into lakes and rivers, drinking water becomes polluted. These poisons spread through the soil, impacting the health of crops and animals that people also rely on.
In some western countries, e-waste isn’t hidden out of sight in landfills but is burnt in giant, open junkyards. They even ship waste electronics to other countries to deal with, and this often ends up in dumps across Africa and Asia. Workers in these places are exposed to polluted lands and chemical gas.
It is urgent that we should reduce the damaging and unsustainable side of e-waste production. Rare earth metals, some plastics and chemicals can be fed into the next generation of electronics. The steps to proper recycling of e-waste are extensive and need large investment, but more and more countries around the world are turning to e-waste recycling.
1. What does the underlined word “discarded” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Repaired. | B．Protected. | C．Used. | D．Abandoned. |
| A．E-waste has a permanent effect on the environment. |
| B．E-waste may do harm to both ecosystems and humans. |
| C．Heavy metals and chemicals are poisonous to the users. |
| D．Burying e-waste into landfills is an effective way to recycle. |
| A．supportive | B．objective | C．concerned | D．uncertain |
| A．Solutions to destroying e-waste. | B．Ways to recycle e-waste properly. |
| C．Applications of recycled materials. | D．Investments in restoring ecosystems. |
【推荐1】More Americans say they are on a special diet compared with Americans about 10 years ago. The increased dieting comes at a time when obesity levels continue to rise. 17 percent of Americans said they were on a diet in 2017 — up from 14 percent about 10 years earlier. Over the same period, obesity levels increased in the U.S. to 42 percent — up from 34 percent.
About half of American adults have diet-related health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease. Overall, more women reported being on a diet than men. The heavier and more educated people were, the more likely they were to report being on a special diet.
Between 2007 and 2017, diets described as “weight loss or low calorie” grew in popularity. Low-carbohydrate diets became more popular, while low-fat and low-cholesterol diets became less popular.
The findings were part of an ongoing national survey. People who took part in the survey were asked the following question: “Are you currently on any kind of diet, either to lose weight or for some other health-related reasons?”
Becky Ramsing is a dietician and program officer at Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Ramsing said that people made very different kinds of choices in the hopes of losing weight. In some cases, she said people might not understand why the choices they made could not help them lose weight. “They won't eat bread, but then they' eat a lot of other things that are higher in calories,” she said.
Ramsing added that many American diet trends banned some foods. But to make lasting changes, she said people should consider their eating overall. “That will help them deal with another problem of diets,” she noted. “Diets are hard to continue doing over time.”
1. What can we learn about according to Paragraph 1?| A．The popularity of dieting in America. | B．The sharp rise in obesity worldwide. |
| C．The potential benefits of a special diet. | D．Traditional eating habits of Americans. |
| A．They ignored experts’ advice on nutrition. | B．They were misled into making wrong choices. |
| C．They forgot their initial goals of losing weight. | D．They failed to have a healthy and balanced diet. |
| A．Wrong. | B．Simple. | C．Difficult. | D．Effective. |
| A．Americans’ Myths About Special Dieting. |
| B．A Serious Obesity 'Trend in the United States. |
| C．More Americans on a Special Diet for Health Reasons. |
| D．Americans’ Diet-related Health Problems about Obesity. |
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
It was like a race, but one could never finish his race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “Keeping up with the Joneses” because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
1. Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ________.| A．want to be as rich as their neighbors |
| B．want to be happy |
| C．don’t want others to know they are rich |
| D．want others to know or to think that they are rich |
| A．live in New York City | B．live outside New York City |
| C．live in apartments | D．have many neighbors |
| A．an important name |
| B．a popular name in the United States |
| C．his neighbor’s name |
| D．not a good name |
| A．impossible | B．interesting |
| C．correct | D．good |
【推荐3】Worried about the effect reality TV is having on your child? You aren't being overprotective-there's increasing evidence that these programmes can have a big impact on young people.
When our children are young,we tend to give careful thought to how much TV they're watching and whether or not it's good for them. But as they grow up, most parents let their kids make more independent choices about their viewing.
However, if you've got children, you may want to stay attentive. A research indicates that some reality TV shows can be every bit as damaging for teenage girls as too many cartoons are for kids－perhaps even worse.
The truth is that reality TV is anything but reality-but that's not necessarily what our children believe.A study for the Girl Scout Research Institute in the US found that eight out of ten girls aged between 11 and 17 who regularly watch reality shows believe these programmes describe real life.
In fact,much of reality TV is a heavily manipulated(操控）view of what's really happening, and the worst of it strengthens the sort of female stereotypes(刻板印象）women have spent decades trying to remove.
Many of the women on reality TV shows are acting out lives as teenage mothers or drama queens.Strong,hard-working,purposeful young women with ambitions beyond their looks are rare in these programmes.There's a widespread emphasis on the value of women being about how they look and dress,which gives young viewers the message that being a woman is all about style and appearance, not what you do or stand for.
Cultural critic and writer Jennifer Pozner describes reality TV as "the contemporary backlash（抵制）against feminism".Imran Siddiguee,Director of Social Media and Outreach, is concerned that these programmes show the worst stereotypes of womanhood and “normalize" them in what appear to be everyday settings."They offer such a limited view of what it is to be a woman, and all over the world young girls are addicted to it,"he says.
Siddiquee does recognize, however,that many girls themselves value reality TV.Some say it encourages them to think about situations different from their own. They also point out that some shows feature women running their own successful businesses.
＂It's important to acknowledge that there are some useful elements in reality TV,"Siddiquee says."But many girls need to be inspired to think more critically about some aspects of these shows so they're not manipulated by them and so their behaviour doesn't change because of them."
We should encourage our children to be critical thinkers and help them develop their media literacy. Whether reality TV is changing our children's views, or whether they are attracted to programmes that agree with their beliefs, it's vital we recognize that their viewing habits could strengthen these unbalanced ideals.
1. Who are likely to be the prime victims of reality TV shows?| A．Small children. |
| B．Teenage girls. |
| C．New parents. |
| D．Random audience. |
| A．It is too true to life for viewers to believe in. |
| B．Actors in them lack a sense of innovation. |
| C．Its contents and views are rather artificial. |
| D．It can hardly cater for teenage girls' taste. |
| A．Genuine accounts of females and their work. |
| B．Ways to gain more popularity among peers. |
| C．Distinction between true life and TV dramas. |
| D．Tips on how to become ambitious young girls. |
| A．it is normal to include stereotypes of females in reality TV shows |
| B．teens need guidance on how to critically assess the contents of such shows |
| C．parents should leave children to make independent choices when viewing |
| D．there are more useful elements than bad stereotypes in reality TV shows |
【推荐1】Late blight (晚疫病) is a common disease of plants such as tomatoes and potatoes, capable of wiping out entire crops on commercial-sized fields. If conditions are favorable, it can quickly spread to other plants through wet soil and wind.
In history, late blight caused over 1 million deaths in Ireland. Today it still causes more than 6.7 billion dollars in annual losses worldwide. Small farms and growers are often the hardest hit, many stating losing almost two-thirds of their yearly production, because usually they don’t have money to identify and treat the disease.
But farmers may have a new weapon now. The technology, designed by researchers at North Carolina State University can recognize sick plants early by employing a piece of test paper that plugs into (接入) a reader on a smartphone.
Plants produce signaling chemicals from their leaves. “If a plant is diseased, the type and concentration of these chemicals changes,” said Wei Qingshan, an engineer at North Carolina State University. If the farmer suspects a late blight infection is underway, he can remove a leaf from a living plant and place it in a small, covered glass jar. After the leaf’s volatile (挥发性的) chemicals have accumulated for 15 minutes or so, the cap is removed and the air is pumped from the jar into a reader attached to the back of a smartphone. Inside the smartphone reader is a piece of paper specially treated with dyes (染料) by the researchers. Upon interacting (相互作用) with the plant’s volatile chemicals, the paper changes color to indicate the presence or absence of the late blight.
The researchers hope to tailor the technology for other crop diseases, which continue to appear as climate change and global trade increase the stress on agricultural systems. “This is an important step in the improvement of global food security,” Wei Qingshan said.
1. What are the statistics in Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The damage caused by late blight. |
| B．The money put into late blight treatment. |
| C．The number of crops in a commercial-sized field. |
| D．The yearly production of small farms and growers. |
| A．By treating the plant with special dyes. |
| B．By putting volatile chemicals on the plant. |
| C．By testing the air in the jar with a leaf inside. |
| D．By examining the land with a smartphone reader. |
| A．It’ll reach farmers soon. |
| B．It’ll get rid of late blight. |
| C．It’ll be beneficial to the climate. |
| D．It’ll be able to detect more crop diseases. |
| A．To introduce a test method of late blight. |
| B．To explain the causes of late blight. |
| C．To discuss the effects of late blight. |
| D．To tell the history of late blight. |
【推荐2】Fossil fuels are rapidly warming the planet, and the aerosols (气溶胶) from their burning process kill millions of people each year. But those aerosols can also cool the atmosphere. It creates an odd climate contradiction. If we burn less gas, oil, and coal, we’ll stop loading the sky with planet-warming carbon, but we’ll also load it with fewer planet-cooling aerosols. But exactly how much cooling we get from aerosols, and how strong that effect will be as the world stops using fossil fuels, are huge questions among climate researchers.
Burning fossil fuels produces clouds of tiny particles (颗粒), which cool the climate in two main ways. “The little particles themselves act like little mirrors, and they reflect some sunlight straight back to space,” says University of Oxford climate scientist Duncan Watson-Parris.
The second way is more indirect: They influence the formation of clouds, which in turn affect the local climate. “Water vapor (水蒸气) in the atmosphere covers the aerosols and forms cloud droplets (云滴),” says Watson-Parris. If you load a given area with extra aerosols, the droplets end up being more numerous, yet smaller: There’s only so much water vapor to go around all the particles. Smaller droplets are brighter than bigger ones, which whitens the cloud, causing it to reflect more of the sun’s energy back into space.
In addition, the atmosphere is an extremely complicated 3D system stretching miles into the sky. Temperatures, humidity, and winds are changing constantly. And the aerosols caused by human activity are extraordinarily complicated. That’s why scientists can’t yet say that if we burn fewer fossil fuels and reduce aerosols by X amount, we can expect Y amount of warming. That’s why researchers like Watson-Parris have had a range of outcomes. More atmospheric data, they say, will help them get closer to concrete numbers.
If we find better ways to take existing aerosols out of the air, but continue to burn fuels that release planet-warming carbon dioxide, we’ll raise temperatures while eliminating the tiny particles that are compensating for (抵消) some of that heat. And that, Watson-Parris says, would be “a double blow.”
1. What remains unknown to climate researchers according to paragraph 1?| A．When the world can get rid of fossil fuels. | B．What the best alternative to fossil fuels is. |
| C．How the aerosols will affect temperatures. | D．How people will benefit from the aerosols. |
| A．Less water vapor. | B．Whiter clouds. |
| C．Bigger droplets. | D．Fewer particles. |
| A．Collecting more atmospheric data. | B．Calling on people to reduce the aerosols. |
| C．Building up a better research model. | D．Questioning Watson-Parris’s research results. |
| A．Comparing. | B．Removing. |
| C．Monitoring. | D．Distinguishing. |
【推荐3】Have you ever dreamed of visiting a planet in the Milk Way? While the trip sounds exciting, it would take years and years to reach your destination. So in the future, bedtime for astronauts may be more than a few hours of regular shut-eye. They would have to sleep for years.
European researchers are now conducting hibernation experiments. The study may help them understand whether humans could ever sleep through the years it would take for a space flight to distant planets. “If there was an effective technology, it could make deep-space travel a reality,” said Mark Ayre of the European Space Agency last month.
What seems like science fiction is not completely unlikely. Researchers have been able to use chemicals to put living cells into a sleep-like state where they don’t age. They have now moved on to small, non-hibernating mammals like rats.
A major challenge is the fact that cells can be very simple systems, whereas body organs are far more complex.
“It’s like moving from a simple Apple computer to a supercomputer,” said Marco Biggiogera, a hibernation researcher at Italy’s University of Pavia.
Just like bears and frogs, the hibernation of human beings would cause a person’s metabolism (新陈代谢) to lower so they would need less energy.
Medical research, however, is just half of a space flight hibernation system.
There is the challenge of designing a suitable protective shelter. Such a shelter would provide the proper environment for hibernation, such as the proper temperature. It would also have to monitor (监控) life functions and serve the physiological needs of the hibernator.
According to Ayre, the six-person Human Outer Planets Exploration Mission to Jupiter’s moon (木星的卫星) Callisto, could be an opportunity to use human hibernation. The mission aims to send six humans on a five-year flight to Callisto, where they will spend 30 days, in 2045.
1. European researchers are conducting hibernation experiments to ________.| A．ensure astronauts to get a complete sleep |
| B．find the secret of some creatures |
| C．make preparations for the journey to Jupiter’s moon Callisto |
| D．know if man can sleep for years |
| A．Science fiction is people’s imagination |
| B．Science fiction is imaginative, but it can be realized |
| C．Things seem impossible may come true |
| D．Things described in science fiction are sure to become true |
| A．putting living cells into a sleep-like state is full of failure |
| B．Biggiogera is confident with the experiment |
| C．human’s hibernation needs no energy |
| D．medical research is the key to space flight hibernation system |
| A．Six humans to fly to Callisto | B．Human hibernation improves health |
| C．Space travel attracts people | D．Deep sleep for deep space travel |
