【推荐2】Early fifth-century philosopher St. Augustine famously wrote that he knew what time was unless someone asked him. Albert Einstein added another wrinkle when he theorized that time varies depending on where you measure it. Today’s state-of-the-art atomic(原子的) clocks have proven Einstein right. Even advanced physics can’t decisively tell us what time is, because the answer depends on the question you’re asking.

Forget about time as an absolute. What if, instead of considering time in terms of astronomy, we related time to ecology? What if we allowed environmental conditions to set the tempo(节奏) of human life? We’re increasingly aware of the fact that we can’t control Earth systems with engineering alone, and realizing that we need to moderate(调节) our actions if we hope to live in balance. What if our definition of time reflected that?

Recently, I conceptualized a new approach to timekeeping that’s connected to circumstances on our planet, conditions that might change as a result of global warming. We’re now building a clock at the Anchorage Museum that reflects the total flow of several major Alaskan rivers, which are sensitive to local and global environmental changes. We’ve programmed it to match an atomic clock if the waterways continue to flow at their present rate. If the rivers run faster in the future on average, the clock will get ahead of standard time. If they run slower, you’ll see the opposite effect.

The clock registers both short-term irregularities and long-term trends in river dynamics. It’s a sort of observatory that reveals how the rivers are behaving from their own temporal frame(时间框架), and allows us to witness those changes on our smartwatches or phones. Anyone who opts to go on Alaska Mean River Time will live in harmony with the planet. Anyone who considers river time in relation to atomic time will encounter a major imbalance and may be motivated to counteract it by consuming less fuel or supporting greener policies.

Even if this method of timekeeping is novel in its particulars, early agricultural societies also connected time to natural phenomena. In pre-Classical Greece, for instance, people “corrected” official calendars by shifting dates forward or backward to reflect the change of season. Temporal connect ion to the environment was vital to their survival. Likewise, river. time and other timekeeping systems we’re developing may encourage environmental awareness.

When St. Augustine admitted his inability to define time, he highlighted one of time’s most noticeable qualities: Time becomes meaningful only in a defined context. Any timekeeping system is valid, and each is as praiseworthy as its purpose.

1. What is the main idea of Paragraph 1?

A．Everyone can define time on their own terms.

B．Timekeeping is increasingly related to nature.

C．The qualities of time vary with how you measure it.

D．Time is a major concern of philosophers and scientists

2. The author raises three questions in Paragraph 2 mainly to          .

A．evaluate an argument

B．introduce an approach

C．present an assumption

D．highlight an experiment

3. What can we learn from this passage?

A．Those who do not go on river time will live an imbalanced life.

B．New ways of measuring time can help to control Earth systems.

C．Atomic time will get ahead   of river time if the rivers run slower.

D．Modern technology may help to shape the rivers’ temporal frame.

4. What can we infer from this passage?

A．History is a mirror reflecting reality.

B．We should live in harmony with nature.

C．A fixed frame will make time meaningless.

D．It is crucial to improve the definition of time.

【推荐3】It doesn’t kill germs better than cooler water, but turning tap temperatures high, the US burns carbon equal to the emissions of Barbados.

People typically wash their hands seven times a day in the United States, but they do it at a far higher temperature than is necessary to kill germs, a new study says. The energy waste is equivalent to the fuel use of a small country.

It’s cold and flu season, when many people are concerned about avoiding germs. But forget what you think you know about hand washing, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. Chances are good that how you clean up is not helping you stay healthy; it is helping to make the planet sick.

Amanda R. Carrico, a research assistant professor at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment in Tennessee, told National Geographic that hand washing is often “a case where people act in ways that they think are in their best interest, but they in fact have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions.”

Carrico said, “It’s certainly true that heat kills bacteria, but if you were going to use hot water to kill them it would have to be way too hot for you to tolerate.”

She explained that boiling water, 212°F (99.98°C), is sometimes used to kill germs — for example, to clean drinking water that might be polluted with germs. But “hot” water for hand washing is generally within 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C). At the high end of that range, heat could kill some germs, but the sustained contact that would be required would scald the skin.

Carrico said that after a review of the scientific literature, her team found “no evidence that using hot water that a person could stand would have any benefit in killing bacteria.” Even water as cold as 40°F (4.4°C) appeared to reduce bacteria as well as hotter water, if hands were scrubbed, rinsed (冲洗) and dried properly.

In fact, she noted that hot water can often have an unfavorable effect on hygiene. “Warmer water can harm the skin and affect the protective layer on the outside, which can cause it to be less resistant to bacteria,” said Carrico.

Using hot water to wash hands is therefore unnecessary, as well as wasteful, Carrico said, particularly when it comes to the environment. According to her research, people use warm or hot water 64 percent of the time when they wash their hands. Using that number, Carrico’s team calculated a significant impact on the planet.

“Although the choice of water temperature during a single hand wash may appear minor, when multiplied by the nearly 800 billion hand washes performed by Americans each year, this practice results in more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually,” she said.

That’s roughly equal to the emissions of two coal-fired power plants, or 1,250,000 passenger vehicles, over the course of a year. It’s higher than the greenhouse gas emissions of small countries like EI Salvador or Armenia, and is about equivalent to the emissions of Barbados. If all US citizens washed their hands in cooler water, it would be like eliminating the energy-related carbon emissions of 299,700 US homes, or the total annual emissions from the US zinc or lead industries.

The researchers found that close to 70 percent of respondents said they believe that using hot water is more effective than warm, room temperature, or cold water, despite a lack of evidence backing that up, said Carrico. Her study noted research that showed a “strong cognitive (认知的) connection” between water temperature and hygiene in both the United States and Western Europe, compared to other countries, like Japan, where hot water is associated more with comfort than with health.

The researchers published their results in the July 2013 issue of International Journal of Consumer Studies. They recommended washing with water that is at a “comfortable” temperature, which they noted may be warmer in cold months and cooler in hot ones.

1. What does the writer mainly focus on when writing this passage?

A．Whether hot water helps kill germs effectively in hand washing.

B．How hot water contributes to the serious worsening of our planet.

C．Why the consumption of hot water is unnecessary and wasteful.

D．What the advantages and disadvantages of using hot water are.

2. The underlined word scald in paragraph six probably means_________.

A．burn	B．improve
C．soften	D．wrinkle

3. According to the passage, all the following share roughly the same CO2 emissions yearly EXCEPT______.

A．two coal-fired power plants	B．US zinc or lead industries
C．1,250,000 passenger vehicles	D．EI Salvador or Armenia

4. Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?

A．Boiling water at 212°F (99.98°C) works effectively in killing germs.

B．Warmer water can damage the protective layer of the outside skin.

C．There is much difference between cold water and hot water in reducing bacteria.

D．Americans have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions in hand washing.

5. Which of the following is the standard of a comfortable water temperature for washing hands?

A．Warmer in winter and cooler in summer.

B．Between 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C).

C．Below 104°F (40°C) or above 131°F (55°C).

D．Warm enough to kill germs and clean up.

【推荐2】Whenever we see a button on a doorbell or on a remote, we may press it. This is true in most cases. But some buttons are actually fake (假的), like the “close” button on an elevator．

Many people are in the habit of pressing the “close” button because they don’t have the patience to wait for the elevator doors to shut. But according to experts, the buttons are a complete trick—the doors will not close any faster however hard you press.

It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, making sure that all elevators stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only firefighters and maintenance workers (维修工) can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys. But to normal elevator riders, the buttons aren’t completely useless.

According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control. Experts have shown that a lot of buttons that don’t do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, pedestrian crosswalk buttons don’t live up to their names. Pressing them used to help make the traffic signals change faster, but that was before computer-controlled traffic signals were introduced.

Psychologists, however, found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little “white lies”, they still continue to push the fake button because as long as the door eventually closes, it is considered worth the effort.

That habit is here to stay, John Kounios, a psychology professor at Drexel University in the US, told The New York Times. “After all, I’ve got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not try the chance?”

1. The author writes the text to______________.

A．inform readers of kinds of fake button

B．analyze what roles fake buttons play

C．explore different ways to push buttons

D．explain why fake buttons were introduced

2. Which is true according to the text?

A．Firemen can make the elevator close faster by using the button.

B．Maintenance workers have special keys to control elevator doors.

C．Disabled elevator riders need other’s help to get in the elevator.

D．The “close” button on the door is useless to normal elevator users.

3. The underlined “this same purpose” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to_____________.

A．making people more patient

B．improving people’s bad mood

C．helping people build up confidence

D．offering people a sense of control

4. What can we know from John Kounios’ words?

A．Pressing fake buttons is of no meaning at all.

B．People don’t know that what they press is fake.

C．Some people press fake buttons just to kill time.

D．People are supposed to quit pressing fake buttons.

【推荐3】The baby monkey is much more developed at birth than the human baby. Almost from the moment it is born, the baby monkey can move around and hold tightly to its mother. During the first few days of its life the baby will approach and hold onto almost any large, warm, and soft object in its environment, particularly if that object also gives it milk. After a week or so, however, the baby monkey begins to avoid newcomers and focuses its attentions on “mother” ---- the real mother or the mother-substitute(母亲替代物）.
During the first two weeks of its warmth is perhaps the most important psychological（心理的） thing that a monkey mother has to give to its baby. The Harlows, a couple who are both psychologists, discovered this fact by offering baby monkeys a choice of two types of mother-substitutes ---- one covered with cloth and one made of bare wire. If the two artificial mothers were both the same temperature, the little monkeys always preferred the cloth mother. However, if the wire model was heated, while the cloth model was cool, for the first two weeks after birth the baby monkeys picked the warm wire mother-substitutes as their favorites. Thereafter they switched and spent most of their time on the more comfortable cloth mother
Why is cloth preferable to bare wire? Something that the Harlows called contact（接触的） comfort seems to be the answer, and a most powerful influence it is. Baby monkeys spend much of their time rubbing against their mothers’ skins, putting themselves in as close contact with the parent as they can. Whenever the young animal is frightened, disturbed, or annoyed, it typically rushes to its mother and rubs itself against her body. Wire doesn’t“rub”as well as does soft wire cloth. Prolonged（长时间的）“contact comfort” with a cloth mother appears to give the babies confidence and is much more rewarding to them than is either warmth or milk.
According to the Harlows, the basic quality of a baby’s love for its mother is trust. If the baby is put into an unfamiliar playroom without its mother, the baby ignores the toys no matter how interesting they might be. It screams in terror and curls up into a fury little ball. If its cloth mother is now introduced into the playroom, the baby rushes to it and holds onto it for dear life. After a few minutes of contact comfort, it obviously begins to feel more secure. It then climbs down from the mother-substitute and begins to explore the toys, but often rushes back for a deep embrace（拥抱）as if to make sure that its mother is still there and that all is well. Bit by bit its fears of the new environment are gone and it spends more and more time playing with the toys and less and less time holding on to its “mother.”
1. Psychologically, what does the baby monkey desire most during the first two weeks of its life?

A．Warmth

B．Milk

C．Contact

D．Trust

2. After the first two weeks of their life, baby moneys prefer the cloth mother to the wire mother because the former is ________.

A．larger in size	B．closer to them
C．less frightening and less disturbing	D．more comfortable to rub against

3. What does the baby monkey probably gain from prolonged “contact comfort”?

A．Attention

B．Softness

C．Confidence

D．Interest

4. It can be inferred that when the baby monkey feels secure, ________.

A．it frequently rushes back for a deep embrace when exploring the toys

B．it spends more time screaming to get rewards

C．it is less attracted to the toys though they are interesting

D．it cares less about whether its mother is still around

5. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.

A．give the reasons of the experiment

B．present the findings of the experiment

C．introduce the method of the experiment

D．describe the process of the experiment