Living among trees, plants and flowers can fill your life with beauty. And if you are a woman, it can also help you live longer.
Women who live in homes surrounded by plants appear to have lower death rates than women who live in areas with less green plants, according to a research.
Peter James and his team looked at information from one of the largest and oldest investigations of women’s health: the Nurses’ Health Study.
For the new study, the team looked at the death rates of more than 100,000 women between the years 2008 and 2015.Then the researchers compared the death rates of these women to the green plants around their homes. To determine the amount of trees and other vegetation (植被),researchers examined satellite images.
To make it more believable, the researchers considered other risk factors — things such as the age of the women, their economic status, and race. They also looked at whether or not the women smoked.
Peter James says he and his team were surprised to find such a strong link between high vegetation levels and low death rates. He adds they were also surprised to find how high levels of plant life can affect a woman’s mental health.
The study suggests that living among vegetation lowered levels of depression. Researchers say women in greener areas spent more time with other people, exercised more and were less exposed to air pollution.
One of the biggest effects of greenery appeared to be a lowered risk of cancer. Here are some numbers. The study found that women living in the greenest areas had a 13 percent lower rate of dying from cancer.
James says that it is common knowledge that vegetation helps the environment in many ways. But, he adds, the new findings suggest ways for city planners, landscape architects and policymakers to grow even healthier living areas.
1. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?| A．To introduce the green environment and call on people to enjoy it. |
| B．To show women living in green areas are more likely to live longer. |
| C．To show the relationship between animals and plants. |
| D．To give some tips on how to live long. |
| A．By studying more people. |
| B．By examining satellite images. |
| C．By taking more factors into account. |
| D．By cooperating with the Nurses’ Health Study. |
| A．excited | B．unconcerned |
| C．relieved | D．surprised |
| A．People are unlikely to develop cancer because of living with green plants. |
| B．People die from cancer more than from other diseases. |
| C．Living with green plants can help lower depression. |
| D．This finding is specially made for city planners. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Benefits of Forest Bathing
Forest bathing means spending time in nature to promote physical and mental health. In recent years, forest bathing has gained popularity around the world. This practice encourages people to connect with nature by taking slow walks, engaging in activities such as yoga or meditation, and embracing the present moment.
Aid in reducing stress
Forest bathing can help reduce stress. Connecting with nature decreases cortisol(皮质醇) levels, the hormone responsible for feelings of stress.
A natural mood enhancer
If you want to elevate your mood, take a trip to the forest. A forest bathing trip can ease your mood significantly.
It’s no secret that nature plays a vital role in human life, and the two are strongly connected. In natural environments, plants and trees release some special oils, which can protect plants from germs. They also have many human health benefits. In addition to enhancing mood, these oils are also a natural immunity booster.
Inspire focus and concentration
| A．Improve your intelligence |
| B．Help boost your immune system |
| C．It can help reduce your anxiety, depression, and tiredness |
| D．Forest bathing provides an opportunity to escape disturbance |
| E．Here are some ways you can benefit from going into the forest |
| F．So the more time you spend in nature, the more relaxed you will be |
| G．Here are the benefits of forest bathing that you can start gaining today |
【推荐2】Mother Nature has it figured out. She’s designed a master scheme that connects plants and animals, all working in concert to keep every living thing in balance.
This is especially obvious in places like central Africa and in South American tropical rainforests where certain animals help keep trees safe and healthy, which is critical as trees absorb vast amounts of planet-warming carbon pollution.
Recent research warns that losing the creatures that nurture trees puts forests in danger. This, by extension, is helping to accelerate dangerous climate change.
In central Africa for example, elephants eat fast-growing trees, making room for those that grow more slowly. The slow-growing trees with their very dense wood store more carbon than the thinner, faster-developing ones Without elephants, more carbon would accumulate in the atmosphere, worsening climate change according to a new study that used computer models to project what could happen if elephant populations continue to decrease or become extinct.
Africa may once have contained 10 million elephants from the Mediterranean to the Cape, in every habitat except extreme desert. In 1970, there may have been a million left. By the end of the 1980s, there were half that number, mostly killed for the ivory trade, "said Stephen Blake, assistant professor of biology at St. Louis University.
By killing elephants, poachers (偷猎者) rob slow growing trees of their guardian. They also slow the growth of new trees. Elephants blaze(开辟) trails and disperse(散播) seeds as they look for food. “Elephants are basically the gardeners of the forest,” Blake said. They disperse over 100 species of seeds, and disperse more of them over longer distances than other dispersers.”
Blake, who has spent nearly 20 years in Africa working in elephant research and conservation, mourns their fate, describing them as “a complex society of intelligent, caring, emotional animals who respect their grandmothers and mourn their dead” and condemns those who neglect their duty to save them.
“We will go to Mars-there is no doubt-humans are too smart not to,” he said. “Yet we do not have the wisdom to protect elephants and their forest environment that do so much for our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being.
1. Elephants help keep slow-growing trees safe and healthy by________.| A．providing living space for them. |
| B．dispersing seeds when searching for food. |
| C．decreasing in number and reducing carbon accumulation. |
| D．protecting them in the forest from being cut down. |
| A．The world is changing at a faster speed than before. |
| B．People are intelligent enough to protect the environment. |
| C．What we have done to protect elephants is far from satisfactory. |
| D．Animals are so smart that they care much about the well-being of humans. |
| A．Elephants are in danger of dying out in the near future. |
| B．Elephants are fighting climate change in ways humans can’t. |
| C．Animals are assumed to be the gardeners of the forest. |
| D．Animals are accelerating dangerous climate change. |
【推荐3】I am an Africa wildlife filmmaker. But wildlife filmmakers from Africa are rarer than mountain gorillas(大猩猩). To understand why there are so few, we need to remember our recent history.
When the colonialists(殖民者) ruled Africa, they seized control of the continent’s wildlife and other natural resources. They saw African wildlife as “big game” and the continent’s first protected natural areas were game reserves created by driving away locals for the benefit of white hunters. Later, game reserves were renamed national parks and big game hunting gave way to wildlife tourism. But African wildlife was still there for White people’s enjoyment and benefits.
That locals could have an interest in preserving wildlife for its own sake was rarely considered. Africans -like me who tried to get involved in wildlife conservation were made to feel out of place. When I was first interviewed by a British film crew, my interview was cut at the editing stage and replaced by a white man, just because I was an African.
Africa was the setting for some of the most popular films about wildlife, but these films were made by western-owned production companies for Western audiences, and most Africans never even got to see them. What Africa needed was to see themselves and their view points in the films. We urgently needed wildlife films made by Africans, about Africans and for Africans. As producer of the documentary TV series “Wildlife Warriors”, I set out to find African conservation heroes who could play a role in the documentary. I soon discovered that we had some talented African filmmakers across the continent.
Today things are changing fast. Companies like National Geographic and the BBC are leading the way with new approaches to global storytelling that deliver diversity and equality. Our African wildlife filmmakers’ mission is to draw on the power of local storytelling to inspire our people to save our continent’s rich wildlife.
1. Why are African wildlife filmmakers rare?| A．They lack the talent in making films. | B．They live in the shadow of westerners. |
| C．They are still colonized by the westerns. | D．They aren’t interested in filming wildlife. |
| A．The strictness of the crew. | B．The preference for the British. |
| C．The prejudice against Africans. | D．The benefits of local communities. |
| A．The locals enjoy wildlife films set in Africa. |
| B．Africans play a leading role in wildlife film-making. |
| C．Films made by westerners are the most popular ones. |
| D．Africans long for having a say in wildlife film-making. |
| A．To introduce how African wildlife are protected. |
| B．To urge people to better preserve African wildlife. |
| C．To show that the author was ignored by westerners. |
| D．To explain why more African filmmakers are needed. |
【推荐1】Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. Researchers, however, have found that there’s one thing musical training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent.
Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child’s intellectual development. He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts — arts that can be seen. “The evidence there is ‘no.’ We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids taking part in these music classes,” said Mehr.
Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons. He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of a child’s intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons. There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group. The researchers confirmed the results with a larger group of children and their parents.
Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, “We teach music because music is important for us.”
He notes that the works of writer William Shakespeare are not taught, so the children will do better in physics. He says Shakespeare is taught because it is important. “And I don’t think music needs to be any different than that.”
1. Different from the common belief, Samuel Mehr believes that ______.| A．playing musical instrument makes children more intelligent |
| B．musical training has no evident link to children’s intelligence |
| C．learning to play musical instrument is not worthwhile at all. |
| D．music lessons can increase children’s IQ and make them smarter |
| A．By attending music lessons himself. | B．By consulting experts. |
| C．By comparing different groups. | D．By talking to parents. |
| A．Music lessons probably help to gain better performance. |
| B．Musical training has no positive effect on children at all. |
| C．Music lessons have different influences on different people. |
| D．Musical training cannot possibly make children smarter. |
| A．To tell us music is taught because of its great importance. |
| B．To show us the importance of studying Shakespeare’s works. |
| C．To argue that music lessons cannot make children smarter |
| D．To make us realize Shakespeare is as important as music. |
【推荐2】Food Might Still Be Okay Longer Than You Think
Many products often come with expiration dates to indicate a predetermined shelf life, like food and medicine. Once the indicated date has passed, these products are generally deemed unfit for use or consumption —
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average person generated about 2.68 pounds of municipal solid waste per day in the 1960s, which include food, plastic, and paper waste. This amount increased to 4.74 pounds in the 2000s, finally reaching 4.9 pounds in 2018. The disposal of expired but usable or consumable goods can contribute to overall waste. By minimizing this, an individual may be able to reduce the amount of waste they produce.
Here’s what expiration dates generally mean for various products and when consumers can safely overlook them. For most products, the date on the packaging label is not an expiration date, but a ‘best by’ or ‘sell by’ date, says Londa Nwadike, extension associate professor of food safety at the Kansas State University and the University of Missouri.
Although expired food may not be at its peak deliciousness, it should still be safe to consume.
| A．In general, the dates on the food — other than infant formula and baby food — are set for quality, rather than safety purposes. |
| B．but what if experts say consuming foods past their expiration dates isn’t always bad? |
| C．To optimize quality and shelf life and avoid food waste, proper storage is crucial. |
| D．but does that mean people should toss them out the second that date passes? |
| E．There’s no hard and fast rule, and it’s more important to pay attention to how long since the food was bought and whether it was kept in proper conditions. |
| F．In fact, a lot of the time consumers aren’t able to see (or even taste) harmful bacteria that could be living on the expired food. |
【推荐3】IQ is often regarded as a crucial driver of success, particularly in fields such as science, innovation and technology. But the truth is that some of the greatest achievements by our species have primarily relied on what scientists call “cognitive flexibility”.
Cognitive flexibility is a skill that enables us to switch between different concepts, or to adapt behavior to achieve goals in a novel or changing environment. And the good news is that it can be trained. Currently, a group of researchers from Cambridge University are conducting some research, trying to work out how people can best boost their cognitive flexibility.
Cognitive flexibility may have affected how people coped with the pandemic lockdowns, which produced new challenges around work and schooling. Some people may have changed their routines from time to time, trying to find better and more varied ways of going about their day. Others, however, struggled and finally became more rigid in their thinking. They stuck to the same routine activities, with little flexibility or change.
Flexible thinking is key to creativity. It also supports academic and work skills such as problem solving. Unlike working memory, it is largely independent of IQ. For example, many visual artists may be of average intelligence, but highly creative and have produced masterpieces.
So does cognitive flexibility make people smarter in a way that isn’t always captured on IQ tests? We know that it leads to better rational thinking throughout the lifespan. For example, for children it leads to better reading abilities and better school performance.
It can also help protect against a number of prejudice. People who are cognitively flexible are better at recognizing potential faults in themselves and using strategies to overcome these faults.
Cognitive flexibility is essential for society to flourish. It can help maximize the potential of individuals to create innovative ideas and creative inventions. Ultimately, it is such qualities that we need to solve the big challenges of today.
1. What is the purpose of the research conducted by Cambridge University researchers?| A．To clarify people’s misunderstanding about cognitive flexibility. |
| B．To figure out the relationship between IQ and cognitive flexibility. |
| C．To explore effective ways to improve people’s cognitive flexibility. |
| D．To make out the benefits of increasing people’s cognitive flexibility. |
| A．Stick to their original plan. | B．Handle new problems rigidly. |
| C．Adjust their thoughts and behavior. | D．Apply creative ideas to improve their IQ. |
| A．It is closely related to people’s IQ. | B．It helps improve working memory. |
| C．It is an unchangeable inborn quality. | D．It helps develop reasonable thinking. |
| A．To show they are intelligent. | B．To praise their great achievements. |
| C．To show they are cognitively flexible. | D．To praise their good working memory. |
| A．Benefits of cognitive flexibility. | B．Definitions of cognitive flexibility. |
| C．Applications of cognitive flexibility. | D．Experiments on cognitive flexibility. |
Riddles have been a pastime for centuries. Not only have riddles been something for passing the time, but they have also been used to pass on secret information during the Second World War. Even the ancient Greeks used riddles. They would tell riddles at parties and whoever was the first to get them right would receive prize.
Most riddles use words that have double meanings or share the same sound like “hear” and “here”. So in order to get the riddle, you will have to do some creative thinking and think of all the possibilities of different words. The difficulty of figuring out the riddle is based on the riddle itself. The riddle has to provide you with enough clues to come to the right answer, but that doesn’t mean that the clues have to be easy.
If you are looking to tell riddles but don’t know any, you can look online and you will find a large number of sites that will have hundreds of different riddles to choose from. If you would like to look somewhere else then you could look at your local bookstore, where you will be able to find many different books with thousands of riddles to choose from. You can even find websites and books that will tell you how to write your own riddles.
After you have found some resources that have different riddles, you will need to read through them to find the right ones for you and your family: You will also need to make sure that your kids will have a chance to figure out the answers. So take your time and choose the fight family riddles to tell.
1. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the text?
| A．To recommend an interesting family activity. |
| B．To stress the importance of family activities. |
| C．To encourage children to read more books. |
| D．To introduce the history of riddles. |
| A．do not have enough clues | B．have a very long history |
| C．were used in World War One | D．were first used in ancient Rome |
| A．discusses how riddles are created |
| B．explains why fiddles are interesting |
| C．tells people how to solve riddles |
| D．shows the benefits of telling riddles |
| A．one way | B．two ways | C．three ways | D．four ways |
【推荐2】The 1975 film Jaw s tells the story of a great white shark that attacks and kills swimmers. Jaws was a great success. It strengthened people’s long-held idea of the great white shark as a dangerous animal.
People have always been scared of sharks, but Jaws made things worse. It made people frightened of sharks. Many people started to believe that sharks were bad animals that ate humans. Some people stopped swimming in the sea. Other people started fishing for sharks, killing as many as they could. At that time, nobody cared if sharks were killed, or how many were killed. People just wanted them killed.
After 1975, the number of large sharks around America fell quickly, and soon fell around the world. This was not only due to fear of sharks, but also finning. Finning is a type of fishing where sharks are caught and their fins are cut off. The sharks are thrown back into the sea where they die slowly and painfully. Finning kills millions of sharks a year.
Finning would have an unexpected effect upon Peter Benchley, the man who wrote the book that the film Jaws was based on. In 1980, Benchley was diving when he came across an awful sight. It was an area where fishermen were finning, and the sea floor was covered with dead sharks. Benchley saw sharks being killed and this caused a deep change in him. He came to see people as a danger to sharks, rather than the other way round. From that day on, he fought to protect sharks. He admitted that his book was wrong about sharks’ behaviour. “Sharks don’t target humans,” he said. Experts have proved that sharks do not see people as food, and they attack us by mistake.
Fortunately, not everyone who watched the film Jaws became afraid of sharks—some became interested in understanding them. Today, as we learn more about sharks, more people than ever want to protect them from extinction.
1. How have people’s attitudes towards sharks changed after the film Jaws?| A．They become proud of sharks. |
| B．They are more frightened of sharks. |
| C．They begin to realize their importance. |
| D．They have the same attitude to sharks. |
| A．He became more afraid of sharks. |
| B．He continued to support shark finning. |
| C．He recognized humans as a danger to sharks. |
| D．He understood sharks are dangerous to humans. |
| A．To comment on Peter’s book. |
| B．To tell the success of the film Jaws. |
| C．To recommend a film to readers. |
| D．To raise awareness of shark protection. |
【推荐3】According to a survey conducted by The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the monarch butterfly is facing a sharp population decline that could soon lead to its extinction.
The monarch butterfly is considered the "king of all butterflies due to its extreme beauty, hence the name "monarch". The most popular among the North American butterflies, the grand black-and-orange in vertebrate（无脊椎动物） is known for its yearly mass migration of up to 3,000 miles from the Baja California Peninsula to California's Central Coast every winter, beautifully covering all the trees along their path.
In 1980, its population was recorded to be about 4. 5 million and by the mid-2000's, there were barely 100,000 remaining. In 2018, the number of monarch butterflies fell down to only 28,260, which makes a 99. 4 percent decline in 39 years.
"It's mind-boggling. We're now down below 1 percent of the historic population," Says Emma Pelton, a Xerces Society Conservation biologist.
A variety of factors could be involved to cause the monarch butterflies' near extinction. One could have a co-relation to the lessening of other insects such as bees and other bird species. Another factor could be due to a number of human economic activities such as urbanization and illegal logging which lessens the butterflies' habitat, and pesticides widely used on corn and soybean crops.
Because of these chains of events, an "extinction vortex（旋风）” has occurred where the process of extinction would be near unstoppable since the species won't be able to reproduce and raise their numbers the natural way.
The mass disappearance of the monarch butterfly and other endangered species is a wake up call of our little time remaining to positively shift the direction of the ecological environment for a massive improvement in the near future, in order to help mother nature and all the other living species in this earth.
1. What is the monarch butterfly noted for?| A．Its extreme beauty as king. |
| B．Its special name with monarch. |
| C．Its manner of reproduction. |
| D．Its regular large-scale migration. |
| A．About 20,000. | B．About 150,000. |
| C．About 114,660. | D．About 44,550. |
| A．The growth of cities. |
| B．The popularity of other insects. |
| C．The cleaning of lakes. |
| D．Less crops such as soybean. |
| A．To inform us of something about butterflies. |
| B．To appeal to us to protect the ecological environment. |
| C．To analyze why monarch butterflies have gone extinct. |
| D．To attract visitors to California's Central Coast. |
