When rains fell in the Atacama Desert for the first time in centuries, scientists had expected to see life blossom (繁盛). Instead, almost everything died. The shocking discovery was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Found in northern Chile, the dry core of the Atacama Desert hadn’t experienced rain for the past 500 years. But three years ago, rain started to fall once again in the region.
A changing climate in the Pacific Ocean resulted in the desert’s dry core experiencing rain on March 25 and August 9, 2015, and it rained again on June 7, 2017. There was no evidence of rain in this region for the past 500 years, although climate models suggested it should occur every century.
The international team of scientists who studied the region were hoping for deserts springing to life. “Instead, we learned the contrary, as we found that rain in the dry core of the Atacama Desert caused a massive extinction of most native microbe (微生物) species there, ”said study co-author Alberto Fairén.
Before the rain fell, this region of the Atacama had been home to 16 different ancient microbe species. But after the rain fell, just two to four species were still found to be surviving in the resultant pool of water. The cause of the extinction event, believed to have been about 85 percent of life in the soil, was caused by the sudden influx of water. In particular, these microbes were adapted to survive in extreme dryness. They were unable to adapt quickly enough to the unexpected rainfall.
But it’s not all bad news. The team also found nitrates (硝酸盐) in the Atacama Desert that were indicative of a lengthy dry period, while also acting as food for the microbes. And we’ve recently found nitrates on Mars, which could be indicating a similar process there.
1. How did the scientists find their discovery according to Alberto Fairén?| A．Satisfying. | B．Astonishing. | C．Amusing. | D．Comforting. |
| A．Shortage. | B．Need. | C．Arrival. | D．Test. |
| A．The resultant pool of water was a wildlife habitat. |
| B．The team plans to turn the desert into a green land. |
| C．Scientists have observed lots of microbes on Mars. |
| D．The finding brought some hope to relevant studies. |
| A．Unexpected Rainfalls Hit a Desert Badly |
| B．A Science Magazine Increased in Popularity |
| C．Scientists Unlocked the Secret behind Drought |
| D．A Breakthrough Occurred in Space Exploration |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year for 2022 was “goblin mode”: a kind of behavior mode, which means a crazy self-enjoyment, typically in a way that rejects social customs or regulations. If we all got fascinated by making our home comfort and beautiful, it feels like last year was the year we gave up: Welcoming the mess and the chaos in daily life.
Orgamzed mess has been in fashion for a while, after the coming of the term “cluttercore”: the art of having masses of stuff in one’s home and embracing (拥抱) color and noise. Think messy maximalism: Chaos, but lovely designed chaos.
Clean spaces don’t lead a man to innovation and creation. This is the reason why so many geniuses do their work in cluttered surroundings. They don’t see the mess — they see possibility. Ever known the type of person to store crayons in the microwave and books in the washing machine? That’s probably because they are more creative in disorder. Staying messy builds the connections which lead them to new and creative ideas. They believe that messes offer new approaches to seeing the world. So don’t get worried about being messy. That just might spark your next genius invention.
Messy people have their own unique ways of keeping organized. You wouldn’t know from looking at their piles of stuff, but they know exactly what’s in them and how to find what they’re looking for every time. These piles are, in their eyes, well-organized and everything is easy to get. Painters, writers, musicians and creators throughout history have often worked in disorder. They have their unique way to place their objects and that is what they like.
1. What does the writer mean in the first paragraph?| A．Ignoring social customs or regulations. | B．Learning to enjoy life by oneself. |
| C．Being positive to a life of mess and chaos. | D．Introducing the word for 2022. |
| A．It is an art of mess lovely displayed. | B．It is an art of placing everything in order. |
| C．It comes before the word “cluttercore”. | D．It is hated by geniuses. |
| A．The possibility of being a talent. | B．The possibility of being a messy man. |
| C．The possibility of getting inspiration. | D．The possibility of being clean. |
| A．To prove that artists all love mess and chaos. |
| B．To show they have a good memory. |
| C．To present their messy side. |
| D．To offer examples of messy people’s unique way of being organized. |
【推荐2】Parents are an enormously powerful force in the lives of children. Whether Johnny can read, whether Johnny knows right from wrong, whether Johnny is a happy, well—adjusted kid, or shy and bad—tempered, has a whole lot to do with the kind of parenting Johnny has received. If Johnny’s mom and dad have been able to come through with lasting, determining, loving attention, the odds are Johnny is on track to become a productive, compassionate citizen. If they have not, Johnny is in trouble—and so is our nation.
Thirty years ago Chicago sociologist James S. Coleman showed that parental involvement mattered far more in determining school success than any quality of the formal education system. Across a wide range of subject areas, in literature, science and reading, Coleman estimated that the parent was twice as powerful as the school in determining achievement at age fourteen. Psychologist Lawrence Steinberg, who recently completed a six—year study of 20 ,000 teenagers in nine different communities, confirms the importance of parents. Steinberg shows that one out of three parents is “seriously disengaged” from his or her adolescent’s education, and this is the primary reason why so many American students perform below their potential—and below students in other rich countries.
A weight of evidence now demonstrates obvious links between absent parents and a wide range of behavioral and emotional problems in children. A 1997 study of 90 ,000 teenagers—the Add Health Project undertaken by the Carolina Population Center and the Adolescent Health Program at the University of Minnesota—found that youngsters are less likely get hopeless, use drugs or become involved in crime when they spent significant time with their parents. This study found that only the physical presence of a parent in the home after school, at dinner and at bedtime significantly reduces the incidence of risky behavior among teenagers.
1. What can be inferred from paragraph 1?| A．Children should be taught to be successful in life. |
| B．Parents’ character has a deep influence on children. |
| C．Children are affected by many factors during the growth. |
| D．Parents should be strict with their children about behaviors. |
| A．Odds. | B．Children. | C．Citizens. | D．Parents. |
| A．To find out why there are so many crimes. |
| B．To know the importance of parents’ company. |
| C．To get ways to prevent teenagers’s bad behaviors. |
| D．To find links between parents’ education and crimes. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Doubtful. | C．Favorable. | D．Unclear. |
【推荐3】Every time your fingers touch your cell phone, they leave behind traces of chemicals. And each chemical offers clues to you and your activities. By analyzing them. scientists might be able to piece together a story about your recent life, a new study finds.
A molecule is a group of atoms. It represents the smallest amount of some chemical. Your skin is covered in molecules picked up by everything you’ve touched. With each new thing your skin contacts, you leave behind some small share of what it’d touched earlier.
Researchers at the University of California. San Diego (UCSD)recently analyzed such chemical leftovers on the phones of 39 volunteers. The study was led by biochemist Amina Bouslimani. To explore those remains, the UCSD team wiped the surface of each volunteer’s phone with a cotton swab(药棉签). The scientists also swabbed each person’s right hand.
Then the researchers compared the chemicals found on each cell phone. The scientists discovered as many of the molecules as they could. They then compared these to a database of chemicals. Pieter Dorrestein. a UCSD pharmaceutical chemist, had helped set up that database a few years earlier, which contains various substances, including spices, caffeine and medicines.
Traces of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of different molecules turned up on each phone. The molecules reflected what had been in the body, and what each person had handled before touching the phone. From all these molecules, Bouslimani says. “We could tell if a person is likely female, uses high-end cosmetics, dyes her hair, drinks coffee, prefers beer over wine or likes spicy food.”
Police already use molecular analyses to look for traces of explosives or illegal drugs. To date, Dorrestein says. he’s never heard of police using phone remains to narrow down behavioral clues to search for a suspect. But detectives might one day use such data to track down someone who left a phone behind at a crime scene.
1. What can we conclude about the user by analyzing the leftovers on the phone?| A．Personality. | B．Intelligence. | C．Appearance. | D．Lifestyle. |
| A．Comparing different chemicals. | B．Hiring volunteers with cell phones. |
| C．Building a database containing chemicals. | D．Collecting the chemicals from phones. |
| A．Uninterested. | B．Disappointed. | C．Doubtful. | D．Positive. |
| A．Fingers Leave Clues about You on Your Phone |
| B．Your Phone May Be Home to Various Chemicals |
| C．Molecules Are Used to Search for Illegal Drugs |
| D．Cell Phones Will be Used in More Fields |
CLIMATE CHANGE REQUIRES THE WORLD’S ATTENTION
We have known about climate change for decades. There is little doubt that Earth is getting warmer and warmer (see the graph). A warming ocean and atmosphere along with melting ice and rising sea levels provide evidence of a dramatic change in the global climate.
In 2013, a lot of people were shocked by a news photo of a dead polar bear that was found on Norway’s Arctic island of Svalbard. According to the scientists who found its dead body, all that remained of the polar bear was “skin and bones”. An expert who has studied polar bears for many years said that from the position of its dead body, the bear appeared to have starved and died. Experts claimed that low sea-ice levels caused by climate change meant the bear could not hunt seals as before, so it had to travel greater distances in order to find food. This alarming case showed how the increase in temperature had an impact on Earth’s ecology.
Then what is causing the increase in the global average surface temperature? Climate scientists often mention a key climate process called the “greenhouse effect”, which has two common meanings: the “natural” greenhouse effect and the “man-made” greenhouse effect. The “natural” greenhouse effect refers to the fact that heat from the sun enters the atmosphere and warms Earth’s surface as short-wave radiation. The heat is released back into space at longer wave lengths. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as methane and carbon dioxide, trap some of the heat, keeping Earth’s climate warm and habitable. Without this process, Earth could not sustain life. However, the “man-made” greenhouse effect has now become a big problem. When people produce huge amounts of extra greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels, more heat energy is trapped in the atmosphere and causes Earth’s surface temperature to rise quickly.
There is strong and comprehensive evidence that the rise in temperature has led to an increase in extreme weather and natural disasters worldwide, not only causing serious damage, but also costing human lives. Climate scientists have warned that if we do not take appropriate actions, this warming trend will probably continue and there will be a higher price to pay. In fact, news reports are frequently broadcast about extreme rainstorms and heatwaves causing deaths and economic losses.
Continued greenhouse gas emissions will result in further warming and long-lasting changes to the global climate. This requires the attention of people all over the world. Governments need to consider making policies and taking appropriate actions and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We as individuals can also reduce our “carbon footprint” by restricting the amount of carbon dioxide our lifestyles produce. It is our responsibility to seize every opportunity to educate everyone about global warming, along with its causes and impacts, because this is the most serious issue affecting all of us on this planet. So what will you do to help?
1. What happened to the polar bear in the photo? Why did the writer write about it?2. Why is the “natural” greenhouse effect important and necessary?
3. What are the consequences of high greenhouse gas emissions?
4. Why did the author mention the climate scientists' warning?
5. What is the author’s purpose of writing this text?
【推荐2】Nowadays, it sounds difficult to stick to a vegan diet, especially with many popular dishes containing meat or other animal products.
What is veganism on earth? For many people, veganism simply means eating no meat cheese or eggs.
Are you interested in protecting animals and saving the environment?
| A．So what drives this growth in veganism? |
| B．If so, you might want to give veganism a try. |
| C．Humans do not need to eat animals to survive. |
| D．Recently many brands are looking for other materials. |
| E．Yet in recent years, veganism has become a popular lifestyle. |
| F．But going animal-free also applies to fashion and manufacturing. |
| G．So you may want to think it through before deciding to be a vegan. |
【推荐3】Wasting things is a nightmare (噩梦) for the environment, especially food waste, which does double harm to the environment. A plenty of resources go into the food and the food system also produces lots of greenhouse gases and pollution.
In our homes, restaurants, and food shops, 17 percent of all our food is thrown away—that’s about a sixth of all of the food we have. If you add on the food lost in production, about a third of all food produced never reaches a mouth. At the same time, nearly 700 million people were affected by hunger in 2019, while 3 billion still struggle to afford healthy food. It is mostly households that are to blame: 11 percent of the food ends up in the trash of our homes, compared to a mere 5 and 2 percent from stores and restaurants.
The reasons why food goes to waste are probably familiar to you: dinner party leftovers that never get eaten, food going bad before you cook it, or simply confusion over sell-by and use-by dates that leads to totally fine food ending up in the garbage.
The UN aims to cut food waste in half at the consumer and sale levels by late 2022. Luckily, there’s actually a lot we can do as individuals and governments can make policies to help people and the environment a lot. For individuals, something important is being more thoughtful and prepared when going to the grocery store. Make a list of meals you want to cook, and then only buy fresh produce that you will 100 percent be eating in the next few days. In social aspect, improving education on how to preserve food and understand tricky labels (标签), encouraging food recycling and pushing companies to sell smaller quantities of healthy, fresh food for one or two people could all play a helpful role in bringing down the massive pile of eatable waste.
1. Which of the following contributes most to food waste?| A．Food shops. | B．Restaurants. | C．Households. | D．Food production. |
| A．People eat less than before. | B．The food price is low. |
| C．Food spoils easily during the summer. | D．People are confused about the shelf life of food. |
| A．Grocery stores should supply limited food. |
| B．People should raise their awareness of food conservation. |
| C．Everyone should consume as little food as possible. |
| D．Governments should distribute food resources fairly. |
| A．Health. | B．Fashion. | C．Environment. | D．Science. |
【推荐1】I only got my first smart phone recently. Before that, I had no problems with using older phones — the ones that can call and send messages, but hardly browse Internet. But in 2016 I made the change. While such a mini-computer made life easier, I could very well see why some people opt out of using them.
They are distracting —This is by far the biggest deal with smart phones, in my opinion. Just go outside and you will see it. Many are looking at their phones, not paying attention to the environment and interactions with others. Indeed, the new phones require attention frequently, and people are there to give it.
Privacy concerns — Because smart phones have high-end technology they can be called small computers. They have operating systems almost like your notebook. While this makes them most useful in real life, it also puts them at a privacy breach risk. It is possible for someone to put a virus on the smart phone—the result can be terrible such as sending the stolen data to a hacker. Another thing is the location tracking—the phones definitely make your whereabouts known even when you wouldn’t like. There is not much you can do but to stop using the smart phone, which sadly isn’t an option for many anymore.
Short battery life — The need to charge the device all the time is present with any smart phone I’m aware of. This is the downside of the small size and fine, computer-like technology inside them. In such a small package, the producers cannot install a bigger battery that would provide energy for long hours. At the same time, the performance requirements are bigger and bigger. This creates a dilemma not easily solved: to have high performance or long battery life. Choose one, both are not achievable at the same time.
As you see, there are some strong negatives about owning a smart phone. However, from my personal experience, there are a few good sides too. Less expensive messages and calls and digital maps are some of the benefits that made me change the old cell phone for a smart version.
1. The underlined phrase “opt out of” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _________.| A．stop | B．like | C．suggest | D．consider |
| A．the mini computer makes life easier |
| B．they are much cheaper and function better |
| C．personal information might be given away |
| D．we know about our whereabouts when we use them |
| A．it’s better to use computer-like smartphones |
| B．the technology in smart phones is up to date |
| C．operating smartphones consumes lots of power |
| D．bigger batteries are more beneficial for the users |
| A．The downsides of smartphones. | B．Advantages of smart phones. |
| C．Choice of smart phone versions. | D．The battery problem of smart phones. |
【推荐2】Anxiety is part of your body’s stress response system, and it can be uncomfortable, overwhelming，and sometimes plain confusing.
“I describe anxiety as a future-centred emotional response to a threat,” says Joel Minden, PhD, a clinical psychologist and the author of Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss. “We anticipate that something bad will happen. Maybe we have evidence. Maybe we don’t. But we have a belief that something disastrous might occur.”
Minden says, sympathetic nervous system controls involuntary processes such as breathing and heart rate. This leads to releasing adrenaline and cortisol (肾上腺素和皮质醇), two of the crucial substance that drive your body’s fight-freeze flight response and prompt anxiety’s physical symptoms. Your heart races, your blood pressure rises, your eyes became wider, you get short of breath, and you break put in sweat.
For Arthur, chronic (慢性) physical pain and discomfort were the most powerful manifestation of her disorder, but anxiety can show itself in many ways. You might constantly overthink plans or spend all of your time creating solutions to worst-case imagination. Maybe you feel uncertain and fear making the wrong decision. Or you might find yourself restless, nervous, and unable to relax.
Often, those symptoms last only as long as certain situations are present. Other times, anxiety can tip into becoming a chronic anxiety disorder such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, stress disorder, or a panic.
The distinction between circumstantial or temporary anxiety and a more severe case isn’t always easy to make, says clinical psychologist David Carbonell, PhD, founder of the Anxiety Treatment Center in Chicago.
“There isn’t a blood test for anxiety. At some point, everybody experiences it,” he says. “It becomes a disorder when it disturbs your behavioral choices and your ability to do as you wish in life.”
1. Why is anxiety described as a future-centred emotional response?| A．It is a reaction to an unknown threat. |
| B．It will bring about some physical action. |
| C．It is part of your body’s stress-response system. |
| D．It is a reaction to something bad going to happen. |
| A．Effect. | B．Demonstration. | C．Outcome. | D．Function. |
| A．Accomplishing a tough task. | B．During the flight to another city. |
| C．Waiting for an important interview. | D．Before attending an important exam. |
| A．Anxiety can be examined through a blood test. |
| B．Temporary anxiety tends to become permanent at some point. |
| C．Anxiety may become a disorder when it involves hard choices. |
| D．It is easy to identify the difference between temporary anxiety and a serious disorder. |
【推荐3】For many people, catching a smell of freshly cut grass is a pleasant sign that warmer weather is here to stay. For the grass, however, this sent signals an entirely different story.
The smell we associate with freshly cut grass is actually a chemical SOS, one used by plants to beg nearby creatures to save them from attack. After all, when danger strikes — whether it’s gardening equipment or a hungry caterpillar — plants can’t lift their roots and run. They must fight where they stand. To protect themselves, plants employ a string of molecular (分子) responses. These chemical communications can be used to poison an enemy, warn surrounding plants of dangers or attract helpful insects to perform needed services.
Clearly, plants can communicate. But does that mean they can feel pain? According to some researchers, plants release gases that are the equivalent of crying out in pain. Using a laser — powered microphone, researchers have picked up sound waves produced by plants releasing gases when cut or injured. Although not audible to the human ear, the secret voices of plants have revealed that cucumbers scream when they are sick, and flowers cry when their leaves are cut.
There’s also evidence that plants can hear themselves being eaten. Researches show that plants understand and respond to chewing sounds made by caterpillars dining on them. As soon as the plants hear the noises, they respond with several defense mechanisms.
For some researchers, evidence of these complex communication systems — giving out noises via gas when in pain — signals that plants feel pain. Others argue that there cannot be pain without a brain to register the feeling. Still more scientists infer that plants can exhibit intelligent behaviour without possessing a brain or conscious awareness.
As they grow, plants can change their paths to avoid obstacles or reach for support with their tendrils (卷须). This activity comes from a complex biological network distributed through the plants' roots, leaves and stems. This network helps plants reproduce, grow and survive.
1. What does the smell of freshly cut grass signal for the grass?| A．Warmer weather. | B．Crying for help. |
| C．Being poisonous. | D．The need of services. |
| A．By giving out gases. |
| B．By changing the colour of their leaves. |
| C．By producing audible sound waves. |
| D．By sharing it through the root systems. |
| A．Their tendrils. | B．Their biological network. |
| C．Their communication systems. | D．Their conscious awareness. |
| A．Plants’ Smell: A Different Story |
| B．Plants Have Their Ways to Protect Themselves |
| C．Pain or Not? Plants Can Feel |
| D．The Secret of Plants’ Growing and Reproducing |
