【推荐1】People speak jokingly about being “addicted” to junk food, but that comparison might be more accurate than previously thought. Yes, we’re often powerless against the delights of impulse buys (冲动购物) at the checkout counter or the charms of the office selling machine. But we’re all perfectly reasonable people, right?     1       

You’re a human being.

It’s inborn that people like junk food. We’re born with a liking for sweetness.     2     Junk foods have figured out how to give us more and more of exactly the tastes we’re born wanting.

You have taste buds (味蕾)

    3     They are visible as small bumps on your tongue, the roof of your mouth and throat. Each of these bumps holds up to 700 taste buds, and each one of those has as many as 80 specialized taste-receptor cells. So here you are, with all this taste-sensing equipment and with a brain that’s designed to encourage you to eat the foods you need to thrive.

You are, literally, an “eating machine”

Your ancestors had probably lost at least a few of their teeth by the time they reached adulthood.     4     Not only are you probably more efficient at eating than they were, but food producers are smoothing the way down your gullet with foods that have what’s called “disappearing caloric density.”

    5    

Blame your mom and that attractive layer cake she baked every year on your birthday. Blame those junior high sleepovers when everyone bonded over pizza. Junk foods tend to be associated with some of the most relaxed and celebratory times of our lives. When we associate a food with something positive, we’re more likely to want to eat it.

A．Why is this happening to us?

B．You have happy childhood memories.

C．Sugar has been shown to activate our brains

D．In fact, you have as many as 10,000 of them.

E．Then by about age 6 months, we acquire a liking for salt.

F．You are too busy to bother with fresh food and its many needs.

G．However, you’ve got close to the full set of 32, brushed and shining teeth.

【推荐2】As spring advances across the Midwest, a new study looking at blooming (盛开的) flowers suggests non-native plants might live longer than native plants due to climate change.

The study — led by researchers at Indiana University and Michigan State University — has shown warming temperatures affect native and non-native flowering plants differently, which could change the look of local landscapes (风景) over time. “When a plant flowers determines whether it will be pollinated (授粉) by bees or other insects and how much time it will have to produce seeds. Our data makes me worry that we will have a very weedy (杂草丛生的) world in our future.” said the study’s lead author Jen Lau, an associate professor in Indiana University.

The researchers’ findings suggest non-native plants may be better at shifting their flowering time compared to native plants. These differences are thought to influence a plant’s success both now and in future warmer environments.

Lau and her students simulated (模拟) global warming in fields planted with 45 native and non-native plants. Some areas were warmed by infrared (红外线的) heaters, while other areas were not. Lau’s lab surveyed all plants to determine when they first flowered and how long they flowered.

When plants were grown in warmed plots simulating the climate change expected in the Midwest by the end of the century, the researchers found that non-native plants flowered more than 11 days earlier on average. In contrast, native plants didn’t change flowering times at all when warmed.

They also found earlier-flowering non-native plants had greater geographic spread, suggesting that flowering earlier may help promote successful occupation across large areas.

The findings suggest important differences in how native and non-native plants respond to climate change.

1. What does the new study find about native plants compared with non-native?

A．They have a longer life cycle.

B．They are likely to have more flowers.

C．They are more adaptable to climate change.

D．They may be at greater risk from climate change.

2. What do Jen Lau’s words in paragraph 2 suggest?

A．She’s quite sure that a weedy world is waiting for us.

B．Plants may lose the ability to flower in the future.

C．The timing of a plant’s flowering is key to its life cycle.

D．A plant’s flowering time almost has no effect on its pollination.

3. What does the underlined word “shifting” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Changing.	B．Postponing.
C．Arranging.	D．Predicting.

4. What is Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．How global warming affected plant species

B．How the researchers tested their supposition.

C．How to keep the warmth of the planted fields.

D．How to determine the flowering times of plants.

【推荐3】This is Scientific America's 60-Second Science. I am Christopher Intagliata.

The Apollo missions brought back 842 pounds of rock and soil from the moon, that's nearly 2200 different samples. But the most interesting one, according to a scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa, is a sample named "Apollo 1-0-0-8-5 collected by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11.

“He was about to step back into the lunar module(登月舱) when he turned around and saw there were little spaces in the rock box. He knew that geologists on earth would be just so excited to study these materials, so he just scooped up nine scoops(勺) of soil and put it into the box." Wadhwa explained.

It was one of the most well studied samples of the Apollo missions. And a geologist named John Wood noticed white flecks(微粒) of rock in the soil, which inspired him to dig deeper into the moon's ancient past.

“This was quite a leap of imagination — he proposed that the whole of the moon had been almost covered with a magma(岩浆) ocean nearly 4.5 billion years ago. This was a revolutionary idea at the time, because people had thought the moon had formed cold, so it completely changed our idea how the moon formed.”

But Wadhwa has a more personal reason to appreciate this sample. She met her husband Scott Parazynski also because of this rock sample. Scott, a mountaineer at that time, wanted to climb Mount Everest with a moon rock while Wadhwa was the chairman of the NASA committee that gives access to the samples for scientific purposes.

Neil Armstrong's last-minute scoop of moon dust brought two people together here on Earth and upturned our understanding of how the moon — and the Earth itself-got here.

Thank you for listening for Scientific American's 60-Second Science.

1. It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that ________ .

A．Neil Armstrong was excited to find the soil

B．the spaceship was about to land on the moon

C．Sample "Apollo 1-008-5" was collected at the last minute

D．scientists were not satisfied with the samples brought back by Neil

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?

A．Scott made a new proposal about the moon's origin.

B．The Apollo missions brought back 842 rock samples.

C．"Apollo 1-0-0-8-5" brought new evidence to the moon's formation.

D．Wadhwa and her husband climbed Mount Everest with a moon rock.

3. What is this text?

A．A short interview.	B．An introduction to a scientist.
C．An inspiring speech.	D．A broadcast story of a program.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．A romantic story of a moon rock.

B．A big leap made by Neil Armstrong.

C．An unusual task for Apollo missions.

D．An unexpected discovery in moon exploration.

【推荐1】The starting point of herd immunity (群体免疫) for COVID-9 is still uncertain , but many epidemiologists (流行病学家) believe it will be reached when between 60 percent and 80 percent of the population has been infected and develops resistance. A lower level of immunity in the population can slow the spread of a disease somewhat, but the herd immunity number                    represents the point where infections are generally less likely to turn into large outbreaks.

Studies that use the tests to examine only a small quantity of population, often called serology (血清学) surveys, are being undertaken around America and the world. The purpose of these new studies is to look for antibodies (抗体) in people’s blood, proteins produced by the immune system that indicate a past infection.

An advantage of the tests is that they can pick out people who may have been infected and didn’t know they were sick. A disadvantage is that the tests are sometimes wrong---and several studies, including a notable one in California, have been criticized for not taking the possibility of inaccurate results into consideration or for not representing the whole population.

While these studies are far from perfect, many countries, including parts of Sweden, are on track to achieve so-called herd immunity from the novel coronavirus-caused COVID-19 disease within weeks. In general, they give a better sense of how far the coronavirus has truly spread and its potential for spreading further. The starting point of herd immunity may differ from place to place, depending on factors like density and social interaction.

1. What do we know about herd immunity number from the text?

A．The higher level of it, the better.

B．The lower level of it, the worse.

C．It is a point indicating a small number of infections.

D．It is a point indicating little chance of large outbreaks.

2. What kind of people can we get antibodies from?

A．People who are sick.

B．People who are always healthy.

C．People who were once infected.

D．People who were killed by the disease.

3. What is the third paragraph mainly about ?

A．The contents of the studies.

B．Two sides of the studies.

C．The procedure of the studies.

D．The results of the studies.

4. Which of the following best describe the author’s attitude towards the studies?

A．He or she supports them.

B．He or she doubts their authority.

C．He or she thinks them perfect.

D．He or she partially believes in them.

【推荐2】By now, you’ve likely heard of the metaverse(元宇宙).

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg sent everyone running to their dictionaries to figure out what he was talking about when he said Facebook was changing its name to Meta and declared the metaverse not only the future for his company,but the future for the Internet.

Actually, the word and concept aren’t new. Neal Stephenson made up the term in his 1991 science-fiction book Snow Crash, in which people use avatars(分身)to explore an online world. A number of small metaverses have since developed,where people can do many real life things—like working out,meeting with colleagues,or taking a class—but all online and through a pair of eyeglasses that costs around $ 3,500 and other more expensive equipment.

“They are virtual worlds where you feel like you’re inside a cool video game. But it’s so much more than a game because it’s like the Internet,where you’re socially connected and you can do almost anything in the metaverse,”said Jason Moore who teaches virtual art at Brooklyn College and spends a couple of hours in the metaverse every day. “There are currently a handful of mostly unconnected metaverse platforms,including VRChat,NeosVR,and my studio at the college.”

He hopes that cheaper equipment and faster Internet connections might put it within mainstream applications like tourism and provide us with the most powerful educational tool ever invented within a couple of years.

But Frances Haugen,a former Google’s designer,warns that metaverses could harm personal calculation skills and further divide societies as each user stays in their own virtual realities. She is also worried that they are likely to become more addictive than the current social media and rob people of more personal information.

1. Who invented the word and concept of metaverses?

A．Jason Moore.	B．Frances Haugen.
C．Mark Zuckerberg.	D．Neal Stephenson.

2. What can we most probably do in Jason Moore’s metaverse?

A．Take a class.	B．Work out with friends.
C．Play video games.	D．Tour around the world.

3. Which of the following can best describe Frances Haugen’s attitude to metaverses?

A．Positive.

B．Disapproving.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Excited.

4. What is the suitable title for the text?

A．A Very Brief Introduction to the So-called Metaverses

B．The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Metaverses

C．Why Did Facebook Want to Change Its Name to Meta?

D．What Do Scientists and Experts Think of the Metaverses?

【推荐3】The Chinese written language originated very early. However, people began to like the art of writing, and pay attention to the creator’s thinking and spirit since the period between the Late Han Dynasty and Wei Jin Dynasty. The Chinese calligraphy fonts(字体) gradually evolved from oracle, Chinese bronze inscriptions and silk manuscripts to the following five main schools:

School	Representative Master	Feature
Seal Script	Li Si	There are Big Zhuan and Small Zhuan. The Big Zhuan includes all the ancient Chinese calligraphy fonts before Qin Dynasty. The Small Zhuan are the characters commonly used by officials after Qin united China. These characters feature balanced left and right parts and a bit complicated structures.
Official Script	Cai Yong	A simplified form of script since seal characters were too complicated for officials to use when copying documents.
Regular Script	Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan	Also named Zhenshu or Zhengshu, Kaishu is regular with a tight structure and fluent strokes.
Cursive Hand	Zhang Xu, Huai Su	Caoshu is characterized by sketchy, simplified forms of characters, often distorted or exaggerated to achieve an internal rhythmic appearance within the compositions of characters.
Running Hand	Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing; Su Shi	Xingshu is something between the regular script and the cursive scripts in the initial period and now is between the official script and cursive(草写体的)hand. Chinese masters have always compared the three styles of writing, Kaishu, Xingshu, Caoshu to people standing, walking and running respectively.

1. The difference between Seal Script and Official Script lies in ______.

A．the difficulty to write	B．their function in use
C．who often wrote them	D．how cursive they are

2. Which school is compared to people walking according to the text?

A．Official Script.	B．Running Hand.
C．Cursive Hand.	D．Regular Script.

3. If you want to practice both Regular Script and Running Hand, who is a better choice to choose based on this article?

A．Ouyang Xun.	B．Yan Zhenqing.
C．Zhang Xu.	D．Wang Xizhi.