【推荐2】Being able to explain concepts in a clear and attractive way is an excellent skill to have. Whether you’re giving a presentation or a speech, leading an important meeting, sharing your passions with friends, or just wondering how you can improve your communication skills, we’ve got you covered.     1    

Start with the most relevant information.

Give your listeners the information or answer they’re looking for first. While context can be important, an audience might be more active if you tell them why they should be interested at once.     2    . You can then look into the basic details after.

    3    

Explain a couple of the main points and avoid using specialized language. It can be easy for you to understand it right away because you know about the topic. However, everyone has a different knowledge base, and this may confuse your listeners if they don’t know much about the topic. Instead, start with the basics, focusing on 2-3 major points that explain the bigger picture.

Check the audience’s understanding.

    4     It can be important to meet your audience where they are and build up their knowledge so you can get your point across. If you’re not sure what your listener already knows, try asking questions like, “Do you already get this?” or “Is this making any sense?”

Encourage your audience to take action.

Try ending your explanation by telling your listeners why this topic should matter to them.     5     Or telling them what your topic might mean to them personally or to human is OK.

A．Keep reading to get tips and tricks.

B．But no need to tell them dos and don’ts.

C．Simplify complex ideas in certain points.

D．Focus only on major and the most familiar points.

E．This might involve showing how to prevent an issue.

F．Inform your listeners of the most urgent information first.

G．Check whether the audience and you are on the same page.

【推荐3】Humans have a positive view of nature. But is this due to an approach we have learned while growing up, or is it something we are born with? The answer is “Both”, according to researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Our love of nature is highly individual and should influence how we plan our cities, say the researchers.

It is well known that nature has a positive effect on people. In cities in particular, studies have shown that trees and other greenery contribute to people’s wellbeing. However, experts do not agree on the reasons behind this phenomenon.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have reviewed several studies within this field that examine both innate factors and what individuals experience during their lives, primarily as children.

In a Japanese study, subjects were asked to walk in a forest and in a city while their heartbeat was measured. This showed that positive emotions increased in 65% of people while they are walking in a forest. Thus, far from everyone had a positive view of nature.

Another environmental psychology study found that research subjects are unconsciously (无意识地) drawn to nature instead of cities, and that this attraction was strengthened in those whose childhood was rich in nature.

An additional study on identical and non-identical twins showed that a genetic (遗传的) component influences an individual’s positive or negative relationship with nature. But the study also highlighted the importance of environment in terms of attitudes towards nature.

Moreover, nature can mean completely different things to different people. Some enjoy parks with lawns and planted trees, while others prefer being in the wilderness. The researchers believe that this variation is also determined by both genetics and environment.

“So it’s important that we don’t standardise nature when planning greenery in our towns and cities,” adds Marcus Hedblom, a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and co-author of the article. “We shouldn’t replace wild greenery with a park and assume that it will be good for everyone.”

1. How did the author introduce the topic?

A．By bringing up an argument.	B．By listing a series of facts.
C．By referring to different opinions.	D．By asking and answering questions.

2. What does the underlined word “innate” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Social.

B．Inborn.

C．Extra.

D．Unique.

3. What did the Japanese study indicate?

A．People had a negative experience in nature.

B．People were unconsciously drawn to nature.

C．All people didn’t respond to nature positively.

D．The feeling toward nature was related to childhood.

4. What is a suitable title for the text?

A．Why Do We Love Nature?	B．How Do People Feel in Nature?
C．What Makes Nature So Powerful?	D．Why Is Nature Important to Humans?

【推荐1】How do predators affect populations of the prey animals? The answer is not as simple as might be thought. The moose reached Isle Royale in Lake Superior by crossing over winter ice and bred freely there in isolation without predators. When wolves later reached the island, naturalists widely assumed that the wolves would play a key role in controlling the moose population. Careful studies have demonstrated, however, that this is not the case. The wolves eat mostly old or diseased animals that would not survive long anyway. In general, the moose population is controlled by food availability, disease and other factors rather than by wolves.

When experimental populations are set up under simple laboratory conditions, the predator often wipes out its prey and then becomes extinct itself. However, if safe areas like those prey animals have in the wild are provided, the prey population drops to low level but not extinction. Low prey population levels then provide inadequate food for the predators, causing the predator population to decrease. When this occurs, the prey population can rebound. In this situation the predator and prey population may continue in this cyclical pattern for some time.

Population cycles are characteristic of small mammals, and they sometimes appear to be brought about by predators. Ecologists studying hare populations have found that the North American snowshoe hare follows a roughly ten-year cycle. Two factors appear to be generating the cycle: food plants and predators.

The preferred foods of snowshoe hares are tender willow branches. As the hare population increases, the quantity of these branches decreases, forcing the hares to feed on low-quality high-fiber food. Lower birth rates and low growth rates follow, so there is a corresponding decline in hare quantity. Once the hare population has declined, it takes two to three years for the quantity of branches to recover.

A key predator of the snowshoe hare is the Canada lynx. The Canada lynx shows a ten-year cycle of abundance that parallels the abundance cycle of hares. As hare numbers fall, so do lynx numbers, as their food supply decreased.

Predators are an essential factor in maintaining communities that are rich and diverse in species. Without predators, the species that is the best competitor for food, shelter, and other environmental resources tends to dominate and exclude the species with which it competes. This phenomenon is known as “competitor exclusion”. However, if the community contains a predator of the strongest competitor species, then the population of that competitor is controlled. Thus even the less competitive species are able to survive. From the stand point of diversity, it is usually a mistake to eliminate a major predator from a community.

1. The author uses the example of the moose and wolves on Isle Royale to ________.

A．provide evidence that predators influence prey populations

B．question the belief in the effect of predators on prey populations

C．demonstrate predator population grows faster than that of the prey

D．prove that the studies of isolated populations tend to be useful

2. The word “rebound” in the passage is closest in meaning to ________.

A．react

B．resist

C．remain

D．recover

3. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Laboratory results can’t explain the changes in predator and prey populations of the wild.

B．The growth of hare population may lead to a corresponding increase in its birth rates.

C．The experimental environments can promote the growth of predator and prey populations.

D．The existence of a major predator in a community is a threat to the diversity of species.

4. What can we conclude from the passage about the cycle of the Canada lynx?

A．When hare numbers decrease, lynx numbers increase.

B．It has a great effect on the number of snowshoe hares.

C．It closely follows the cycle of the snowshoe hare.

D．It is not directly related to the availability of lynx food.

【推荐3】Sometimes, we find one memory is distinct from other memories. The process which makes it possible has eluded scientists for many decades, but research led by the University of Bristol has made a breakthrough in understanding how memories can be so distinct and long-lasting without getting mixed up.

The study, published in Nature Communications, describes a newly discovered mechanism （机制）of learning in the brain that stabilises memories and reduces interference（干扰）between them. Its findings also provide a new understanding of how humans form expectations and make accurate predictions about what could happen in future.

Memories are created when the connections between the nerve cells which send and receive signals from the brain are made stronger. This process has long been associated with changes to connections that excite neighbouring nerve cells in the hippocampus, a region of the brain important for memory formation.

These excitatory（兴奋的）connections must be balanced with inhibitory（抑制的） connections for healthy brain function. The role of changes to inhibitory connection strength had not previously been considered and the researchers found that inhibitory connections between nerve cells can similarly be strengthened.

The findings uncover for the first time how two different types of inhibitory connections can also change and increase their strength, just like excitatory connections. Moreover, they show this inhibitory learning enables the hippocampus to stabilise changes to excitatory connection strength, which prevents memories from getting mixed up.

First author Dr. Matt Udakis, Research Associate at the School of Physiology and Neuroscience, said: “We were all really excited when we discovered these two types of inhibitory nerve cells could alter their connections and take part in learning. It provides an explanation for what we all know to be true; that is, memories do not disappear as soon as we experience something new. These new findings will help us understand why that is. The computer modelling gave us a new understanding of how inhibitory learning enables memories to be stable over time and not to be affected. That’s really important as it has previously been unclear how separate memories can remain accurate.”

1. What does the underlined word “eluded” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Disturbed.

B．Occupied.

C．Motivated.

D．Confused.

2. What do we know from paragraphs 2-4?

A．Scientists have recently uncovered a mechanism of learning making memories stable.

B．Predictions are formed on the basis of accurate and long-lasting memories about events.

C．Neighboring nerve cells in the hippocampus are of importance for memory formation.

D．Excitatory connections must be balanced with inhibitory connections for mental health.

3. What may Dr. Matt Udakis agree with?

A．Memories will arise whenever there’s a new experience.

B．Scientists are unclear about how memories remain separate.

C．Inhibitory learning makes for stable and accurate memories.

D．The findings are the first to explain why there’re memories.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．What Helps Humans Have Memories	B．What Makes Memories Stable
C．What Allows Stability of Learning	D．What Keeps Nerves Connected