Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be angry. Such behaviour is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying assumption that other animals would not be capable of this finely developed sense of grievance. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.
The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, co-cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males.
Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan’s and Dr. de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.
In the world of capuchins, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was reluctant to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.
The researchers suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the wild, they are a co-operative, group-living species. Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous indignation(义愤填膺), it seems, are not the preserve of people alone. Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.
1. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ________.| A．posing a question |
| B．justifying an assumption |
| C．making a comparison |
| D．explaining a phenomenon |
| A．monkeys are also angered by slack rivals |
| B．hating unfairness is also monkeys’ nature |
| C．monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other |
| D．no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions |
| A．more inclined to weigh what they get |
| B．attentive to researchers’ instructions |
| C．nice in both appearance and temperament |
| D．more generous than their male companions |
| A．Monkeys can be trained to develop social emotions. |
| B．Human anger evolved from an uncertain source. |
| C．Animals usually show their feelings openly as human do. |
| D．Cooperation among monkeys remains stable only in the wild. |
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【推荐1】Great white sharks! Just hearing that name makes many people’s hair stand on end. In reality, these big fish have more to fear from us than we do from them. For many years, people killed countless great white sharks in the waters around the United States.
But thanks to conservation (protection) efforts, great whites are making a comeback in the U.S. Two recent studies show that the population of these sharks is rising along the east and west coast.
Why is the growing population of a killer fish something to celebrate? “When you fish too many of them, you start to lose balance in the environment,” says shark researcher Tobey Curtis. As the biggest killer, sharks help keep the populations of fish, seals, and other creatures they eat from growing too large.
In spite of their importance, great white sharks had long been hunted for their meat and their fins (鳍). Then, in 1997, the U.S. government passed a law that didn’t allow the hunting of great whites. Afterwards, the numbers of these sharks in the U.S. waters started to increase.
The law wasn’t the only thing that has helped great whites. Conservationists have also played a part in the sharks’ comeback. The research group OCEARCH is using a method called tagging (加标签) to help change people’s attitudes about great white. They let the public follow each shark as it travels the world’s oceans. OCEARCH also gives each tagged shark a name to help people form a closer connection with the big fish.
The group’s most well-known shark is named Katharine. She was tagged last year near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Since then, thousands of people have tracked Katharine’s movements on Twitter and the OCEARCH website.
This helps people see sharks in a new way. Chris Fischer, the founder of OCEARCH believes learning to appreciate great whites will encourage people to do more to protect them.
1. The underlined part “makes many people’s hair stand on end” in Paragraph 1 can best be replaced by_____.| A．worries many people | B．bores many people |
| C．interests many people | D．frightens many people |
| A．introduce an experiment result |
| B．inform us that great whites are making a comeback |
| C．make an advertisement for OCEARCH |
| D．remind us that big killers are dying out |
| A．seemed very helpful | B．helped the sharks by tagging them |
| C．let scientists down | D．made people like great whites |
| A．great whites are in fact lovely animals |
| B．the OCEARCH website has a lot of visitors |
| C．OCEARCH help people get closer to great whites |
| D．the number of great whites is growing quickly |
【推荐2】Through an agreement signed today, the much-loved animals will continue to delight visitors for another three years, through December 7, 2023. “We’re all very excited,” says Steve Monfort, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “It’s very good that we can continue our cooperation with our Chinese colleagues.”
The female giant panda Mei Xiang and male Tian Tian, will return to China at the end of 2023 at the relatively elder panda ages of 25 and 26 respectively （分别地). The probable lifetime for giant pandas is about 15 to 20 years in the wild, and about 30 years in captivity (圈养). Likely to travel with the two is Xiao Qi Ji （Little Miracle）, who was born on August 21, 2020. The 15-week-old male cub is the fourth of Mei Xiang’s four surviving cubs.
By long-standing agreement, cubs born in captivity at the zoo are sent to China before four. When Xiao Qi Ji was born, his mother Mei Xiang became the oldest giant panda to give birth in North America.
The public has yet to see Xiao Qi Ji in person. Normally, it would be at about this time, a little over 100 days, that a cub would be able to be shared with the public. Over 1.6 million people have watched the Zoo's Panda Cam since the August birth, with a total of 8.8 million page views. Just this week, his parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian marked 20 years in Washington, D.C..
The extension agreement means that the National Zoo and China will reach a half century of conservation and cooperation between the U.S. and China. “It shouldn't be surprising to people that cooperation is the foundation of the way that one does the work.” Monfort says, “In protecting species, no one organization and often not even one government can theoretically save a species without partnership.”
1. What is the agreement about?| A．Two pandas' three more years in the USA. |
| B．Cooperation between the Zoo and China. |
| C．The first public appearance of Xiao Qi Ji. |
| D．The way to return home for three pandas. |
| A．She has been abroad for 20 years. | B．She has been sent back to China. |
| C．She was born in the National Zoo. | D．She's the oldest panda to give birth. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Enthusiastic. |
| C．Cautious. | D．Sympathetic |
| A．Mei Xiang Has Given Birth to Xiao Qi Ji |
| B．Cooperation Is Key to Animal Protection |
| C．Extension Agreement on Pandas Is Reached |
| D．Lifetime for Giant Pandas Is Figured Out |
【推荐3】A lot more animals glow under a special light than scientists previously thought. This ability to glow is known as fluorescence (荧光), which happens when light is absorbed as one wavelength and emitted as another wavelength.
Travouillon, a scientist from Harvard, wondered why so many animals had this unusual quality, and he asked one key question: Is there a function behind the ability? To address the question, Travouillon and his team took a closer look at the life histories of the glowing mammals.
The team discovered that the fluorescence was mainly found in light-colored areas of an animal’s skin and fur. Then they looked at where the fluorescence was found in the animal’s body. They compared that to the animal’s diet and how the animals moved. They also checked whether the animal was nocturnal or diurnal, Travouillon explained. Animals that are nocturnal are most active at night, whereas animals that are diurnal are most active during the day.
One finding was that fluorescence was more common among ground-dwelling, tree-dwelling and burrowing mammals compared to animals that live in water, Travouillon said. The team also found that having a fluorescent coat was more common among nocturnal animals compared to diurnal animals. One potential explanation for that fact is that having a fluorescent coat could help no cturnal animals become more visible to potential partners.
“So, for example, with a species like a quoll that has white spots on its back, the fluorescence would simply brighten their spots,” Travouillon said. “In this way, they are more easily seen. Fluorescence might help members of a species find each other and perhaps recognize each other from a distance,” Travouillon added.
On a closing note, Travouillon cautioned wildlife enthusiasts not to go searching for glowing critters with a UV light. That’s because UV light can damage the animal’s eyesight. Instead, if you want to look for animals in the dark, he recommended using a red light, since it isn’t as bright.
1. What kind of animals are most active at night according to the passage?| A．Diurnal animals. | B．Nocturnal animals. | C．Glowing animals. | D．Underwater animals. |
| A．To live in water. | B．To help them move easily at night. |
| C．To see the members of their species clearly. | D．To brighten other nocturnal animals’ spots. |
| A．UV light is harmful for the animal’s eyesight. |
| B．Wildlife enthusiasts can’t search for glowing critters. |
| C．Nocturnal animals can be found easily by wildlife enthusiasts. |
| D．Wildlife enthusiasts had better use bright light to search for glowing mammals. |
| A．Active mammals with fluorescent. | B．Suggestions for animals enthusiasts. |
| C．Animals glow under special lights. | D．Mammals with an unusual ability in the night. |
Being laughed at is a common fear. But a major study published in two thousand and nine found that this fear is not the same around the world. It differs from culture to culture.
People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Less than ten percent of Finns in the study said they would think that, compared to eighty percent of people in Thailand.
Some people in the study said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations but hid their feelings of insecurity. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before.
The study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia were more likely to be in the first group. They would hide their feelings of insecurity if they were around other people's laughter. But people in Iraq, Egypt and Jordan were more likely to try to avoid such situations if they felt they had been laughed at before.
Shy people often avoid situations that would force them into close contact with other people. They worry that something they say or do will make other people laugh at them. But some people worry much more than others. They may have a disorder called gelotophobia. Gelos is a Greek word. It means laughter. Phobia means fear. This fear of laughter can be truly sad for those who live with it. It can affect how they lead their lives.
In the study, a team from the University of Zurich led more than ninety researchers from around the world. They wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another purpose of the study was to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. The researchers surveyed more than twenty-two thousand people in forty-two different languages. The findings appeared in the scientific journal Humor.
1. People in Finland don’t believe other people are making fun of them if _________________.| A．they suddenly start to laugh |
| B．they keep on laughing |
| C．they laugh in their presence |
| D．they stop laughing suddenly |
| A．They wanted to study the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. |
| B．They wanted to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. |
| C．They did such a survey in order to prevent people from being laughed at in public. |
| D．They surveyed more than 22 thousand people coming from different cultures. |
| A．an advertisement | B．a science magazine |
| C．a science fiction | D．a storybook |
| A．care more about being laughed at by others |
| B．shouldn’t hide their feelings of insecurity |
| C．should avoid having close contact with other people |
| D．will lead a happy life so long as they care |
【推荐2】Laughter is in many ways our universal language. Humans love to laugh, and it’s good that we do so, because laughing can reduce stress, improve our immune system and relieve pain.
Jeannette Sanger, a laughter yoga instructor from New York, experienced the latter benefit last summer. She was cooking when a pot of boiling water overflowed and hurt her leg. “It was painful,” she said, but she forced herself to use her own skills as medicine and tried laughing to reduce the pain. “As my husband drove me to the nearest hospital, I was sitting in the back seat laughing,” Sanger told The Huffington Post. “It successfully stopped me from giving my attention to the pain.”
Even forced laughter like Sanger’s can have a great effect on the body, according to Dr. Madan Kataria, a medical doctor from India who developed laughter yoga, a practice that draws on the breathing exercises of yoga to produce therapeutic(有疗效的) results. The doctor wa researching for an article entitled “Laughter-The Best Medicine” when he made the surprising discovery that both forced and sincere laughter can affect our health.
In 2014, researchers at California’s Loma Linda University found that older adults who watch funny videos show improvement in their powers of recall and show lower stress levels. Another study at the University of Maryland Medical Center found that people who laugh more and have a sense of humour are less likely to get heart disease.
“Laughing is a way of learning how to play again,” Sanger said. Sanger’s classes start out with simple breathing and movement activities. “Motion creates emotion,” she said.
1. What is Jeannette Sanger?| A．A doctor. | B．A cook. | C．A researcher. | D．A trainer. |
| A．To reduce stress. | B．To enjoy its benefit. |
| C．To relieve pain. | D．To amuse herself |
| A．It can result in more laughter. | B．It can make you more sensitive. |
| C．It’s likely to cause heart disease. | D．It may lead to memory recovery. |
| A．By moving around you’re changing your mood. |
| B．Motion brings about great change to your emotion. |
| C．Your emotion can be improved by moving a lot. |
| D．Humor has both physical and psychological effects. |
【推荐3】Some creative people see colours when they hear different sounds. Others see colours when they see words and numbers printed in black and white. These interesting people are called synaesthetes, and what they experience is called synaesthesia.
① .
A study at the University of Sussex is finding out how learning to see sounds as colours or think of letters in colour could improve your IQ and memory.
Study leaders Dr. Daniel Bor and Dr. Nicolas Rothen have been working on memory for a number of years. They want to see which parts of the brain do different jobs. Dr. Bor says that carrying out these tests has given them the opportunity to find out more about how we use different kinds of memory.
② .
He explains that Professor Simon Baron Cohen, of the University of Cambridge, was largely responsible for beginning the modem science of synaesthesia in the 1980s. His tests showed that synaesthesia was real, and this made lots of scientists in different places want to do similar research.
Information chunking
Dr Bor based his latest research around something scientists already know a lot about — “chunking”. He explains that this is a way of breaking large pieces of information into smaller units, to make it easier to remember. When I give you my phone number, 01274737215, you probably remember it as 012 74 73 72 15, or something similar. If you can remember 012 and the first 74, you can remember the rest. You can get some amazing benefits from chunking.
This is really important for understanding synaesthesia. Dr Bor says that synaesthesia adds extra information to things that are difficult to remember, such as letters and numbers, or extra colours. This helps us remember things better.
③ .
“All these signs are pointing towards synaesthesia being connected to greater abilities to do certain things, certain jobs,” says Dr. Bor. “So, the study began as a way to test that.” They developed the study from an idea by Dr. Nicolas Rothen who had trained people for ten minutes a day for a week. The results were not huge, but they were interesting. They used those ideas in the study and they did see strong benefits.
④ .
They discovered that, after training, people were able to pass the normal synaesthesia tests, and their IQ jumped up about 12 points!
As Dr. Bor says, “Synaesthetes are really pleased and proud that they get a memory advantage and they see the world in this extra special way.”
1. The proper title of each part for the passage should be ______.a. Amazing results
b. The beginning of a science
c. Training in Synaesthesia
d. Studying memory
| A．①-d ②-b ③-c ④-a | B．①-d ②-c ③-d ④-b |
| C．①-b ②-d ③-d ④-c | D．①-b ②-d ③-c ④-d |
| A．Finding out the secret of memory. |
| B．Offering guidance on how to improve memory. |
| C．Inspiring other scientists in the same field. |
| D．Setting up a branch to study synaesthesia. |
| A．Using high-technologies to improve our memory. |
| B．Linking something to other things which are similar. |
| C．Employing smart methods to progress our study. |
| D．Dividing large amounts of information into smaller ones. |
| A．sounds | B．memory |
| C．IQ | D．colours |
【推荐1】When colds and flu hit, many people automatically turn to over-the-counter (OTC) medicines to push through and treat their symptoms (症状). Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, over 26,000 people went to the emergency room for adverse (有害的) events related to OTC cold and cough medicines.
When two or more drugs are used together, their interaction can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Physicians are typically knowledgeable about potential drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.
It is important to read the package ingredients of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of multiple ingredients, including pain relievers, nasal decongestants and cough suppressants or expectorants. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.
While everyone could potentially experience adverse effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups-including older adults, children and pregnant women-may be at greater risk.
Older people who are using prescribed (处方的) drugs to treat multiple health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicine to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.
1. Why did the author mention the study in paragraph 1?| A．To stress the easy access to OTC medicines. |
| B．To explain the dangers of using OTC medicines. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of OTC medicines. |
| D．To prove the potential risks of using OTC medicines. |
| A．Turn to doctors for advice. | B．Buy medicines from physicians. |
| C．Take only one drug instead. | D．Change the ingredients of drugs. |
| A．Women cannot face aging positively. |
| B．Children are more easily affected by diseases. |
| C．Older people’s body cannot deal with medicines easily. |
| D．People’s desire for health makes them take more medicine. |
| A．OTC medicines may not be safe. |
| B．Tips for taking over-the-counter drugs. |
| C．How to deal with an OTC drug overdose? |
| D．Should medicines be available “over the counter”? |
【推荐2】Take a look inside a high school classroom. You will most likely find a teacher at the front of the class and students sitting at their desks. Yet, look closer, and you might notice a familiar scene: many of these students are not paying attention. Instead, they are dozing off (打盹) or even completely asleep.
Today, the majority of high school students are not getting enough sleep. This lack (缺乏) of sleep is a serious problem, especially as students are doing more than ever with their time. They come to school early, spend hours listening to teachers and taking tests, and come home to be faced with even more work. And the homework load these days is not light; teachers give hours worth of homework each night.
Most kids need at least nine hours of sleep per night in order to function properly. Yet the period of this nine hours shifts as a child gets older. After puberty (青春期), the body’s internal clock changes so that it is difficult for teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m. So even if a student falls asleep at eleven, they would need to sleep until at least 8 a.m. to get a full night’s sleep. Considering the time at which most high schools in this country begin, those nine hours are clearly being shortened. Few high schools start after 8 a.m.
However，there are schools that have paid attention to this research and delayed the start of their school day. In schools where the start time is after 8:30 in the morning, the teachers believe that there has been a real change in their students. They note that the students miss class less, pay more attention in class, perform better in class, and report lower levels of depression (沮丧). The researchers of these studies say that the results are quite important and that more schools should consider delaying their start time of their school day.
1. The second paragraph mainly discusses _____ .| A．why high school students should get more sleep |
| B．The life of high school students at present |
| C．why high school students feel sleepy in the classroom |
| D．how to lighten high school students’ homework load |
| A．arrives | B．reduces |
| C．increases | D．changes |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Satisfied. |
| C．Puzzled. | D．Surprised. |
【推荐3】Li Ziqi, a vlogger who enjoys a fan base of more than 21 million people on Sina Weibo and 7 million strong followers on YouTube, has made a name for herself in her videos that highlight a traditional Chinese way of life in the rural areas of Sichuan Province. Her videos cover a wide variety of crafts related to traditional Chinese culture. From making paper and ink to weaving cloth, from making a silk quilt comforter for her grandmother to building her own bread kiln with blocks, nothing seems impossible with Li’s crafty hands as they work their magic to bring these things into existence. But Li’s most eye-catching, and mouth-watering craft is cooking.
Li scarcely speaks in her videos. When she does open her mouth, the most common phrase that comes out is her calling her grandmother to come and eat. Instead of dialogue, Li focuses on how she works with her hands. Watching her videos, it is difficult not to appreciate their beauty and hold back that sense of nostalgia (怀旧) and longing for home. But it is even harder not to want to take a bite of her succulent dishes, which really remind viewers of taste of our childhood and home.
Glamorous as her present life may seem, life was difficult for her during her youth as she and her grandparents had little to live on. Li herself revealed that she was “economically supported” to continue schooling. She started to work in the city at 14 and would not have returned to her childhood home if not for her grandmother falling ill in 2012. After returning home, Li opened an online shop, Li Ziqi, to sell mostly edible products. To boost sales, she began making short films in 2016 about how these products were created, while covering her life in the rural area, all against the backdrop of traditional Chinese aesthetics (审美). “I started it because I wanted to create something for people to watch and relax. We are all under a lot of stress. I hoped that after a long and busy day, they could click on my videos and relieve some of their anxiety and pressure,” Li said.
However, Li is not without criticism, such as remarks about her “beautifying” life in the country and her use of a professional production crew to help her film. Others have expressed skepticism about how “real” her videos are, and how “amazing it is that she looks so picture perfect after a long day of work in the fields.”
1. According to the passage, we can know the following EXCEPT .| A．it was her grandmother‟ falling ill that made her return to her hometown |
| B．masses of viewers from both home and abroad are hooked by her videos |
| C．she never opens her mouth in her videos because she has difficulty in speaking |
| D．many viewers speak highly of her videos while some of them throw doubt on her |
| A．Aggressive and strong-willed. | B．Crafty and considerate. |
| C．Humorous and stubborn. | D．Ambitious and severe. |
| A．Many hands make light work | B．An idle youth, a needy age |
| C．Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful | D．God helps those who help themselves |
| A．Young vlogger tells story of China in picturesque videos |
| B．An Internet celebrity makes delicious dishes |
| C．Relaxing videos are made with passion |
| D．The more traditional, the more popular |
