Plastic is everywhere in our modern world. Its toughness makes it an extremely useful material from household items to vehicle parts, but that same toughness makes it hard to break down for recycling or disposal (处理). However, Japanese scientists at the University of Tokyo have developed a new plastic material that can be broken down more easily and can self-heal and remember past shapes.
Based on a kind of plastic called an epoxy resin vitrimer, which is brittle (脆性的), the new plastic has a huge range of advantages. Once scratched (刮划) with a knife, it can completely patch itself up after being heated to 150 ℃ for just 60 seconds. When shaped into the shape of a crane, then flattened, it can fold itself back into the crane shape by being heated up. It does all of this much faster than others of its type.
The new plastic can also break down easier. Even if it’s thrown into the environment, it still has less of a problem than other kinds of plastic, which the team demonstrated by placing it in seawater for 30 days. It biodegraded (生物降解) by 25% and released something that is eatable for ocean life.
The new plastic is more resistant to breaking. It can also repair itself, and can recover its original memorized shape. It even biodegrades safely in a ocean environment, according to Shota Ando, a researcher of the study.
The material can be used in a variety of applications. “Building materials for roads and bridges are often composed of epoxy resins mixed with compounds (化合物) such as concrete and carbon,” said Ando. “By using the new plastic, these would be easier to maintain as they would be stronger and healable using heat. Unlike conventional epoxy resins, this new material is hard but flexible, so it could also be expected to strongly bond materials of different hardness and stretch.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic of the text. | B．To show the disadvantages of plastic. |
| C．To highlight the importance of plastic. | D．To show his views on previous plastic. |
| A．Change itself. | B．Destroy itself. | C．Repair itself. | D．Burn itself. |
| A．It is safe for animals in the ocean. | B．It is made up of concrete and carbon. |
| C．It can change its shape when frozen. | D．It is more brittle than previous plastic. |
| A．How to Make a New Plastic | B．An Interesting Scientific Study |
| C．The Widespread Application of Plastic | D．A New Environmentally Friendly Plastic |
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【推荐1】A songbird jumps around in the woods near Washington, D. C. On its back it carries a very small, lightweight electronic device called a tag (标签). Ecologist Emily Williams watches from behind a bush. On this clear spring day, she says, “Now I’m watching to see whether he’s found a mate.” The bird has moved to a nearby tree where there is another robin. When the bird leaves, this new device it carries will send data about its position to a special satellite, then back to Williams’ computer.
The Georgetown University researchers have been attaching tracking (跟踪) tags on birds and animals for many years. But, the International Space Station and the involved satellite now provide new ways to receive the information sent by the tags. The new system permits scientists to watch songbird movements from a faraway place in much greater detail than before.
“We’re in a sort of golden age for bird research,” said Adriaan Dokter, an ecologist at Cornell University, adding that the technology is improving as the tags are made smaller and smaller. “We can track a robin by satellite with smaller and smaller chips. The device that the robin wears can report its immediate place on Earth, within about 10 meters. Ten years ago, that was unthinkable,” said the scientist, who is not involved in Williams’ study.
A second new device, for only the heaviest robins, provides more information about the bird’s movements; future versions may also measure the humidity and barometric pressure of the space the bird occupies. The devices are known as ICARUS tags.
Martin Wikelski is director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. His scientific team is working to improve the ICARUS technology. He hopes that more and better devices could help develop what he called “an Internet of animals”—a collection of sensors around the world giving us a better picture of the movement of life on the planet.
1. What is Emily Williams doing in the woods?| A．Trying to catch a songbird. |
| B．Observing a bird with a new device. |
| C．Playing a bird game on the computer. |
| D．Taking an adventure trip in the nature. |
| A．Find the exact place of the robins quickly. |
| B．Take control of the robins easily. |
| C．Collect all the information from the satellite. |
| D．Communicate with the robin in a faraway place. |
| A．By explaining the reasons. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By listing two new devices. | D．By analyzing the data. |
| A．People can use more devices to keep healthy. |
| B．Technology can give better ways to track animals. |
| C．Human beings and animals can live in harmony. |
| D．People will know more about animals from the Internet. |
【推荐2】Many people list hiccups(嗝)as one of the most annoying problems which are associated with human being. For a group of people, continuous hiccups can seriously harm the quality of life. In the year 2017, the question “what causes hiccups?” was the most searched medical question. That’s how much of an issue these hiccups are and it also reflects that this problem is so widespread in our daily life.
Dr. All Seifi, a professor of the University of Texas, was tired of the traditional methods which are used to dispel hiccups, like drinking water or varying breathing techniques. He then came up with the idea that a straw(吸管)could help interrupt hiccups. The straw, which goes by the marketing name HiccAway, requires more power than regular straws in order to draw up liquid. Drinking with this straw can lower the diaphragm(隔膜)while first opening it and then closing it. Doing so stimulates the nerves at the same time, allowing the brain to reset and stop the hiccups.
Dr. James Alvarez of the University of Texas gathered 249 volunteers to use the straw and report back their results. About 92% of the participants said that HiccAway helped their hiccups go away. When it comes to effectiveness, this straw received a score of 4.58 out of 5. About 90% of participants marked it as more effective than traditional home methods. A majority of the participants reported several occasions when they always suffer from hiccups, while about 11 reported daily hiccups issues, and 53 reported that they suffered from hiccups weekly. The frequent sufferers reported back success rates that were consistently as high as people who didn’t suffer from them as often.
The one issue is that hiccups are an issue where placebo effect(安慰作用)could likely come into play. A lot of people swear by solutions that do not end up working for others. It is not clear how this trial could be conducted in a more scientific way.
1. What does the underlined word “dispel” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Challenge. | B．Secure. | C．Terrify. | D．Remove. |
| A．It was beneficial for their brainpower. |
| B．It was helpful for them to behave actively. |
| C．It was more effective than traditional ones. |
| D．It was good for them to improve their ability. |
| A．Its experimental result. | B．Its experimental process. |
| C．Its major function. | D．Its wide popularity. |
| A．Many people hope that hiccups should be soon cured. |
| B．The new method should be approved by scientists. |
| C．The study has caught people’s attention on hiccups. |
| D．A further research should be involved in the study. |
【推荐3】For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot — called an Avatar — （hat’s con trolled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc, it looks like a vacuum cleaner with an iPad attached. But the screen displays the daughter’s face as they chat, and its wheels let her walk slowly about the house as though she’s really there.
“Virtual travel” is nothing new, of course. Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been stimulating the senses of armchair tourists for centuries. It’s only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the non-wealthy.
Yet even as the world’s middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economy-class seats, there are signs of a post-travel society appearing. Concerns about the environment make people lose interest in carbon-intensive (碳排放量很高的) airlines. And the aging of societies is both slowing down the growth of physical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual reality offers a tantalizing (诱人的) response to these trends.
Of course, far-out (前卫的) technologies encourage profits. ANA doesn’t plan to start selling Avatars until next year. By one estimate, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about S300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA’s traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year.
But although the business case for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to only expand. ANA’s robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they’ll almost certainly be a part of travel’s high-tech future.
1. What purpose does the first paragraph serve in the passage?| A．To show a picture of our future life. |
| B．To describe the daily life of a couple. |
| C．To attract readers’ attention to the topic. |
| D．To add background in formation of the topic. |
| A．Humans tend to live much longer than before. |
| B．People are becoming more worried about the environment. |
| C．Virtual travel might cater for people’s desire to see the world. |
| D．The profits of carbon-intensive airlines are possibly declining. |
| A．it is still skeptical about their potential |
| B．they still need to be further tested out |
| C．traditional travel business is taking off |
| D．their commercial profits may not be satisfying |
| A．promising | B．ambiguous |
| C．depressing | D．challenging |
【推荐1】Electric cars are already greener than petrol cars in almost every part of the world today, according to researchers. They say electric vehicles are “a no-regret choice” even in places where power nets haven’t gone fully green.
Some previous comparisons suggested petrol cars produce lower net carbon emissions (净碳排放量) over their lifetime than battery- powered cars. Yet these analyses have often compared only two fixed models of cars.
Instead, the researchers from Radboud University looked at the average emissions across many classes of car to get a clearer global picture. It includes during its production, while it is being driven and when it is broken, for all the petrol and electric cars sold in 59 areas across the world in 2015. They connected with information of those areas in the following years and found that the electric vehicles are greener than the new petrol cars. Electric vehicles already have lower net carbon emissions in 53 of those 59 areas. Only in some countries that use coal heavily, such as India and Poland, are electric car emissions worse than those of petrol cars.
The researchers say that the differences between petrol and electric cars on the carbon emissions will grow bigger as power stations get greener. By 2030, they expect the carbon emissions of electric cars to be 20 percent lower than that in 2015, and 30 percent lower by 2050. The suggestions for governments are clear, says Knobloch.“There is no need to wait. Don’t be confused by all those different results out there. It’s a no-regret choice already.”
1. Why did the former comparison show petrol cars more greener?| A．It was too simple. |
| B．It had no scientific basis. |
| C．It lacked experimental evidence. |
| D．It lacked enough reference objects. |
| A．6. | B．53. | C．59. | D．112. |
| A．Petrol cars will be fully replaced. |
| B．The carbon emissions of electric cars will be zero. |
| C．Power stations will get huge advance technologically. |
| D．Petrol cars’ pollution will force people to buy electric cars. |
| A．To state the development of electric cars. |
| B．To tell readers how to choose an electric car. |
| C．To show electric cars are greener than petrol cars. |
| D．To state the differences between petrol and electric cars. |
【推荐2】A new report says plastics are responsible for $13 billion in damage to the oceans and the undersea environment. The findings were announced recently at a United Nations conference.
Plastic thrown away carelessly makes its way into rivers and other waterways.
The report also calls on companies to improve methods for using plastics.
| A．Then, fish may eat the plastics. |
| B．But people can make a big difference. |
| C．Plastics should be gathered together and reused. |
| D．It is convenient to use plastic bags in everyday life. |
| E．It asks for them to better measure and control plastic use. |
| F．The plastic eventually reaches coastal areas and ocean waters. |
| G．The report tells about harm to sea life and what might be done to improve the situation. |
【推荐3】Jose Adolfo is a banker from Peru. He encourages children to save money and offers his customers cash for recycling plastic wastes. But the remarkable thing is that he is still a child himself.
By the age of 7,he decided to create a bank for children. He was motivated by seeing his classmates skipping lunch because they had spent the little money they had on sweets or football cards. What drove him even more was the poverty he saw among children.
With the support of a local company, the 14-year-old founded the Bartselana student bank which now has more than 2,000 customers between the ages of 10 and 18. Children can withdraw(提取) money from several cashpoints of the bank. They can also monitor their balances online. What makes it different from traditional banks is that it sets savings goals for children. They have to reach those goals in order to withdraw their money.
The student bank really caught on when he came up with the “Recycle Plan”, a new way for the children to earn money by collecting recyclable plastic or paper waste. Students can bring recyclable plastic bottles, used school books and old newspapers to the schools and put them into the collecting boxes. The recycling is weighed and the money goes to their bank accounts.
The bank recycles 4.4 tons of material a month and has collecting boxes in seven schools in Arequipa. More are on a waiting list. Increasingly the model is in demand in the rest of Peru and abroad.
His efforts have been noticed by Peru’s environment ministry. “He’s making an amazing change in financial education that perhaps many adults could not come up with,” said the Peru’s environment minister, Lucia Ruiz. “He’s achieving a double goal because he’s not just designing a financial opportunity for children and teenagers but also helping to reduce waste in the country.”
1. What’s the purpose of creating a bank for children for Jose?| A．To recycle the waste. | B．To provide free lunch. |
| C．To learn to manage money. | D．To help children in poverty. |
| A．Saving goals are set for children. | B．The balances are monitored online. |
| C．Customers should obey the bank rules. | D．Money can be withdrawn from some cashpoints. |
| A．Drew on. | B．Took off. | C．Looked forward. | D．Gave rise to. |
| A．He told children the significance of running a bank. |
| B．He contributed to financial education and recycling. |
| C．He let children know how important saving money is. |
| D．He solved children’s realistic problem—skipping lunch. |
【推荐1】Are you a good judge of character? Can you make an accurate judgment of people’s personalities based only on your first impression of them? Ironically, the answer lies as much in them as it does in you.
US psychologist Henry Adams tried to identify good judges of character in 1927.His research led him to conclude that people fell into two groups—good judges of themselves and good judges of others. Adams’s research has been widely criticized since then, but he wasn’t entirely wrong about there being two clearly different types.
We need to define what a good judge of character is. Is it someone who can read personality or someone who can read emotion? Those are two different skills. Emotions such as anger or joy or sadness can generate easily identifiable physical signs. Most of us would probably be able to accurately identify these signs, even in a stranger. As such, most of us are probably good judges of emotion.
In order to be a good judge of personality, however, there needs to be an interaction with the other person, and that person needs to be a “good target”. “Good targets” are people who show related and useful clues to their personality. So this means “the good judge” will only appear when reading “good targets”. This is according to Rogers and Biesanz in their 2019 journal entitled “Reassessing the Good Judge of Personality”. “We found clear and strong evidence that the good judge does exist”, Rogers and Biesanz concluded. But their key finding is that the good judge does not have magical gifts of observation — they are simply able to “detect and use information provided by the good target”.
So, are first impressions really accurate? Well, if you’re a good judge talking to a “good target”, then it seems the answer is “yes”. And now we know that good judges probably do exist, more researches can be done into how they read personality, what kind of people they are — and whether their skills can be taught.
1. What is the conclusion of Adams’s research?| A．Fewer people can read physical signs. |
| B．Most people are good judges of themselves. |
| C．First impressions have a huge effect on people. |
| D．There are two obviously different types of people. |
| A．There is no need to interact with the other person. |
| B．Good judges are related to good targets. |
| C．Good judges have magical talents for emotion. |
| D．Good targets are persons who hide important information. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Objective. | D．Pessimistic. |
| A．To inform readers of a good judge of character. |
| B．To highlight the importance of good character. |
| C．To introduce some ways of define good characters. |
| D．To explain what first impressions are. |
【推荐2】While there are still many people who don't feel comfortable using a credit card to buy over the Internet, e-commerce is absolutely here to stay. If you take a few precautions, buying over the Internet can actually be safer than using your credit card in a restaurant.
Just as you should notice your surroundings and suspicious-looking people when withdrawing (提取) money from an ATM, you should know how to recognize the warning signs of Internet tricks and take steps to avoid being a victim when shopping online. Here are some good tips to remember when shopping online:
Before submitting your personal information to a site,try to find out how the information may be used and whether it will be sold to or shared with other businesses. If you don't like what you read, shop somewhere else.
Don't provide personal information such as address, telephone number, social security number or email address unless you know who you are providing the information for, why it's being requested,and how it will be used.
Use a credit card, not a debit card (借记卡) for shopping on the Internet. Debit cards don't have the same protection as credit cards.
Carefully review your credit card and bank statement each month for unknown charges and inform your credit card company or bank immediately if you notice any charges you didn’t know about.
Clean your computer with free online software that detects spy-ware and install a firewall (防火墙) to ensure the sites you shop on don't install spy-ware on your computer.
1. What should you do while shopping online?| A．Be sure nobody is standing beside you. |
| B．Only shop on the site that you have often visited. |
| C．Find out how the personal information will be used. |
| D．Never provide personal information. |
| A．Tell your credit card company as soon as possible. |
| B．Change your credit card code number immediately. |
| C．Check all the websites you have visited. |
| D．Use a debit card instead of a credit card. |
| A．make suspicious-looking people go away. |
| B．protect you against loss or possible dangers. |
| C．remind you to obey the rules when shopping online. |
| D．avoid being cheated when eating in a restaurant. |
| A．To suggest a new way of shopping. |
| B．To tell us the advantages of shopping online. |
| C．To tell us how to shop safely online. |
| D．To tell us how to avoid being cheated. |
【推荐3】A recent study by a team of researchers from Canada has uncovered that birds living in cities are not just better at problem solving and more skilled in tasks than those in the countryside: they also have stronger immune（有免疫力的）systems !
The research, headed by Audet, a Ph. D. student at a university, examined the cognitive （认知的）abilities of city birds with those of their country cousins. The team did their study in Barbados because it needs a broad range of situations: from crowded modern cities to the countryside. They began by catching some birds from various parts of the Caribbean Island. The birds were then given several tasks. Some tested their associative learning skills while others were to observe how creative they were at problem-solving. While country birds are also much braver, the city birds appeared to be more careful when facing unfamiliar things.
The results did not surprise the researchers. After all, birds living in cities and towns face many more challenges and dangers than those that live in the country. But as it turns out, the city birds proved to have better immunity and are therefore more resistant （抵抗的）to diseases than those living in the countryside. While additional studies need to be done to see if this is true for all city birds, there is no reason to believe that the results would be any different.
Though this is the first time researchers have compared the cognitive abilities of birds living in different conditions, it is not the first study to examine the differences between city and country birds. Previous research has shown that blackbirds in cites are similarly more careful than country blackbirds, and that sparrows and blackbirds living in cities sing at a higher frequency to be heard over city noise and to make up for sound distortions（失真）caused by tall buildings. If only birds knew the advantages of living among humans, maybe more would move to cities!
1. How are city birds different from country birds according to the research?| A．City birds have a weaker immune system because of air pollution. |
| B．City birds are braver when facing unfamiliar things or situations. |
| C．Country birds are less skilled at jobs requiring creation and skills. |
| D．Country birds have a wider range of challenges to survive. |
| A．Country birds can be taught the advantage of living in cities. |
| B．City birds are more resistant to diseases than country birds. |
| C．City birds are more likely to get sick than country birds. |
| D．Country birds are more careful in dangerous situations. |
| A．There're more dangers in cities for them. |
| B．The birds live far away from each other. |
| C．There are a wider range of situations. |
| D．There's too much noise in the city. |
| A．Research into birds' immune system and learning power. |
| B．City birds are smarter and healthier than country birds. |
| C．What a PhD. student has done has surprised the world. |
| D．The necessity and ways to move country birds to cities. |
