【推荐1】Technology has become so advanced that the previously impossible seem to occur on a daily basis, and yet we still have no cure for the common cold.

According to Peter Barlow, a scientist at Edinburgh Napier University in the UK, the main challenge lies in the many different types of cold viruses. There are at least 160 types. They change so easily that they quickly become resistant to drugs, or learn to hide from our immune systems. In other words, a single cure isn’t likely to work on every type of cold.

However, researchers from Stanford University have found a possible answer. They discovered a protein that the viruses need. Without it, they can’t spread inside your body. To identify the gene(基因) which produces the specific protein needed by the viruses, researchers used a gene- editing technique to test all genes. These modified (改变的) cells were then exposed to a range of viruses, including ones causing the common cold. All the viruses were unable to replicate (复制) inside cells without the gene that produces that specific protein.

Then, they tested genetically modified mice, which were completely unable to produce the protein. The mice were able to live normal lives without the protein. “Lacking that gene protected the mice completely from viral infection,” associate professor Jan Carette, from Stanford, told the BBC. “These mice would always die, but they lived through and we saw a very strong reduction in copying viruses and very strong protection. We have identified a fantastic target that all cold viruses require and depend on. Take that away and the virus really has no chance.”

Carette said the plan was to find a drug which could temporarily control the protein, instead of producing genetically modified humans.

1. Which of the following can best describe common cold viruses?

A．Severe and deadly.

B．Mysterious and stubborn.

C．Diverse and changeable.

D．Challenging and oversized.

2. What is the function of the protein?

A．Helping viruses spread.

B．Reducing physical infection.

C．Fighting against other viruses.

D．Strengthening the immune system.

3. What can we learn about the genetically modified mice?

A．They caught cold easily.

B．Their health worsened.

C．They produced more protein.

D．They were able to survive.

4. What is the purpose of the research?

A．To control certain genes.

B．To conquer the common cold.

C．To test a new drug.

D．To cure genetically modified mice.

【推荐3】Some experts say muscle loss begins around age 50. But others say it can start as early as age 30. Although muscle loss may be a natural part of aging , you can do some things to slow it down. Lost muscles are not gone forever. It is better to start building muscles when you are younger and in good health. Experts may not know exactly when muscle loss starts , but it is never too late to start strength training.

Simply put , strength training is what makes one's muscles stronger, Let us talk about some of the health benefits of strength training. This information comes from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit health and research organization in the United States.

Harvard University researchers say that strength training puts pressure on your bones. This pressure can aggrandize the thickness or density of bones. This can reduce your risk of developing osteoporosis — a disease that weakens bones, making them easy to break, usually when people get older or because they do not have enough calcium or Vitamin D. And experts say strength training can reduce the problems of many long-term disorders, such as back pain, heart disease, diabetes and depression.

Considering it's easy for people to run to fat when getting older, strength training can help you take control of your weight. Muscle weighs more than fat. But muscle increases your metabolism （新陈代谢），and a higher metabolism helps you burn more calories.

Strength training can improve your ability to take activities. For example, having stronger muscles makes it easier to lift and move things. So, your risk of falling or getting injured may be lessened. As we age, this can greatly add to our quality of life. And some research shows that regular strength training, when combined with other kinds of exercise, may help older adults think and learn better.

The aging process affects the human body in many ways. It is believed that strength training can have a major effect on a person's life, so consider motivating others to join you in the many physical and emotional benefits of strength training.

1. What can we conclude according to the first paragraph?

A．Muscle loss has become a big threat for the young,

B．Lost muscles can come back by taking strength training.

C．Experts will do research about when muscles lose.

D．Being inactive in life can speed up the aging process.

2. Which can replace the underlined word “aggrandize" in the third paragraph?

A．Protect.

B．Improve.

C．Prevent.

D．Influence.

3. What benefit can strength training bring to the old?

A．It can lift the level of calcium or Vitamin D.

B．It can control the metabolism to some extent.

C．It can cure some of their long-term disorders.

D．It can help perform their routines easily.

4. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Why You Need to Start Strength Training

B．What You Should Do with Everyday Activities

C．When Building Your Muscles Matters a Lot

D．How Strength Training Affects Your Thinking

【推荐1】Everything you know is in your brain. For what you don’t, you can ask the web. However, as you can imagine, in the past there were no computers and no web at all. Think about people living 3,500 years ago, in places where pyramids towered above them. The lack of explanations about how things worked inspired the ancients to make discoveries and feed their curiosity.

But do not think they knew nothing: in fact, we still wonder how the Egyptians could build the pyramids using their own, rather rudimentary equipment. They wrote down their knowledge on books(called papyrus scrolls) so that later people could benefit from their skills.

Living safer and healthier was a top priority for the ancients: when they hurt their heads in battles, they used to heal their wounds using the cures, some of which were recorded on a papyrus now known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus. Interestingly, this is the oldest written evidence of the word ”brain“ we have on Earth, and it dates back to 3,500 years ago!

However, writing the word ”brain“ on a papyrus did not solve all the questions about it. Around 2500 years ago, for example, ancient Greeks wondered whether mind and soul lay in the brain or in the heart.

2,000 years ago, Roman physician Galen of Pergamon was sure he had solved the question: It was the brain, not the heart, that was the center of mental life. However, Galen had to convince the people around him that what he had discovered was true. It was not easy, mostly because people held their earlier beliefs. Every neuroscientist, just like Galen did, has to carefully observe reality, focus on something that is really interesting, think about how it can work, perform experiments, and discuss the data they get. This way, they can obtain convincing evidence to be shared with others.

1. What encouraged the ancients to make discoveries?

A．The hope for keeping curiosity.

B．The search for explanations..

C．The need for writing books .

D．The wish to work faster.

2. Which word can best replace ”rudimentary" underlined in paragraph 2?

A．Primitive   .	B．Complicated .
C．Electrical.	D．Protective.

3. What can be learned about the Edwin Smith Papyrus?

A．It was considered useless at first.

B．It was finished 2,500 years ago.

C．It was probably a medical text.

D．It was written by Galen of Pergamon       .

4. How did Galen convince people of his discovery?

A．By finding evidence from papyrus scrolls.

B．By asking many scientists to support him.

C．By teaching people to do experiments.

D．By following strict scientific methods.

【推荐2】Ice hockey’s beginning is a little uncertain. It has been tracked back to an Irish game known as hurley by some experts. Others consider ice hockey as having come from lacrosse and field games that were played by Micmac Indians. Still others say that hockey evolved in Northern Europe. At any rate, it is quite likely that ice hockey came into being from different early games played with a stick and a ball.

In the 1850s, the first recorded games of ice hockey were played, and in the 1870s, the first set of ice hockey rules were written by a group of students at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. These rules set up the use of a puck (冰球) replacing a ball and decided the number of players to be nine per team. The year 1880 brought the organization of the first amateur hockey league. Over the next several years, ice hockey’s popularity spread across Canada. It was around 1893 that ice hockey was first played in the United States. There have been several ice hockey leagues. The best known is the National Hockey League, which came into being in 1917 in Canada.

Ice hockey has the oldest sports trophy (奖杯) in North America. It had become so widespread in Canada that a trophy was presented by the Governor General of Canada to be awarded to the top hockey team. Lord Stanley of Preston was the name of the Governor General, and the trophy became Known as the Stanley Cup.

Not many changes have been made to the initial rules set forth in the 1870s. The main ones have been the decrease from nine players to six and the progression of new and better equipment. In 1910 — 11, the game changed from two 30-minute periods to three 20-minute periods. In 1943 — 44, the red line at center ice was introduced to speed up the game. In 2005 — 06, goalkeeper equipment was downsized.

1. What does the second paragraph intend to tell?

A．The rules of ice hockey.

B．The development of ice hockey.

C．The popularity of ice hockey.

D．The players of ice hockey.

2. What’s the text mainly about?

A．The rules of the ice hockey sport.

B．The great changes of the ice hockey sport.

C．The history of the ice hockey sport.

D．The development of the National Hockey League.

【推荐3】Perhaps unsurprisingly, buffoonery(滑稽) was one of few careers acceptable for women to pursue in the Middle Age. And it was not uncommon for women to enjoy this career.

However, in the 17th century, comedians were forced to society’s edge as their tendency to truth-telling was no longer tolerated among high society and women, bearing the weight of gender prejudice, were seldom among this career.

This slowly began to change in the mid-19th century when women began to enter the workforce and, in the circus industry, a growing minority of female performers were employed. They promoted the industry’s “New Woman” movement which introduced female performers into the traditionally male stage.

In 1895, among the women breaking the prejudice was Josephine Williams or “Lady Evetta” called the “The Only Lady Clown”.

Williams told The New York Times: “I believe that a woman can do anything for a living that a man can do and do it just as well as a man. All my people laughed at me when I told them that I was going on stage as a clown. But they do not laugh now.”

Despite her being optimistic, the article concluded: “The men in the clown business rather enjoy Miss. Williams’ odd performances but they do not regard her as a serious competitor or believe that any other women are likely to follow her example.”

How wrong they were. In the 1970s, French-born Annie Fratellini openedeh circus school, Académie Fratellini, encouraged by her film-making husband Pierre Etaix.

Fratellini Auguste was recognizable as the clown familiar today. Her unique make-up was made up of a big red nose, tears, a black mouth and shiny decorations fixed to her eyes. When asked whether the character she acted was male or female, she insisted that “clowns have no gender”.

1. What happened in the 17thcenturyaccordnglo Paragraph 2?

A．Comedians disappeared in the society.

B．Few women worked as comedians.

C．Male comedians were forced out of society.

D．Comedians were popular among high society.

2. What is people’s attitude to Williams as a clown at first?

A．Supportive.	B．Appreciative.
C．Impatient.	D．Unacceptable.

3. Who created the clown image familiar to us today?

A．Annie Fratellini.	B．Pierre Etaix.
C．Lady Evetta.	D．Josephine Williams.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Women suffered from prejudice.	B．The development of comedies.
C．The history of female clowns.	D．How men broke the prejudice.

【推荐1】“A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website” is the definition of “selfie” in the Oxford English Dictionary. In fact, it wasn't even in the dictionary until August of last year. It earned its place there because people are now so obsessed with (对……痴迷) selfies ─ we take them when we try on a new hat, play with our pets or when we meet a friend whom we haven't seen in a while.
But is there any scientific explanation for this obsession? Well, you should probably ask James Kilner, a neuroscientist(神经系统科学家) at University College London.
Through our lifetime we become experts at recognizing and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions. In contrast, according to Kilner, we have a very poor understanding of our own faces since we have little experience of looking at them ─ we just feel them most of the time.
This has been proved in previous studies, according to the BBC.
Kilner found that most people chose the more attractive picture. This suggests that we tend to think of ourselves as better-looking than we actually are. To further test how we actually perceive our own faces, Kilner carried out another study. He showed people different versions of their own portrait ─ the original, one that had been edited to look less attractive and one that was made more attractive ─ and asked them to pick the version which they thought looked most like them. They chose the more attractive version.
But what does it say about selfies? Well, isn't that obvious? Selfies give us the power to create a photograph ─ by taking it from various angles, with different poses, using filters (滤色镜) and so on ─ that better matches our expectations with our actual faces.
“You suddenly have control in a way that you don't have in non-virtual(非虚拟的) interactions," Kilner told the Canada-based CTV News. Selfies allow you “to keep taking pictures until you manage to take one you're happy with”, he explained.
1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The definition and fun of taking selfies.

B．A study of why people love taking selfies.

C．How taking selfies influences people’s daily lives.

D．How to interpret people’s facial expressions in their selfies.

2. The underlined word “perceive” in Paragraph 5 can be replaced by “______”.

A．interpret

B．beautify

C．choose

D．explain

3. What did Kilner discover from his researches?

A．People tend to believe they look more attractive than they actually are.

B．People tend to spend more time looking at their faces than at others’.

C．People interpret others’ facial expressions worse than their own.

D．People who like taking selfies know more about their facial expressions.

4. According to Kilner, people like taking selfies probably because they think ______.

A．it is a good chance to learn more about their actual faces

B．it allows them to satisfy their expectations with their appearances

C．it enables them to interact with their friends in social media

D．it is a way to respond to others’ facial expressions correctly

【推荐2】Young sunflowers turn and swing every day. New findings add to evidence that the plants are animal-like.

Harmer, a professor in the University of California at Davis, Department of Plant Biology, carried out a series of experiments on sunflowers in the field, in pots outdoors and in indoor growth chambers.

By staking plants so that they could not move, Harmer showed that he could destroy their ability to track the sun. He also noticed that sunflowers prevented from moving were not as tough and leafy as those that were free to move. When plants were moved indoor with a settled overhead light, they continued to swing back and forth for a few days.

The indoor plants did start tracking the “sun” again when the apparent source of lighting was moved across the room. The plants could reliably track the movement and return at night when the artificial day was close to a 24-hour cycle, but not when it was closer to 30 hours.

When sunflowers track the sun, the east sides of their stems grew more rapidly than the west sides. At night, the west sides grew faster as the stem swung the other way. The team identified a number of genes that were expressed at higher levels on the sun-ward side of the plant during the day or on the other side at night. A plant growth-regulating hormone, called auxin, appears to be a key driver.

The “dance” to the sun cycle obviously slows when the sunflower matures and its flowers open up. At that point, the plants stop moving during the day and settle down facing the sun in the east.

“Bees like warm flowers.” Harmer said, adding that the bees are cold-blooded, so landing on a warm flower saves them energy and perhaps feels really good.

“The morning warmth changes the flowers in a way to make them more appealing to insects, perhaps causing them to release more attractive scents earlier in the day.” he said “We’re currently testing this idea.”

1. Why did Harmer do the experiment on sunflowers?

A．To see how sunflowers grow up.

B．To show what sunflowers’ genes are.

C．To study why sunflowers track the sun.

D．To check if sunflowers swing in cloudy days.

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

A．tracking	B．fastening
C．growing	D．searching

3. What is the result of sunflowers being stopped from moving?

A．They will produce a number of new genes.

B．They will grow faster than usual.

C．They won’t swing back though set free.

D．They won’t grow well.

4. What is the advantage of sunflowers’ dance to the sun?

A．They attract more insects.	B．They save the flower more energy.
C．They mature more rapidly.	D．They produce more flowers.