When John was growing up, other kids felt sorry for him. His parents always had him weeding the garden, carrying out the garbage and delivering newspapers. But when John reached adulthood，he was better off than his childhood playmates. He had more job satisfaction, a better marriage and was healthier. Most of all, he was happier. Far happier.
These are the findings of a 40-year study that followed the lives of 456 teenage boys from Boston. The study showed that those who had worked as boys enjoyed happier and more productive lives than those who had not. “Boys who worked in the home or community gained competence（能力）and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society, ” said George Vaillant, the psychologist（心理学家）who made the discovery. “And because they felt good about themselves, others felt good about them.”
Vaillant’s study followed these males in great detail. Interviews were repeated at ages 25, 31 and 47. Under Vaillant, the researchers compared the men’s mental-health scores with their boyhood-activity scores. Points were awarded for part-time jobs, housework, effort in school, and ability to deal with problems.
The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was surprisingly sharp. Those who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed. The researchers also found that IQ and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out.
Working—at any age—is important. Childhood activities help a child develop responsibility, independence, confidence and competence—the underpinnings（基础）of emotional health. They also help him understand that people must cooperate and work toward common goals. The most competent adults are those who know how to do this. Yet work isn't everything. As Tolstoy once said, “One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one's work.”
1. What do we know about John？| A．He received little love from his family. |
| B．He had few childhood playmates. |
| C．He enjoyed his career and marriage. |
| D．He was envied by others in his childhood. |
| A．a description of personal values and social values |
| B．an analysis of how work was related to competence |
| C．an example for parents' expectations of their children |
| D．an explanation why some boys grew into happy men |
| A．recording the boys' effort in school |
| B．comparing different sets of scores |
| C．evaluating the men's mental health |
| D．measuring the men's problem solving ability |
| A．Competent adults know more about love than work. |
| B．Emotional health is essential to a wonderful adult life. |
| C．Love brings more joy to people than work does. |
| D．Independence is the key to one's success. |
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【推荐1】Baby giraffes inherit(经遗传获得) aspects of their mothers’ patterning — which could give them a survival advantage if good camouflage(保护色) runs in the family. Just like humans have unique sets of fingerprints, every giraffe has a unique set of spots.
Derek Lee is a wildlife biologist and population ecologist at Penn State, and with the Wild Nature Institute, a research consulting group. He and his colleagues have been tracking giraffes for seven years, throughout 1,500 square miles in Tanzania.
Now, they’ve used image analysis software to study the spots of mothers and their babies. And they found that baby giraffes inherit at least some particular elements of their patterning from their mothers, like how circular the spots are. They also found that baby giraffes with larger spots have better chance to survive their first months, because the spots are more like the dappled(斑驳的) sunlight in the bushes where baby giraffes like to hide from hungry lions and hyenas (wild animals like dogs).
The results — and a lot of giraffe patterns — are recorded and explained in the journal PeerJ. [Lee et al., Seeing spots: quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)]
It’s perhaps not surprising that a physical characteristic that protects an individual from being eaten passes the test of Darwinian natural selection — and get passed along to later generations. “The fact that these things are inheritable and they did affect survival of baby animals makes us feel like evolution is embodied exactly by these spot features.” So if a mom’s camouflage is good, her babies, too, might have the spots that keep them safer.
1. Why are baby giraffes with larger spots more likely to survive?| A．Their spots match surroundings better. | B．They keep away from lions and hyenas. |
| C．Their mothers tend to protect them more. | D．They barely move around in the bushes. |
| A．Summarize the previous paragraphs. | B．Add some background information. |
| C．Provide evidence for the findings. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．Promoted. | B．Represented. | C．Questioned. | D．Prevented. |
| A．Animals have their unique sets of patterning | B．Mom’s genes make some giraffes hard to spot |
| C．Derek Lee has been studying animal patterning | D．Animal physical characteristics are similar to family’s |
【推荐2】Even with all of the water in Earth’s oceans, we satisfy less than half a percent of human water needs with desalinated (脱盐的) water. There is increasing regional scarcity (地域性的不足), especially in many dry areas of the world such as the Middle East and South Africa. So many people ask why we are not desalinating more to deal with shortages and growing water conflicts.
The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy. Salt dissolves (溶解) very easily in water, forming strong chemical bonds, and those bonds are difficult to break. Energy and the technology to desalinate water are both expensive, and this means that desalinating water can be pretty costly. There are environmental costs of desalination, as well. Sea life can get sucked into desalination plants, killing small ocean creatures like baby fish and plankton (浮游生物), upsetting the food chain. Also, there's the problem of what to do with the separate salt, which is left over as very concentrated salty water. Pumping this super salty water back into the ocean can harm sea life. Reducing these effects is possible, but it adds to the costs.
Despite the problems, desalination is becoming increasingly attractive as we run out of water from other sources. We are over—pumping groundwater, we have already built more dams than we can afford economically and environmentally, and we have tapped nearly all of the accessible rivers. Far more must be done to use our existing water more efficiently, but with the world's population increasing and the water supply decreasing, the economic tide may soon turn in favor of desalination. Therefore, the race is on to find cheaper, cleaner, and more energy—efficient way of desalinating seawater, and promising new findings are being reported.
1. What might cause many people to ask the question in Paragraph 1?| A．The contradiction between water shortages and the abundance of seawater. |
| B．The difference between developing and developed countries. |
| C．The slow development of desalination technology. |
| D．The high temperatures in some dry areas. |
| A．The food chain deep in the sea. |
| B．The high cost of desalinating seawater. |
| C．The major chemical characteristics of seawater. |
| D．The urgent need to turn seawater into fresh water. |
| A．The salty seawater left after desalination. |
| B．The noise caused by desalination plants. |
| C．The increase in the amount of plankton. |
| D．The over-pumping of groundwater. |
| A．Ambiguously. | B．Positively. | C．Skeptically. | D．Critically. |
【推荐3】Mosquitoes are one of the few unpleasant parts of summer. As the temperature rises, these disease-carrying pests become a common sight, especially around standing water. Thankfully, these tiny annoying creatures don’t follow us into the winter, right? Wrong. According to researchers in Florida, climate change will likely keep mosquitoes active even in the colder months of the year. “In tropical (热带的) areas, mosquitoes are active all year, but that isn’t the case for the rest of the world. Outside of the tropics, winter temperatures cause mosquitoes to go into a kind of hibernation called diapause (滞育). We call these mosquitoes ‘cold bounded’ because their activity is limited by these lower temperatures,” says Brett Scheffers, assistant professor in the wildlife eco logy and conservation department, in a university release.
“However, with climate change, summers are to get longer and winters are to become shorter and warmer. What will that mean for those cold bounded mosquitoes? How will they respond?” To see just how adaptive mosquitoes are already becoming to changing temperatures throughout the year, researchers collected these insects during each season in Gainesville, Florida.
Study authors caught over 28,000 insects from 18 different mosquito species during their experiment. Scientists lured the pests by using a trap that produces carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes seek out this gas, which both humans and animals blow out when they breathe. For these pests, the gas signals that a tasty meal is nearby. The team randomly selected 1,000 of these mosquitoes to test in their lab temperature experiment. They placed each insect in a test tube before putting it in water. From there, researchers continued to change the temperature, from cold to hot. At the same time, the team monitored when each mosquito became inactive—marking their upper or lower temperature thresholds (阈点).
As for what is allowing mosquitoes to make these rapid adjustments to the weather, the answer is still unclear. However, researchers believe evolution could be working at a much faster rate in tinier creatures. Study authors believe their findings will help communities better prepare for insect season as climate change continues to lengthen summer.
1. What does Brett Scheffers think of those cold bounded mosquitoes’ behaviors?| A．Less active. | B．More alarming. | C．More annoying. | D．Less consistent. |
| A．To find out why summer gets longer. |
| B．To see how mosquitoes spread in tropical areas. |
| C．To learn how mosquitoes are adapting to climate change. |
| D．To learn why climate change is related to species evolution. |
| A．Killed. | B．Attracted. | C．Changed. | D．Protected. |
| A．Cold bounded mosquitoes are easily trapped |
| B．Wildlife ecology helps better prepare for insect season |
| C．Mosquitoes will be a year-long problem due to climate change |
| D．The cause of mosquitoes’ rapid adjustments to the weather is clear |
【推荐1】Experts say heavy backpacks are a health risk for kids.
Like little turtles with limbs poking out from their shell, kids shuffle(拖着脚走) to school every day wearing giant backpacks. Even high school students have to bend forward to carry their heavy books to and from school. It's frustrating and looks a little silly, but is it dangerous?
" Yes, " say many experts. " Kids are saying ‘My back hurts, and my neck and my shoulders hurt’, "says Dr. Karen Jacobs, a clinical professor at Boston University. " A heavy backpack can also lead to headaches, slow or sluggish development and other physical problems. "
Jacobs is also a spokesperson for the American Occupational Therapy Association, which sponsors National School Backpack Awareness Day on September 16. She says that too many textbooks and less locker space are making backpacks bigger. "Since at least 1998, we've noticed backpacks getting bigger and heavier, and not in proportion to the kids sizes, "says Jacobs.
A 2010 study from the University of California, San Diego, concluded, "Backpack loads are responsible for a significant amount of back pain in children. " The same study says a full third of kids aged between 11 and 14 report back pain. Other research from 2011 came to a similar conclusion.
"Like the frame of a house, the spine(脊椎)is what keeps bodies strong and upright. Put too much weight on this frame while a young body is still developing, and it could change a child's posture(姿势), compress the spine, and impair children’s growth, " says Rob Danoff, a doctor in Philadelphia's Aria Health. "It also might lead to back problems or injuries when the child's older. "
Experts warn against wearing a heavy backpack, adding something can be done to solve the problem.
1. Which of the following is the best title?| A．Keep Children's Backs Free of All Backpacks |
| B．Less Locker Space Means Bigger Backpacks |
| C．It's Time to Reduce Heavy Homework for Kids |
| D．Bigger Backpacks Equal Bigger Health Problems |
| A．The school. | B．The bookshop owner. |
| C．The parents. | D．The backpack maker. |
| A．strengthen | B．damage |
| C．improve | D．repair |
| A．Some solutions to the problem. |
| B．Some reasons for the problem. |
| C．Some advantages of e-backpacks. |
| D．Some dangers of heavy backpacks. |
【推荐2】Studies of Mercury — the planet closest to the sun-show that it has shrunk by about 11 kilometers across since the solar system’s birth 4.5 billion years ago. As the planet cooled and contracted (收缩), its surface had many long curved ridges (山脊) similar to the wrinkles on a bad apple.
A new research on these ridges, called lobate scarps (瓣状陡坡), has found more of them, with steeper faces, than ever before. The discovery suggests that Mercury shrank by far more than the previous estimate, says Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist. The finding helps explain how Mercury’s huge metallic core (中心) cooled off over time. It may also finally settle the differences between theoretical scientists, who had predicted a lot of shrinkage, with observers who had not found evidence of that — until now. “We are resolving a four-decade-old argument here,” Byrne added.
Planetary scientists have been arguing over Mercury’s lobate scarps ever since the Mariner 10 spacecraft flew past the planet three times in 1974-1975. Researchers can use measurements of the length and height of the scarps to calculate how much planetary shrinkage they represent. That shrinkage is a product of Mercury’s strange structure — “like a core floating through space with a thin outer blanket,” says Byrne. Most of the planet is made of that large core, and so it would have cooled rapidly as heat rushed toward its surface.
The latest data, coming from NASA’s MESSENGER probe and covering the entire planet, showed many lobate scarps with sharp steeper faces, Byrne said. It also uncovered details on another kind of surface feature that may be related to shrinkage. These “wrinkle ridges” are less pronounced than the lobate scarps but may also have formed during contraction. Combined, the data on the lobate scarps and the wrinkle ridges suggest that Mercury’s diameter (直径) has shrunk by 11.4 kilometers, Byrne said.
1. How does the author explain the formation of the ridges on Mercury?| A．By making a comparison. | B．By providing some figures. |
| C．By describing the process. | D．By following the order of time. |
| A．It helps explain why Mercury has a huge metallic core. |
| B．It shows Mercury shrinks much less than previously thought. |
| C．It reveals there are less ridges on Mercury than people thought. |
| D．It helps settle the argument between theoretical scientists and observers. |
| A．It’s large core with thin surface. | B．The lobate scarps and wrinkles. |
| C．The pronounced wrinkle ridges. | D．The length and height of the scarps. |
| A．The latest data came from NASA’s Mariner 10 probe. |
| B．The lobate scarps may have formed before Mercury’s contraction. |
| C．The latest data provided supporting evidence of Mercury’s shrinkage. |
| D．The data suggests that Mercury’s diameter has shrunk to 11.4 kilometers. |
【推荐3】Back in January, my partner and I resolved to take exercise seriously. This would mean spending hours every week grunting, stretching and sweating our way to better health, which is something that is particularly difficult when you glance at the (weather outside and see dark clouds on the horizon. “Looks like it is about to rain, I guess I’ll go for a run tomorrow instead.” But then just as we were on the verge of giving up again, we discovered a brilliant new way to make exercise better: by turning it into a video-game.
SWIFT is a cycling game that you control by pedaling your real bike, which is fixed onto a device called a turbo-trainer. As you pedal, the trainer sends signals back to your computer or tablet to control the character on screen. And smartly, the game sends back instructions to the trainer to apply different levels of resistance, so that as you’re cycling up a hill in the game, you can actually feel it on the bike.
So one small garage renovation later and after signing up for a $12 per month subscription, we had our TV, bike and all-important cooling fan ready to go.
Once you’re set up, you can participate in virtual cycle rides in 3D-recreations of real places, like London and New York, or fictional locations. And importantly, other real human cyclists appear alongside you, sharing your journey.
The genius of the design is that it has used lots of the tricks of traditional video-games to keep pushing you a little bit further and harder: go a little faster, and you’ll be rewarded with a little achievement marker, and if you pedal harder, you might win a race against another real player. It’s essentially generating for same sort of dopamine hits that riding along on a traditional exercise bike simply can’t match.
I’m not the only person Who has noticed this. Today many other companies in the tech industry are chasing the same audience, and they all offer their own unique twists on the formula.
1. Why does the author mention the weather in paragraph 1?| A．To show the lack of his own willpower. |
| B．To complain about the unstable weather. |
| C．To reveal the limitation of traditional exercise. |
| D．To illustrate the difficulties in fulfilling his resolution. |
| A．Monthly payment. | B．3D Glasses. | C．A real bike. | D．A turbo-trainer. |
| A．How SWIFT motivates its users. | B．Who are the target users of SWIFT. |
| C．What physical benefits SWIFT users gel. | D．Why traditional bikes are replaced by SWIFT. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Intolerant. |
