【推荐1】

News anchors(主播) must have been reluctant to read out the following news: Xin Xiaomeng began working as the world’s first female artificial(人工的) intelligence news anchor at Xinhua News Agency on Sunday, three months after a male robot joined the profession.

Unlike previous news robots though, Xin does not read news like a cold machine; she reads it almost like a human being. The muscles on her face stretch and relax-and her reactions change-as she continues reading. That’s why many news anchors were worried: Will AI replace us in the near future?

To find the answer, we have to analyse the technologies that support Xin at her job. Three key technologies are used to support Xin. First, samples of human voices are collected and synthesized (合成). This is followed by the collection and synthesis of human muscle movement samples. And third the voices and movements are married in a way that when the Al news anchor reads, the micro -electric motors behind her face move to make her expressions seem more human.

Yet we need a thorough knowledge of deep leaning technology to make a robot imitate a person’s voice. The developer needs to collect tens of thousands of pieces of pronunciations, input them Into the machine and match them with the text or the Al to lean and read. The process for imitating facial movements is similar. The developer has to analyse the movements of the 53 muscles in the human face, make a model set from the collected data for the AI news anchor to lean, and imitate the movements of facial muscles via programs

Both the technologies used to make Xin’s performance impressive are mature. The real difficulty lies in the third -the technology to match the pronunciations with facial movements so that Xin expressions vary according to the content of the news report. In fact, Xins expressions don' t always change according to the content. As a result, her expressions look anything but human. Actually. AI is still no match for human qualities.

1. What does the underlined word "reluctant "in the first paragraph mean?

A．Delighted.

B．Unwilling.

C．Confused.

D．Optimistic.

2. What can we infer about previous news robots?

A．They read news without expressions.	B．They looked like a human being
C．They could interview sports stars	D．They could interact with audience.

3. What do we know about the third technology?

A．This technology is very perfect so far

B．This technology is quite popular now

C．This technology remains at the theoretical stage

D．This technology is far from mature.

4. From the last paragraph, we can draw a conclusion that____.

A．human news anchors should learn from AT anchors to save their jobs

B．Al anchors perform much better than human news anchors at present

C．Al news anchors won 't replace human news anchors in the near future

D．Xin Xiaomeng s expressions vary so naturally that they are true to life

【推荐2】You are what you eat-and what you eat may be encoded in your DNA. Studies have indicated that your genes play a role in determining the foods you find delicious or disgusting. But exactly how big a role they play has been difficult to figure out. “Everything has a genetic component even if it’s small,” says Joanne Cole, a geneticist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “We know that there is some genetic contribution to why we eat the foods we eat. Can we take the next step and actually locate the regions in the genome (基因)?”

New research led by Cole has gotten a step closer. Through a large-scale genomics analysis, her team has identified 481 genome regions that were directly linked to dietary patterns and food preferences. The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, were presented last month at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual conference.

The team based the new study on a 2020 Nature Communications study by Cole and her colleagues that used data from the U.K. Biobank, a public database of the genetic and health information of 500,000 participants. By scanning genomes, the new analysis was able to identify 194 regions associated with dietary patterns and 287 linked to specific foods such as fruit, cheese, fish, tea and alcohol. Further understanding how genetics impact how we eat could reveal differences in nutritional needs or disease risks.

“One of the problems with a lot of these genomics studies is that they’re very small. They don’t have enough people to really be able to identify genes in ways that are credible. This study had a huge group of people, so it’s really powerful.” says Monica Dus, a geneticist at the University of Michigan. “The other thing that I thought was really great is that there are so many different features that they’re measuring related to diet including cholesterol (胆固醇), the body and socioeconomic backgrounds.” As the research advances, Dus says, such genome analysis could potentially assist health care providers and even policymakers to address larger issues that affect food access and health.

It’s definitely true that it may contribute to making sure there aren’t food deserts-areas which have limited access to fresh, healthy and affordable food or to making sure that there’s a higher minimum wage so that everyone can afford to eat, although the journey ahead remains lengthy and challenging.

1. How did researchers conduct the present study?

A．By involving a substantial number of participants.

B．By directly analyzing the data from a public database.

C．By building on a previous study based on large-scale data.

D．By identifying genome regions associated with dietary patterns.

2. Which statement will Monica Dus probably agree with?

A．Powerful participants were involved in the current study.

B．The methods employed for the previous studies were credible.

C．The genome analyses have helped address larger social issues.

D．Various features linked to diet were considered in the present study.

3. What is the text mainly about?

A．The benefits of latest large-scale diet-related genome analyses.

B．The contribution of genes to diet patters and food preferences.

C．The significance of a newly published diet-related genome discovery.

D．The introduction of a research on identifying diet-related genome regions.

4. Which one might the passage come from?

A．National Geographic	B．Sports Illustrated for kids
C．Scientific American	D．The Wall Street Journal

【推荐3】Last summer, two nineteenth-century cottages were rescued from remote farm fields in Montana, to be moved to an Art Deco building in San Francisco. The houses were made of wood. These cottages once housed early settlers as they worked the dry Montana soil; now they hold Twitter engineers.

The cottages could be an example of the industry’s unusual love for “low technology”, a concept associated with the natural world, and with old-school craftsmanship（手艺）that exists long before the Internet era. Low technology is not virtual (虚拟的) —so, to take advantage of it, Internet companies have had to get creative. The rescued wood cottages, fitted by band in the late eighteen-hundreds, are an obvious example. Other companies are using a broader interpretation（阐释）of low technology that focuses on nature.

Amazon is building three glass spheres filled with trees, so that employees can “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” At Google’s office, an entire is carpeted in glass. Facebook’s second Menlo Park campus will have a rooftop park with a walking path.

Olle Lundberg, the founder of Lundberg Design, has worked with many tech companies over the years. “Our tech engineers are the ones who feel impoverished, because they’re surrounded by the digital world,” he says. “We’ve found that introducing real crafts is one way to regain their individual identity.”

This craft-based theory is rooted in history. William Morris, the English artist and writer, turned back to pre-industrial arts in the eighteen-sixties, just after Industrial Revolution. The Arts and Crafts movement defined itself against machines. “Without creative human occupation, people became disconnected from life.” Morris said.

Research has shown that natural environments can restore our mental abilities. In Japan, patients are encouraged to “forest-bathe”, taking walks through woods to lower their blood pressure.

These health benefits apply to the workplace as well. Rachel Kaplvin, a professor of environmental psychology, has spent years researching the restorative effects of natural environment. Her research found that workers with access to nature at the office - even simple views of trees and flowers - felt their jobs were less stressful and more satisfying. If low-tech offices can potentially benefit the brains and improve the mental health of employees then, fine, bring on the cottages.

1. The writer mentions the two nineteenth-century cottages to show that _________

A．Twitter is having a hard time

B．Old cottages are in need of protection

C．Early settlers once suffered from a dry climate in Montana

D．Internet companies have rediscovered the benefits of low technology

2. Low technology is regarded as something that __________

A．is related to nature	B．is out of date today
C．cosumes too much energy	D．exists in the virtual world

3. The writer’s attitude to “low technology” can best be described as __________

A．Critical	B．positive
C．worried	D．doubtful

4. What can be the best title for the passage?

A．Past Glories, Future Dreams

B．The Virtual World, the Real Challenge

C．High-tech Companies, Low-tech Offices

D．The More Craftsmanship, the Less Creativity

【推荐1】If you look across the entire lifespan, what you see is an average increase in desirable personality traits（特点）.Psychologists call this the “maturity principle” and it’s comforting to know that, assuming your personality follows a typical course, then the older you get, the maturer you will become. However, it’s not such good news for young adolescents, because at this point, something known as the “disruption hypothesis” kicks in.

Consider a study of Dutch teenagers who completed personality tests each year for six or seven years from 2005. The boys showed a temporary dip in   conscientiousness—orderliness and self-discilpline in early adolescence, and the girls showed a temporary increase in neuroticism—emotional instability. This seems to back up some of the stereotypes we have of messy teen bedrooms and mood swings. Thankfully, this decline in personality is short-lived, with the Dutch data showing that the teenagers’ previous positive traits rebound（反弹）in later adolescence.

Both parents and their teenage children agree that changes occur, but surprisingly, the perceived change can depend on who is measuring, according to a 2017 study of over 2,700 German teenagers. They rated their own personalities twice, at age 11 and age 14, and their parents also rated their personalities at these times. Some differences emerged: for instance, while the teenagers rated themselves as declining in agreeability, their parents saw this decline as much shaper. Also, the teens saw themselves as increasingly extroverted（外向的）, but their parents saw them as increasingly introverted.

This mismatch can perhaps be explained by the big changes underway in the parent-child relationship brought on by teenagers’ growing desire for autonomy and privacy. The researchers point out that parents and teens might also be using different reference points—parents are measuring their teenagers’ traits against a typical adult, while the teenagers are comparing their own traits against those displayed by their peers.

This is in line with several further studies, which also reveal a pattern of a temporary reduction in advantageous traits in early adolescence. The general picture of the teenage years as a temporary personality “disruption” therefore seems accurate. In fact, we’re only just beginning to understand the complex mix of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to individual patterns of personality change.

Studies also offer some clues for how we might create more nurturing environments for teenagers to aid their personality development. This is an approach worth pushing further given that teenage personality traits are predictive of experiences in later life. For instance, one British study of over 4,000 teenagers showed that those who scores lower in conscientiousness were twice as likely to be unemployed later in life, in comparison with those who scored higher.

People focus so much on teaching teenagers facts and getting them to pass exams, but perhaps they ought to pay at least as much attention to helping nurture their personalities.

1. Which of the following can be an example of “disruption hypothesis”?

A．A kindergarten kid cries over a toy.

B．A boy in high school cleans his own room.

C．A teenage girl feels sad for unknown reason.

D．A college graduate feels stressed out by work.

2. According to the study of German teenagers ______.

A．parent give their teens too much automony and privacy

B．teens are more optimistic about their personality changes

C．teens and parents have the same personality rating standard

D．parents and teens can later agree on teens’ personality decline

3. We can infer from the last three paragraphs that ______.

A．teens should pay less attention to their scores in exams

B．developing teens’ personality has a long-term effect in their life

C．people’s success in later life depends on teenage personality traits

D．environmental factors outweigh genetic ones for personality change

4. What is the author’s attitude towards present teenager personality education?

A．Dissatisfied.

B．Approving.

C．Neutral.

D．Cautious.

【推荐2】In US emergency rooms (ER), the average wait time to see a doctor is more than two hours. There are more patients in need than there are doctors, nurses and other staff to help them. Many parents have suffered through hours in the ER with a sick, upset child, only to get sent home because their case is not considered urgent. What if there was another choice—like a house call from an intelligent machine?

Now, a new study shows that AI systems can assess (评估) a child’s medical chart and come up with a diagnosis (诊断), a determination of what is wrong with that patient.

The study took place at Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center in southern China. First, a team of doctors reviewed 6, 183 medical charts. They summarized the information in these charts into a list of keywords linked to disease-related symptoms or signs, such as “fever”. Researchers then taught these keywords to the AI system. Once trained, the system scanned children’s charts for the key terms, checking if they were present or not in order to come to a conclusion. Finally, it offered diagnoses based on the charts, narrowing down from among 55 illness categories.

Dongxiao Zhu, an assistant professor of computer science at Wayne State University who did not take part in the study, however, sees this as “augmented intelligence (增强智能)” rather than “artificial intelligence”, because the system handled only 55 illness categories. Compare that to thousands of possibilities in the real world. The machine cannot yet get into the more complex aspects of a medical decision.

Zhu is also concerned about the amount of human work that went into the study—namely, the time and energy spent by human doctors. They spent hours grading the machine’s assessments and comparing them to their own. It’s no wonder that the process took four years. Considering that, it may be a while before you can skip the ER and see a robot-doctor instead.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A．Patients pay too much for the ER.

B．American doctors aren’t responsible.

C．Children are treated urgently in the ER.

D．The emergency rooms are crowded with patients.

2. What does the author mainly intend to show in the text?

A．AI systems still have a long way to go.

B．AI systems diagnose disease like doctors.

C．AI systems will take over from doctors someday.

D．AI systems get into complex medical decisions.

3. How does AI system determine a patient’s disease?

A．By examining a patient first.

B．By reviewing many medical charts.

C．By scanning keywords about a disease.

D．By observing disease-related symptoms.

4. What does Zhu think of AI doctors?

A．They need to be improved a lot.

B．They will replace real doctors soon.

C．They are suitable for complex disease.

D．They help doctors make a quick analysis.

【推荐3】Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years living abroad. Now a pair of psychologist has proven that there is indeed a link.

As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, William Maddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pin.) They found 60% of the students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.

A follow-up study with 72 Americans and 36 foreigners explored their creative negotiating skills. Pairs of students were asked to play the role of seller of a petrol station who then needed to get a job and a buyer who would need to hire staff to run the business. The two were likely to reach a deadlock because the buyer had been told he could not afford what the seller was told was his minimum price. Nevertheless, when both negotiators had lived abroad 70 % struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petrol station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was able to reach a deal.

Merely travelling abroad, however, was not enough. You do have to live there. Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself make you Hemingway.

1. What is the purpose of mentioning the famous names in the opening paragraph?

A．To show the relationship between creativity and living abroad.

B．To indicate the link between artistic creation and life experience.

C．To emphasize how great these artists are.

D．To impress the importance of creativity.

2. What can be inferred from the text?

A．William Maddux and Adam Galinsky have carefully designed the test.

B．Negotiators who had lived abroad are more flexible in negotiating.

C．American business students are less creative than those oversea students.

D．One's creativity is associated with the length one has spent abroad.

3. What does the author mean in the last sentence of paragraph 4?

A．There exist sharp differences between travelling and living abroad.

B．You shouldn't lie on the beach when travelling.

C．Only real experience of living abroad can help drive creativity.

D．Living abroad is more meaningful than just travelling abroad.

4. Where is the text most likely from?

A．A diary.	B．A magazine.
C．A novel.	D．A guidebook.

【推荐1】The assumption that depression is a disease has been supported by biologists, psychiatrists and companies producing medicine. Although advances in medical treatment have certainly been responsible for reducing much suffering, sticking to the disease model is preventing a more complete understanding of why we are so likely to suffer from depression, with at least 45% of people experiencing the condition in their lifetimes.

My recent review of theories and personal observations suggests that depression might serve some useful functions. We should not forget that depression has meaning, and that there is a real new life after recovery.

A recent study of depression in Holland showed that people seemed to cope better with hardships in life after depression than they were doing before it. In the group as a whole, liveliness, psychological health, social and spare-time activities, performance at work and general health all significantly improved upon recovery from depression.

Depression can lead to great insights(洞察力) and achievements. More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle believed depression to be a state of great moral and spiritual value because of the insights it could bring. The philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote his famous work, Utilitarianism, at the age of 19 and became depressed at the age of 21. Upon recovery, he admitted that the experience had taught him an important lesson---that he should not sacrifice(牺牲) his social and emotional development to intellectual ambition.

Theories have suggested that depression could be a defense against the long-time stress. It is possible that depression defends us against the tendency to ignore our true needs by chasing unobtainable goals and helps to bring these needs into sharper focus.

Depression may bring about a “rebirth” because it removes a false idea about oneself. There is some evidence from scientific studies to show that depressed people are rather more realistic in their thinking than “healthy” individuals. With recovery, a new kind of truth could be found, which would do away with blind optimism: a more modest evaluation of the depressed person’s own ability, containing a more balanced picture of his or her life.

Depression may have forced our ancestors to look again at their strengths and weaknesses, and their coping strategies. Regardless of the reason for falling into depression, the journey has potential to make us better equipped, in a general sense, for life.

1. Which of the following is the disadvantage of treating depression as a disease?

A．People dislike being taken as patients.

B．The medical treatment costs a lot of money.

C．It prevents us from better understanding depression.

D．It stops people from getting a balanced picture of life.

2. After recovering from depression, John Stuart Mill realized that he shouldn’t _________ .

A．take part in too many social activities

B．aim too high in intellectual achievement

C．write Utilitarianism at such an early age

D．consider too much about emotional needs

3. What functions can depression serve?
a. It enables people to perform better at work
b. It makes it easier to achieve people’s dream.
c. It helps people to get a realistic view of self
d. It improves people’s ability to deal with difficulties

A．abc	B．bcd
C．abd	D．acd

4. What can be a suitable title for this passage?

A．Ways to Address Depression

B．Brave Attitude to Depression

C．Depression: Disease or Rebirth?

D．Depression: Assumption or Reality?

【推荐2】We all experience “oh crap” moments. Running into the person you canceled a date with — while you’re on another date. Realizing you hit “reply all”on an e-mail that you’d do anything to have back. Whatever the situation, the first thing you probably do is freak out. Everybody does.

While many of us think that we’re cool in a crisis, science tells us that we seldom are. At the moment we need to be keenly aware of our surroundings, our attention can tunnel in on the scariest thing in the scene, leaving us unaware of the other sights, sounds, and even smells around us. Armed robbers go unidentified because witnesses remember little more than the guns. Our ability to remember the things we do notice also becomes compromised; we can be told something, and two seconds later we’ll forget. And we jump to conclusions. When we’re freaked out, we’re anything but at our best.

These normal human reactions can be reversed. Once you calm down, you’ll face the most routinely ignored challenge of any crisis situation — identifying what the crisis is really about. We tend to misdiagnose problems because we don’t practice for them. Do the thinking ahead of time so you can just find the solution when it’s showtime. This is why flight attendants suggest you find the closest exit before you depart — so you don’t have to go exit shopping after the plane has caught fire or is sinking into a river.     

Performing in a crisis is becoming more important for all of us, for two reasons. Back in the good old days, the reliability of most anything we used or did was far less than it is today. Now think about what happens to our preparedness as the possibility of something bad happening shrinks. Unless we practice what hardly ever happens, our ability to respond when it does happen tends to slip away. Reliability can kill you. Also, the systems we use today are more complex. There are seldom moving parts in plain view that allow us to see when things are about to go wrong. When complex systems lack transparency (透明度,显而易见), serious situations can “come out of nowhere.” We should all learn to breathe, recognize the situation, and carry out the plan that we were smart enough to prepare well in advance.

1. What does the underlined phrase “freak out” mean?

A．Be at one’s best.	B．Calm down gradually.
C．Run away immediately.	D．Panic or be scared.

2. Why do armed robbers go unidentified?

A．Because the witnesses jump to conclusions.

B．Because the witnesses focus on their scariest thing.

C．Because the witnesses forget what they have been told.

D．Because the witnesses are keenly aware of the surroundings.

3. Why is it more important for us to perform in a crisis today?

A．Because of less reliability and less complexity.

B．Because of more reliability and more complexity.

C．Because of worse transparency and less preparedness.

D．Because of better transparency and more preparedness.

4. What would the passage suggest doing in case a fire breaks out?

A．Taking a deep breath and dialing 119.

B．Staying cool and ignoring the challenge.

C．Calming down and remembering the situation.

D．Performing escaping and rescuing beforehand.

【推荐3】Winter begins in the north on December 22^nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels(松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.

They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to show how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut(黑胡桃) trees. The black walnuts is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.

Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researches estimate(估计) that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.

Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.

The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.

1. The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.

A．find out how squirrels collect walnuts

B．learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees

C．do something to get rid of squirrels

D．save the forests in the American state of Indiana

2. The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels lies in ________.

A．the way they gather the walnut	B．the time they have winter sleep
C．the place they have winter sleep	D．the place they store the walnuts

3. What could be inferred from this text?

A．Agricultural in Indiana has been well developed.

B．Gray squirrels will be replaced by red squirrels in Indiana.

C．The spread of red squirrels will do harm to walnuts trees in Indiana.

D．The government will take some measures to protect black walnut trees.

【推荐1】Many shopping malls now have special areas that offer shoppers their first chance to experience “VR technology”. You may have entered one out of curiosity, or you may think it is just another piece of useless technology. Whatever your opinion, VR, or virtual (虚拟的) reality, is going to become a big part of our lives very soon.

2016 saw the introduction of many fancy products in the world of VR, including Microsoft’s HoloLens and Samsung’s Gear VR. All of them offer an exciting look at the new realities and opportunities that VR brings. These, however, are the early days of a technology that is expected to go from strength to strength. And 2017 looks like it is going to be the year in which VR technology really takes off.

For a start, using VR will become more normal in 2017. Microsoft and Intel have already discussed their plans for simpler and less expensive VR headsets.

“The idea of VR will stop being a sci-fi (science-fiction) idea, and instead it will turn into an industry of real products used as ways to show off imagination.” Said Andrew, a designer at US VR Company, Survios. It is also expected that VR products will play a part in more common and real-life fields like fashion and film. For example, to enjoy the atmosphere and energy of the front row experience at a fashion show, fans will no longer have to go along in the flesh. Instead people will be able to enjoy the experience by just wearing a VR headset at home.

You can also expect VR mirrors and fitting-rooms sooner rather than later. “This is an especially good opportunity for brands looking to offer very personalized experiences.” Said Roy De Young from US-based marketing agency, PMX.

As time goes on, there will be less discussion about whether people will accept VR technology. It will simply be a discussion of when.

1. Why do many shopping malls have areas for VR experiences?

A．To collect shoppers’opinions.

B．To meet the demands of shoppers.

C．To introduce the new technology to shoppers.

D．To entertain shoppers with new technology.

2. What does the underlined phrase “in the flesh” mean?

A．In time	B．In person
C．In line	D．In order

3. What can we know about VR products from the passage?

A．They are not expensive at present.

B．They will meet more personal demands.

C．They are being used almost everywhere.

D．They won’t be accepted for many years.

4. What may be the best title for the passage?

A．VR Meets Our Life Goal	B．VR Mirrors Are Coming
C．VR Takes over Fashion	D．VR Is Becoming Real

【推荐2】Mathew White, an environmental psychologist, is on a mission to give Mother Nature the respect he thinks she deserves when it comes to human health. For decades, scientists and health-care professionals have recognized that exposure to green spaces, such as public parks or forests, is linked with lower risks of all sorts of illnesses common in the world. Experimental work has demonstrated various physiological responses that occur when people spend time in natural environments: blood pressure drops, heart rate decreases, immune function improves, and the nervous system directs the body to rest and digest.

As humans increasingly populate urbanized areas, they are spending less and less time in natural environments. But before doctors can start advising their patients to head to the nearest park, there is an important outstanding question, says White: How much time in nature do you need to generate these apparent benefits? Most of the research that has linked health outcomes with exposure to the natural world didn’t use frequency or duration of park visits, but rather the amount of green space within a certain distance of a person’s home, White says. But “it’s not so much where you live; it’s whether you use it or not.”

So he collected data to estimate what dose（剂量） of nature was needed to show benefits to a person’s health. White’s group found the answer he was after: Spending at least two hours in nature per week was strongly correlated with self-reports of being in good health or having high wellbeing. “I was very surprised, to be honest,” says White, who had been expecting a much longer time. “We had no idea that such a clear threshold of time per week would emerge from the data.”

He was further surprised to learn that it didn’t seem to matter how many trips to a park people took, so long as they got in their two hours per week. It could be a long visit one day, a couple of hour-long trips, three visits of 40 minutes, or four half-hour excursions. He and his colleagues speculate that, if nature’s apparent health benefits are a result of being able to de-stress, then whatever pattern of green space exposure fits one’s schedule is probably the best way to achieve that goal.

Health-care recommendations for people to spend time in nature are probably years away, but the movement has begun. Several organizations around the world are working to promote awareness of nature’s contribution to health. Some researchers have used the term “a dose of nature” to evaluate the amount of exposure needed to gain benefits. “That was kind of the deliberate medicalization of the language around nature and health,” says White.

1. White’s research focused on_______.

A．required amount of green space

B．benefits from the exposure to nature

C．necessary time length of nature visits

D．physical responses to outdoor activities

2. What does the underlined phrase “threshold of time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Maximum time.	B．Minimum time.
C．Adequate time.	D．Average time.

3. From the last paragraph, we can infer that White______.

A．is confident about his mission

B．is willing to cooperate with others

C．has persuaded others to accept his idea

D．has adopted the term for his research result

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Respect for Nature	B．Nature as Medicine
C．Present from Nature	D．Mission in Nature

【推荐3】Eggs make for a delicious meal, and for the past few years, we’ve been able to enjoy them guilt-free. Now, they are declared as “bad egg” again.

Researchers from Northwestern University collected data from six previous studies that tracked the health of 29, 615 adults for about 18 years on average. After gathering results from the various studies, they concluded that 300 milligrams of cholesterol (胆固醇) per day slightly raised a person’s risk of heart disease. One egg contains about 186 milligrams of cholesterol.

“These participants weren’t given periodic questionnaires, they were given one questionnaire,” says Lauren Slayton, a nutritionist. “That’s like drawing conclusions about someone’s fashion sense by what they wore 20 years ago.” No one followed up to see if the diet reports were accurate or to find out whether people changed their diet.

Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, told NPR: “So much data have already been published on this topic, which generally show that low-to-moderate egg consumption (no more than one egg per day) is not associated with increased risk of heart attack.” Plus, there are also many other risk factors that contribute to heart disease.

Before you quit your breakfast favorite, you should know that this research is far from the last word on eggs. In other words, don’t feel like you have to drop eggs from your diet based on one study. If you’re concerned about your cholesterol, discuss your diet with your doctor—and consider your exercise routine and other health factors, too. If your heart risk is rising, you may want to check out the best—and worst—diets for your heart.

1. What is the writing purpose of the text?

A．To test what previous studies found.

B．To discourage people from eating eggs every day.

C．To measure how much cholesterol an egg contains.

D．To show the link between egg-eating and health risk.

2. What can we know from Lauren Slayton’s words?

A．The findings are out of date.	B．This kind of research is limited.
C．No one cares about the research.	D．The results should be tested again.

3. What does the author suggest people do in the last paragraph?

A．Consult the doctor often.	B．Seek for professional aid.
C．Do exercise on a daily basis.	D．Have a sharp mind in your diet.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward the research?

A．Cold.

B．Uncertain.

C．Doubtful.

D．Positive.