More than 60 years after scientists made big discoveries about the structure of DNA, 20 students at US Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy gained insight（了解）into some of the molecular（分子的）mysteries that make them who they are.
Last fall, while studying life sciences, the girls sent samples（样本）of their DNA off to Living DNA, a DNA testing company. The test results became known last week and they left a big impression on the students, who were able to make real-world connections to topics they have been studying all semester long, including genotypes（基因型）.
“Students were able to maturely（成熟地）look at their results and apply what they learned in science. It’s about bringing learning to life,” said Laura Pena, the STEM program teacher.
For most of the girls, the DNA test was their ancestry（血统）. Sitting with her mom, Amariah Caudle, 15, looked with her mouth wide open at the charts showing her results. She was surprised that her European ancestry was only 13 percent. Her mother, Janell Caudle, was surprised it was that high.
“I didn’t think a trace（痕迹）would show up in her,” she said. “After many generations, this is still showing up in our bloodline（血统）. I was shocked by the science of it all.”
DNA has a power to engage people, said Diahan Southard, Living DNA community manager. Southard believes the program gives students an understanding of DNA at an important moment, when they are still young enough to absorb lessons and change their values.
Elianed Guzman, 14, said she knew little about her family except that they were from Mexico. She described in her native Spanish how surprised she was to learn that she shared genetic DNA with people in China, Japan and Korea.
As the girls sat in small groups to examine their results, with reactions ranging from confusion to surprise, they began to understand what it all means.
“Now I know I have family from everywhere,” said Amariah.
1. Scientists made big discoveries about the structure of DNA possibly________.| A．in the 1910s | B．in the 1930s | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1990s |
| A．Anxious. | B．Doubtful. | C．Impressed. | D．Calm. |
| A．People had the opportunity to test their DNA. | B．The European trace showed up in Amariah’s DNA. |
| C．Amariah possibly had European ancestry. | D．Amariah shared genetic DNA with people from Asia. |
| A．It helps students understand their DNAs. | B．It has a great power to bring people together. |
| C．It will change their students’ DNAs. | D．It should be introduced to more people around the country. |
| A．People need to accept who they are. | B．We should learn more about family history. |
| C．People’s personalities can be explained by their bloodlines. | D．People from all over the world are connected with each other. |
| A．Our amazing past | B．Our amazing present | C．Our amazing future | D．Our past, present and future |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Did you hear about the Two-Children Policy? Someone says that a single child may be a lonely child. There are no other children in the family to talk or play with and an only child is not able to get along well with children of his age. That’s why some parents regretted deciding to have only one child.
However, it is quite difficult for parents to decide to have a second child. For some single-child parents, especially who are busy working every day, they don’t have enough time to share with more children. For some people, money is the most difficult thing for them. They have to pay for feeding, clothing, schooling and so on. That will be a lot of money. For other people, they are worried that they are not young enough to have one more child.
This may be why more and more parents in many parts of the world choose to have only one child. In the US, for example, more than 14% of women between 18 and 34 plan to have just one child. The situation is the same in the UK. In Japan, the average number of children born in each family went down to 1.38 by 2019. The government of Japan advises people to get married early, hoping to see an increase in the number of young people starting families. This will help with the nation’s birth rate.
1. The passage is probably from a ___________.| A．guidebook | B．newspaper | C．public letter | D．sports magazine |
| A．were pleased with | B．got ready for | C．felt sorry about | D．looked forward to |
| A．being too old to have another child | B．having no one to look after the child |
| C．the high cost of raising a second child | D．having no time to spend with the child |
| A．more people want to have a second child | B．it is quite difficult to raise a second child |
| C．some good ways to increase the birth rate | D．the difficult situation of Two-Children Policy |
阅读下面的短文，从文后方框中选择恰当的句子填入文中空白处。
When you read this sentence, the population of the earth has grown by 10 people.
Most of these new people are born in developing countries.
In the developed countries of Europe and North America, the population is growing very slowly. This is because women in these countries have, on average(平均), only one or two children.
In the developing countries, more than one billion people already live below the poverty line (贫困线).
The UN has said that the world’s population will reach 12.5 billion people by the year 2100. If the number makes your head spinning(眩晕), you’re not alone. Many experts are worrying that so fast population growth could have very bad results.
| A．These countries are found in much of Africa, South America and parts of Asia. |
| B．These people don’t have enough food to eat and they live in poor housing. |
| C．That may not sound much, but it’s about 14,000 people per hour. |
| D．But in the developing countries, many women have five or more children. |
| E．It could hurt the environment and increase the number of poor people. |
【推荐3】According to a recent report from the United Nations, the world population continues (继续) to grow. It could reach 8.4 billion in the year 2025. But during the past 10 years or so, there has been a large and rapid (快速的) drop in the world’s birth rate.
Families are smaller now than they were a few years ago. It is happening in both developing countries (such as China and India) and developed countries (such as America and England). Some families don’t want to have more babies because they believe that it’s difficult for them to raise two or more children.
China is such a country that it has already cut its rate of population growth since 1970. Most Chinese families have no more than one child. And it reached a zero population growth rate in 2010. But in 2021, the Chinese government passed laws to encourage (鼓励) families to have three babies, because there are too many old people now. Some factories can’t find enough people to work. That’s terrible.
Several countries in Europe already have a negative growth rate. Experts say that these countries could face a serious shortage (短缺) of workers in the future. And those who are working could face higher taxes (税) to help support the growing number of retirees (退休人员).
1. The world population will reach ________ in 2025.| A．13.7 billion | B．13.4 billion | C．8.4 billion | D．7 billion |
| A．The world population has increased fast. |
| B．The world’s birth rate has a rapid drop. |
| C．The world population growth can’t be controlled (控制). |
| D．Most people want to have more babies. |
| A．In 1970. | B．In 2007 | C．In 2010 | D．In 2016 |
| A．负的 | B．正的 | C．快速的 | D．积极的 |
| A．World’s birth rate | B．Negative growth rate. |
| C．World population | D．Zero population growth. |
【推荐1】Few people can stop themselves from looking at pictures of cute animals. Take Sally chicken which is famous on the Internet as an example. The chicken with a yellow body and a flat mouth always looks lovely. Seeing her cute picture cheers people up. But there’s another useful effect of cuteness.
New research has found that looking at cute pictures of animals can also help us concentrate（专注）better. The finding comes from researchers at Hiroshima University in Japan. They invited 132 university students to take part in some experiments. In one experiment, students were asked to find a given number from a list of numbers within a time limit. They performed the given tasks twice-before and after looking at seven pictures of either baby cats and baby dogs, or cats and dogs. Researchers were surprised to find that students who were shown cute baby animal pictures made fewer mistakes.
However, baby animals look both “cuter” and more “pleasant” than adult animals. What would happen if the test difference came from their being “pleasant”? To find the answer, the researchers chose some food pictures which looked pleasant but not cute, and gave them to another group of students. But seeing the foods did not make the students perform any better in the number test. This finding suggests that seeing cute pictures makes students behave more deliberately, that is to say, they perform tasks with greater time and care.
The “power of cuteness” could be of great use. Think about situations in which people need to act carefully: driving, office work and exams. In my first year of high school, I brought small plastic toys to school during tests. I would set them up in a row on my desk, facing me, and then get busy answering exam questions,” Susana Martinez-Conde wrote in Scientific American.
1. Why is Sally chicken mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．She is the main character of this passage. |
| B．She is very cute and famous on the Internet. |
| C．She is used to introduce the topic of the passage. |
| D．She is popular to cheer people up on the Internet. |
| A．Seeing cute animals could cheer people up. |
| B．Seeing pleasant things helps people perform better. |
| C．Seeing pictures of animals helps people act carefully. |
| D．Seeing cute things could help people concentrate better. |
| A．happily | B．carefully | C．actively | D．correctly |
| A．Working in the lab. | B．Relaxing in a room. |
| C．Eating in a restaurant. | D．Shopping in a supermarket. |
【推荐2】Many people may enjoy travelling by air, but few like airline food. Airlines have always tried to improve the food quality and the taste in order to attract more travelers.
Scientists have found that even before a plane takes off,
| A．the nose no longer knows just like being bitten(咬) by a snake. |
| B．How to solve this problem? |
| C．the air inside the plane dries out the nose. |
| D．Getting something tasty in the air is like a dream to the travelers. |
| E．It also helps to explain why airlines like to have salty and spicy(辛辣的) food better. |
The thing about space is that it’s impossibly huge. It took three days for the Apollo missions (代表团) to get to the moon. It takes between five months and a year to get to Mars. Of course, that’s still in our neighborhood. The nearest star is Proxima Centauri(比邻星) , which would take the Voyager spacecraft 8, 000 years to get to.
We’re not really built for space travel. We don’t live very long.
We need oxygen, warmth, water and food, space exploration (探索) is a really dangerous adventure (冒险活动).
When I was a kid, exploring space was a big deal. My first space exploration was to land on Mars. Honestly, I was expecting it to find alien life. Of course, so there were no living things or anything else.
And when the Space program was first announced, I believed that the future was on its way. Humans were going to explore the universe (宇宙), meet aliens and live on other worlds. And it was all going to happen in my lifetime. Of course, New Horizons, and Cassini. None of these missions have carried astronauts.
But we need to go on exploring the outer space. The next step doesn’t have to be Mars. It would be cool to find life somewhere in outer space.
On January 28, 1986, I watched the Space Shuttle Challenger take off. The teachers at my school had set up TVs so that we could get encouraged. Instead, we wanted more. We still do.
1. The first two paragraphs mainly talk about ________.| A．the efforts of the humans |
| B．the discovery of the stars |
| C．the difficulties of space travel |
| D．the history of visiting space |
①help humans live on other planets ②have adventures in outer space
③find alien life on Mars ④bring aliens back to the earth
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．①③④ | D．②③④ |
| A．it would take 800 years to reach the nearest star |
| B．the writer felt angry about the death of astronauts |
| C．the school paid much attention to the study of space |
| D．astronauts on VoyagerⅡ landed on Mars successfully |
| A．tell students to give up studying space |
| B．encourage us to keep studying space |
| C．show honor to those dead astronauts |
| D．care for the safety of astronauts |
Can you fold your phone screen? Huawei’s newest phone, the Mate X, makes it possible. You can fold it in half. It seems that you are closing a book.
The Mate X is both a phone and a tablet (平板电脑). When you fold it, it can work as a phone. When you open it, it is just 5.4 mm thick, and when you close it, it is just 11 mm. The Mate X is Huawei’s first mobile phone to support (支持) 5 G technology. With it, you can download (下载) a whole movie in just a few seconds. That also makes Huawei one of the world’s leaders in 5G technology. But the Mate X is very expensive. You have to pay at least 17,492 yuan if you want to get one.
1. It’s possible to fold the screen of the Mate X.2. If the Mate X is open, it can work as a phone.
3. When the Mate X is closed, it’s much thicker than it’s open.
4. Huawei isn’t leading the development of 5G technology around the world.
5. The users don’t need to spend too much money on the Mate X.
【推荐2】①Have you heard of a computer program that can understand what you say and answer you in a human-like way? Well, ChatGPT, one of the most powerful AIs of its kind, has excited the world.
②People have tested how ChatGPT works. A teacher asked ChatGPT to write answers to exam questions. It could almost get perfect grades. A mom took a picture of the food in her kitchen and sent it into ChatGPT. It was able to tell her what dishes she could make and how to cook them. A father asked ChatGPT to think up ideas of a birthday party for his son. It could give a plan combining (结合) the kid’s two favorites, pandas and soccer.
③What’s more, when people ask ChatGPT questions, it can find mistakes. If you ask what happened when Columbus arrived in America in 2023, older AIs might give a story. But ChatGPT will tell you that Columbus got to America in the 1400s. Also, ChatGPT will not provide information on dark and bad things. For example, if you ask it for advice on stealing (盗窃) a car, it will say that this can bring serious results and you can choose to take a bus.
④ChatGPT might help in many ways, but there are still some worries. Open AI said its users had better be careful about the information given by ChatGPT, because it is trained (训练) using information from the Internet, but some may not be right. Also, some think that people will use ChatGPT to copy others’ work and sell it as their own.
⑤It’s still too soon to say what kind of effect (影响) ChatGPT will have on our lives. Let’s hope that, if ChatGPT does become bigger and more popular, its effects are mostly good.
1. In Paragraph 2, the writer describes how ChatGPT works by _________.| A．giving examples | B．telling a story | C．answering questions | D．showing differences |
| A．I: What kind of plant is it in this picture? AI: Sorry, I am not able to understand pictures. I can only understand words. |
| B．I: Find something as a gift for my cousin’s birthday. He likes dogs and basketball. AI: There is no such gift. |
| C．I: Is Li Bai, a writer from Japan, famous all ovr the world? AI: Yes, because his writing is fantastic. |
| D．I: To make turkey, a traditional food for Chinese New Year, what do I need? |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Say No to ChatGPT! | B．Get Success with ChatGPT! |
| C．ChatGPT is Catching the World’s Eyes! | D．Can ChatGPT Take the Place of Humans? |
【推荐3】In the World Internet Conference people have seen lots of cool technology. What are they? Let’s take a look.
| Type with eyes Many disabled people cannot move their hands. They find it hard to type on a computer. China’s tech company Tencent showed eye-controlling technology. By looking at the screen and moving their eyes, people can type words easily. The worker at the conference showed people how to type “hello”. |
| Magic mirror (镜子) for health Scan (扫描) your face, and then it will know a lot about your health. This is what the magic mirror can do. It’s an AI health check system, and it will know your blood pressure and the risks of some diseases. At the conference, many people tried it to check their health. |
| A smart helmet When delivery (递送) people send food around, they often use their phones while riding. It’s very dangerous. To be safer, a new helmet came out. Connecting (连接) with the cellphone, it can “talk”—it tells the delivery people new orders and the addresses. The delivery people can also take orders and answer messages by talking to the helmet. If the wearer has an accident, the helmet can also make a call for help right away! |
1. The eye-controlling technology can help disabled people _______.
| A．check their eyes | B．move their eyes | C．move their hands | D．type words on computers |
| A．the smart helmet | B．the magic mirror |
| C．eye-controlling technology | D．all of the above |
| A．It can talk with the wearer about daily life. |
| B．It can tell the wearer new orders and addresses. |
| C．It can help the wearer know the risks of diseases. |
| D．It can shout for help if the wearer has an accident. |
| A．With the magic mirror, people won’t get sick. |
| B．Eye-controlling technology helps people to think better. |
| C．A man who can’t move his hands may like eye-controlling technology. |
| D．The smart helmet is designed for people who like using phones while riding. |
| A．Technology. | B．Travel. | C．Health. | D．Culture. |
【推荐1】This story takes place 700 years in the future. The Earth has become too polluted to live on. The plants have all died. Humans have left for other planets. A robot called Wall-E is left alone to clean up the trash (垃圾). He goes about his work each day. He has only one friend, a cockroach (蟑螂) called Hal.
Wall-E is lonely. He collects strange items of trash. He then uses them to decorate his home. He watches an old video tape over and over again. The tape has taught Wall-E about holding hands and falling in love. He dreams of meeting someone special.
One day, Wall-E’s life changes. A spacecraft lands on the dirty planet and brings an egg-shaped robot named Eva. Humans send Eva to the Earth to check for any signs of life. Wall-E falls in love with Eva, but Eva is more interested in her work.
When Eva finishes her work, the spacecraft returns to take her back. Wall-E decides to follow her. Nothing will stop him being with Eva, not hundreds of thousands of miles of space travel, not evil robots or fat humans who have lost the ability (能力) to do things for themselves.
The movie Wall-E is filled with humour and love. You can see it on DVD. It will surely touch the soft part of your heart.
1. The Earth has become so ________ that Humans can’t live on it.| A．hot. | B．cold | C．polluted. | D．clean |
| A．Watch the earth. | B．clean up the trash. |
| C．Feed his friend, a cockroach (蟑螂) called Hal. | D．Plant trees. |
| A．Wall-E is left alone on the earth. |
| B．Wall-E walks around the earth. |
| C．Wall-E goes with Eva on the spacecraft. |
| D．Wall-E dreams of meeting someone special. |
| A．垃圾. | B．装饰 | C．建筑 | D．毁坏 |
| A．Robot Wall-E | B．Robot Eva | C．The polluted earth | D．Life in the future. |
【推荐2】Once upon a time, there was a farmer. He had two sons. When they were old enough to get married, he told them, “Each of you must cut down a tree. Walk in the direction (方向) it points, and you will meet your future wife.”
The elder brother knew whom he wanted to marry, so he made sure his tree fell in the direction of her house. Mikko, the younger brother, did not have this skill. His tree pointed to the forest. Mikko walked through the forest and didn’t stop until he saw a house. He went inside, but the house was empty. “I’ll never find my wife,” he said.
“Don’t be so sure,” said a small voice. Mikko looked around, saw a mouse and talked with her for a while. She was kind and smart, and Mikko liked her very much. Mikko brought the mouse home! However, Mikko’s brother hated the mouse and threw her into the river!
“What did you do?” cried Mikko. “You may think she is a mouse, but I love her.” Mikko began to cry, but then his father pointed to the river. A beautiful princess (公主) came out of the river.
“A witch turned me into a mouse,” said the princess. “She said I could only turn back when I met one brother loving me and another hating me. I did not think it would ever happen, but now it has! ”
1. What did the father ask his sons to do when they were old enough to marry?| A．To cut down a tree. | B．To build a house. |
| C．To find the princess. | D．To look for a mouse. |
| A．To help his brother. | B．To look for his wife. |
| C．To save the princess. | D．To fight with a witch. |
| A．Independent. | B．Lonely and weak. |
| C．Kind and smart. | D．Beautiful and hardworking. |
| A．Finding a nice husband. |
| B．Turning into a mouse. |
| C．Meeting Mikko. |
| D．Meeting two different brothers. |
| A．A smart farmer | B．A princess mouse |
| C．Two hardworking sons | D．A witch |
【推荐3】One day a red rose blossomed (开花) in forest. A pine tree (松树) not far away said, “You’re so beautiful! I wish I could be lovely like you.” The rose said, “I am the most beautiful plant in the forest.” Then the rose looked at a cactus (仙人掌) and said, “Look at that ugly plant. It is full of thorns (刺)!” Sometimes, the red rose would look at the cactus and say, “This plant is useless. I’m sorry am his neighbor.”
Summer came and the plants and animals needed water, but no rain fell. One day the rose saw some birds stick their beaks (鸟喙) into the cactus and then fly away. The red rose asked what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds got water from the cactus. The pine tree told the red rose, “You can also drink from it. The birds can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for help.”
The red rose felt ashamed, but she still asked the cactus for help. The cactus agreed kindly and the birds filled their beaks with water for the rose’s roots. Later on, the rose never judged (判断) anyone by appearance (外表).
1. What did the rose think of the cactus at the beginning of the story?| A．Beautiful and lovely. | B．Ugly and useless. |
| C．Kind and helpful. | D．Unfriendly and ugly. |
| A．There was no rain when summer came. |
| B．The pine tree could get water from the cactus by itself. |
| C．The birds stuck their beaks into the pine tree. |
| D．The rose could bring water to the pine’s roots. |
| A．骄傲的 | B．忧虑的 | C．高兴的 | D．羞愧的 |
| A．the pine tree was awful | B．the cactus was helpful |
| C．the birds were more beautiful | D．the rose didn’t need water |
| A．Appearance is not everything. |
| B．Be careful of what you say to others. |
| C．The red rose is more beautiful than the cactus. |
| D．Don’t feel bad about having an ugly neighbor. |
