It’s well-known that sunshine influences people’s health. And new research shows it may also make people eat more—but only if they’re male*.
The finding is from Carmit Levy, a researcher who had been studying how sunlight affects the risk of skin diseases. She exposed* a group of mice to sunlight for a few weeks, and unexpectedly found that sunlight made male mice get heavier, but not females*. The males also worked harder to get food that was difficult to reach.
That interested her, so Levy and her team did further studies. They invited volunteers for two tests. Both showed that men and women were affected differently by sunlight. Then, they got data from almost 3,000 people. These data told that 1,330 men required about 2,188 daily calories* in summer months and only needed 1,875 calories in other months. The 1.661 women needed about 1,500 calories each day all year long.
Encouraged by this, the team ran more mouse experiments to test what might explain such findings. And the reason may be connected with these three things. The first is p53. Its levels will rise when the body is under stress. For animals that are usually active at night, such as mice, sunlight can be a cause of stress. The second key player is ghrelin. When the stomach is empty, it travels to the brain to send the message that the body needs food. The last is estrogen*. Its levels are much higher in females than males.
Here’s what may happen in male mice exposed to sunlight. First, the stress of sunlight makes p53 in the skin start to work. This p53 then tells the skin to create ghrelin. Therefore, the mice eat more. But in female mice, the estrogen seems to interfere the production of ghrelin. As a result,the female mice may not feel so hungry. That’s to say, estrogen provides females with a greater protection against various forms of stress.
The idea that sunlight may affect the need for food is interesting. But being sure the key players and how they work with each other will require much more research.
1. After exposing the male mice to sunlight for weeks. Levy found they ________.| A．gained some weight | B．got food more easily |
| C．ate in a healthy way | D．suffered from skin diseases |
| A．encourage more people to form new eating habits |
| B．compare the eating habit of people with that of the mice |
| C．see how many calories men and women need through a year |
| D．check if people are affected by sunlight in the same way as mice |
| A．Waste. | B．Reduce. | C．Develop. | D．Complete. |
| A．The p53 in the skin of mice will rise when night falls. |
| B．The ghrelin could make mice’s stomachs empty more quickly. |
| C．The scientists have been able to control people’s need for food. |
| D．The estrogen may protect female mice from the stress of sunlight. |
A tiny forest is a small area of closely planted, fast growing local trees. It is created to copy a natural forest, bringing all its benefits, but for a small space in cities. The first tiny forest was planted by a Japanese plant expert. Dr. Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s. It was so great that it grew quickly in countries such as Denmark, Britain, Germany, Ireland and Spain.
As the name suggests, the place doesn’t have to be big. An area the size of about 200㎡ is perfect. 600 trees, with as many as 40 different kinds, can be planted in the place. With 2 to 7 trees every square metre, the trees are planted much more closely than the ones in normal forests. But there’s still room for the trees to grow naturally without the use of fertilizers.
To plant a tiny forest, one starts with testing the soil and choosing right kinds of trees. In cities, the soil is often in poor condition. It is important to create loose and rich soil. When the soil is prepared, the community will invite school children on a planting day. The forests need 2 to 3 years of care from children. Then the trees can become self-growing. It’s believed if children plant their own forest and spend a lot of time caring for it, they will grow up to be healthy adults with a sense of responsibility for the society.
Trees and forests aren’t special pieces of nature that should only exist in the countryside. They need to be a part of life in cities too.
1. The idea of a tiny forest came from a scientist in ________.| A．Britain | B．Japan | C．Germany | D．Spain |
| A．There are usually about 7 kinds of trees. |
| B．It usually covers an area of about 600㎡. |
| C．It grows quickly with the help of fertilizers. |
| D．Trees are planted closely in small places in cities. |
| A．help children grow into responsible adults |
| B．tell children the way to test the soil condition |
| C．teach children knowledge about the community |
| D．let children experience the life in the countryside |
| A．Save the World with a Tiny Forest | B．Tiny Forest: Great Hope far Children |
| C．Learn to Grow Your Own Tiny Forest | D．Tiny Forest: Super Tiny, Super Powerful |
Humans are getting away from the nature gradually because of the developing technology. But now Digital Technology is offering us an opportunity to listen to the sounds in the nature in powerful ways, making us get closer to the worlds of animals and plants.
All around the nature, there are sounds that we struggle to pick up and understand. Elephants, for example, communicate with each other using infrasound, a sound far below our human hearing range. Coral in the ocean also communicates with each other through sound waves, with one purpose of attracting baby coral to areas where it can successfully grow. This is a shocking fact as coral doesn’t have any ears!
To pick up sounds humans are normally unable to hear, scientists have placed listening devices in these environments. Researchers have attached tiny microphones to honeybees and turtles, and stuck listening posts that can receive different sound waves from coral reefs and trees. These devices are controlled by computers and networked with digital sensors and satellites. When interconnected, these digital devices work like a hearing aid: enabling humans to observe and record nature’s sounds beyond the limits of our own listening ability. After the sounds are recorded, AI is then able to determine their meanings.
With this technology, humans can not only understand the animals, but also communicate back to them. For example, a team of researchers in Germany decoded the honeybees’ behavior with AI. Then they taught tiny robots how to do the honeybee dance. Using these dancing machines, the scientists were able to order the honeybees to stop moving, and to communicate where to fly to collect a specific nectar. In addition to the possibility of speaking with animals, the research could also be used to create a form of healing for animals and plants. That’s to say, in the near future, scientists might be able to get coral to grow in certain areas by playing “healthy reef” sounds, which could help to heal some of the damage we have caused.
Now, Digital Technology provides a new way for humans to listen to the vivid sounds all around us. The dream of allowing humans to socialize with different animals and plants throughout the nature is being on its way.
1. According to the passage, now people can use Digital Technology to ________.| A．see coral’s ears | B．listen to the sounds of trees |
| C．play with elephants | D．dance with honeybees themselves |
a. Analyze the meanings with the help of AI. b. Place listening devices into the nature world.
c. Collect the sounds from the animals or plants. d. Connect the devices with computers and networks.
| A．b→d→c→a | B．b→c→d→a | C．c→b→a→d | D．c→d→b→a |
| A．More people will choose to live in the nature. |
| B．There will be much fewer animals in the nature. |
| C．People can protect the environment more easily. |
| D．Robots can be used to communicate with anything. |
| A．Digital-tech: An Invention to Change People’s Life |
| B．Digital-tech: A Suggestion to Rebuild the Nature World |
| C．Digital-tech: An Aid to Enable People to Hear Everything |
| D．Digital-tech: A Skill to Help People to Talk with the Nature |
4 . Sweden produces about 4. 4 million tons of waste a year, but only 1% makes its way to the landfill. When it comes to waste management, Sweden is ahead of its time. How has Sweden done it?
In Sweden, everyone works hard to make the environment free of waste. People are taught to recycle from a very young age. They are asked to return cans and bottles to supermarkets. The government places recycling stations no more than 300 meters from homes, schools, and offices. These all help waste management in Sweden much easier and more practical.
The country also rewards those who recycle. In 1984, Sweden started the panta system. It encourages people to recycle bottles in exchange for money. The process is very simple. People put their items into a machine. Each piece has a small barcode that tells the machine how much it is worth. People can collect a voucher for that amount by pressing a green button, or they can donate the money to charity by pressing a yellow button. In 2021, the Swedish recycled 1.8 billion bottles and cans by using panta system.
Sweden recycles nearly 50% of what it throws away. But what about the other half? ________ Altogether Sweden has 34 waste-to-energy plants that provide 1, 445, 000 homes with heat and 780, 000 homes with electricity. Changing waste into energy has reduced Sweden’s CO2 emissions by 2.2 million tons a year. In 2016, Sweden had started running out of trash, so it began importing waste from other countries. It not only keeps the plants working, but also lets Sweden make much money. That is what makes Sweden different from the other countries.
Sweden’s waste management has made a great success. But still, the country is wondering how it can do more. They hope to see a day when landfills are a thing of the past.
1. The word “These” in Para. 2 refers to the ________ that help to recycle the waste.| A．plans | B．meanings | C．actions | D．reasons |
| A．find recycling stations easily | B．sell bottles to supermarkets |
| C．change the waste into energy | D．get rewards from machines |
| A．This waste is recycled by Swedish at home. |
| B．This waste goes to landfills and is burnt there. |
| C．This waste is put into machines and is sold abroad. |
| D．This waste goes to plants and is changed into energy. |
| A．celebrate the success of waste recycling in Sweden |
| B．advise other countries to ask for help from Sweden |
| C．introduce the Swedish method of waste management |
| D．show Sweden earns much money by recycling waste |
Sweden is Northern Europe’s largest country. Known for its natural beauty, Sweden is also home to Stockholm, the capital city made up of 14 islands. Here are several interesting facts about this Land of the Midnight Sun.
People in Sweden can enjoy only a few hours of light in winter. Or if people live above the Arctic Circle, none at all. To keep safe in the dark, Swedes have different ways of seeing and being seen. Many places are lighted with high-powered spotlights, and kids wear reflectors sewn onto their clothes. Drivers keep their eyes open because they know children will be outside in the dark.
Being close to the Arctic Circle also means months of ice. Ice is especially good for sparking, which is both a form of transportation and a fun choice for walking. “Spark” means “kick” in Swedish, which is what a person does-kicks the spark along the ice while holding onto the back of the little seat and standing on one blade.
When it comes to waste management, Sweden is ahead of its time. Swedes recycle nearly 50% of what they throw away. What about the other half? This is what makes Sweden different from the rest of the world: the waste goes to a power station where it is burned and changed into energy. In 2016, Sweden even began bringing waste from other countries. In this way, Sweden gets 100 million dollars every year.
Want to know more? Head over to http:/www.go-to-sweden.com.
1. How many aspects does the writer tell us about Sweden?| A．One. | B．Three. | C．Five. | D．Seven. |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．The Land of Midnight Sun is Stockholm. | B．People enjoy the sunshine the whole year. |
| C．Sweden benefits from waste management. | D．Drivers wear special clothes to be seen well. |
| A．encourage people to visit Sweden | B．tell Swedish ways of recycling waste |
| C．show the writer’s love for Sweden | D．share something special about Swede |
Here’s a new warning from health experts: Sitting is deadly. Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for long periods-even if you also exercise from time to time-could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.
In an article published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak suggested that scientists have to rethink how they define physical activity in order to draw more attention to the dangers of sitting. “After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” said Ekblom-Bak. She explained that genes regulating the amount of glucose and fat in the body start to shut down.
Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said it is better for those people to exercise more times across the day rather than in a single bout.
Still, in a study published in 2012 that tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for about a dozen years, researchers found people who sat more had a higher death risk, whether or not they exercised. “We don’t have enough evidence yet to say how much sitting is bad,” said Peter Katzmarzyk of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, who led the Canadian study. “But it seems the more you can get up from sitting, the better.”
Experts said more research is needed to find out how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible to offset those influence. “People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits,” Ekblom-Bak said. “But when they’re in the office, they should try to stop sitting as often as possible,” she said.
1. The new warning from health experts is to ________.| A．encourage people to do more exercise | B．ask people not to sit in the same place |
| C．advise people not to sit for a long time | D．make people pay attention to a heart disease |
| A．It results in a lower risk of deat. | B．It reduces glucose and fat in the body. |
| C．It makes people too lazy to do exercise. | D．It causes the body to send harmful signals. |
| A．cause | B．reduce | C．notice | D．accept |
| A．If people often sit too much, they will put on more weight. |
| B．Sitting for hours is harmless to people who do exercise every day. |
| C．People had better not sit for more than four hours in a single bout. |
| D．Canadians who did more exercise a day usually had a lower death risk. |
7 . In most cities you go to, you will see walls outside covered with paintings of names and pictures. This is called graffiti. Some people like these paintings, but others do not. People who like them see this graffiti as art, but others believe it makes cities look terrible and that the people who do it should be arrested.
These days in the UK there are still lots of places where you can paint graffiti because most people like graffiti that has a lot of beautiful colors.
▲ ? It is believed that the first graffiti was dated from ancient Greece and Rome. There are still examples of very old graffiti from Greek and Roman cultures. However, modern graffiti started in New York in the early 1970s. It came from parts of the city and the people who wrote it were often teenagers. Graffiti is still part of the city culture in many places in the world today.
Banksy is Britain’s most famous graffiti artist. Banksy’s art is admired around the world. His paintings usually have a political message. Banksy has become very famous, but nobody knows who he really is. Banksy’s art is so popular that people sometimes try to steal it so they can sell it. What makes Banksy angry is that the messages in his art are against the idea of money.
In some cities, tourists can take graffiti tours. One of these cities is Bogota in Colombia. There is a lot of beautiful graffiti in Bogota and much of it shows the history of the country or has a political message. You can also see parts of the city that tourists do not usually go to. The tour is very popular and is also free. However, they ask you to give some money if you like the tour. They use this money to help poor Colombian artists.
1. Graffiti is a ________.| A．colorful wall | B．wall painting | C．public service | D．popular artist |
| A．Who created graffiti | B．When did graffiti begin |
| C．Where can you enjoy graffiti | D．Why is graffiti popular in the world |
| A．Nobody knows who he really is. |
| B．Other people disagree with his idea of money. |
| C．People could understand the messages in his art. |
| D．Some people steal his works as their own collection. |
| A．learn about the history of Colombia |
| B．buy works of poor Colombian artists |
| C．book tickets for these tours in advance |
| D．visit the most famous graffiti artist Banksy |
8 . Masks mark a hero
What is a hero? We may think of the fictional characters with supernatural powers or great people who can influence world events. Now, as the nation continues its all-out efforts to fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia (新冠肺炎), medical staff have become heroes in the eyes of the public.
As of Feb 19, a total of 32,000 medical staff outside Hubei province have been working to treat patients around the center of the outbreak.
Zhang Dingyu, the president of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, is one of these heroes. Since the hospital received the first seven patients in December, Zhang has been so busy that he barely gets any sleep. Even suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (肌萎缩侧索硬化), the 56-year-old doctor is doing his best to quicken his pace to save precious time for infected patients.
“I have to run, racing against time to save more patients from the deadly disease, because I don’t have much time left in my life,” Zhang told Xinhua News Agency.
With the duty of saving lives, many medical professionals like Zhang have been working long hours for days, despite their fear and worries.
Lu Jingjing from Wuhan Children’s Hospital also works at a temporary mobile hospital. She does not let her parents know that she is now working with novel coronavirus-infected patients.
When her parents ask for a video chat, Lu says she is working and lets her husband and children chat with them instead.
“It’s dangerous but we should win the battle with the virus as soon as possible, so that medical staff and patients can go back home,” she told China Daily.
US writer Khalil Gibran (1883—1931) once wrote, “Tenderness (温柔) and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair (绝望), but the manifestations of strength and resolution.” It’s true for the medical workers.
Everyone has fear, especially when it comes to deadly diseases. But for medical staff, saving lives comes first and is enough for them to be brave and stay on the front. They may look like ordinary people in daily life, but in these extraordinary (不同寻常的) times, they are heroes.
1. What do we learn from Zhang Dingyu’s words?| A．He wants to help as many patients as possible. |
| B．His illness makes him work without fear. |
| C．He feels sorry for himself because of his illness. |
| D．His illness has turned him into an impatient man. |
| A．She is too busy and has no time for video chats. |
| B．There is no network signal at the temporary mobile hospital. |
| C．It’s not allowed to make a video call from the hospital. |
| D．She doesn’t want her parents to worry about her. |
| A．To praise medical staff for their efforts to fight the NCP. |
| B．To explain what makes a modern-day hero. |
| C．To describe what measures China has taken to deal with the virus. |
| D．To show the difficulties faced by the medical staff treating NCP patients. |
9 . A visit to the old city of Petra in Jordan is an amazing experience. Around the city, there are mountains with many pink rocks. To get to the mountains, tourists walk for over a kilometer through a narrow hole in the rock. Then they come to a large building in the side of a cliff (悬崖). Petra has many of these beautiful rock-cut buildings, and they make the city famous.
Two thousand years ago, Petra was a busy and noisy place. People came from far away to buy and sell in the market places. The city became rich. At one time, more than 30,000 people lived there. But the pink rocks were not as safe as they looked. Earthquakes (地震) made many of the buildings fall down. As the year went by, people stopped coming and living there. Finally, the world forgot the city of Petra.
In 1812, a Swiss traveler called Johann Burckhardt heard about the lost city. Local people told him that it was in the mountains, and someone took him there. When Burckhardt went back to Europe, he wrote about Petra and people started visiting the city.
________ More than a million tourists go there every year. People sell postcards, camel rides and cold drinks there. There are museums, shops and restaurants, but nobody lives there. At night, the old city is quiet again.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Tourists to Petra. | B．Rock-cut buildings. |
| C．Holes in the rocks. | D．Plenty of pink rocks. |
a. A traveler wrote about Petra after visiting it.
b. Lots of tourists start visiting Petra every year.
c. Petra became rich and many people lived there.
d. The world began to forget Petra after earthquakes.
| A．c-a-b-d | B．d-a-b-c | C．c-d-a-b | D．d-b-a-c |
| A．There are also some problems in Petra. | B．These days, Petra is a busy place again. |
| C．However, Petra isn’t as popular as before. | D．Maybe Petra will be different in the future. |
| A．Petra: A Modern City | B．Petra: The Lost City |
| C．The Earthquakes in Petra | D．The Problems in Petra |
10 . The Australian Koala Foundation says Australia has lost about 30 percent of its koalas over the past three years. The number of koalas is getting so small because of the loss of living space, and being killed by cars, as well as dying from illness. The Foundation says droughts, wildfires and development projects also played a part in the drop in the koala population. They are calling on the government to do more to protect the environment.
The group says the koala population has dropped to less than 58,000 this year from more than 80,000 in 2018. The state of New South Wales, where the numbers have dropped by 41 percent, lost more koalas than other places.
Deborah Tabart, leader of the Australian Koala Foundation, said only one area in the study was thought to have more than 5,000 koalas. Some areas were believed to have as few as 5 or 10. Tabart said the country needs a koala protection law. She added, “What we’re worried about is places like western New South Wales. The drought over the last ten years has just had this result—rivers were nearly dry for years. As a result, river red gum plants, which are the lifeblood of koalas, died.”
The loss in New South Wales became more serious after large forest areas were destroyed by wildfires in late 2019 and early 2020. And some of those areas already had no koalas.
Land clearing by road builders has also destroyed the koala’s environment. “I think everyone gets it, we’ve got to change. But if those machines keep working, then I really fear for the koalas,” Tabart said.
1. The state of New South Wales has lost ________ of its koala population this year.| A．about 30% | B．about 40% | C．about 50% | D．about 60% |
| A．Drought. | B．Flood. | C．Wildfires. | D．Earthquakes. |
| A．showing some pictures | B．listing some numbers |
| C．playing some videos | D．using other reports |
