1 . 3D Printing Will Improve Our Food Choices
In early summer 2016, Londoners were treated to a new trend in dining. Food Ink, the world’s first 3D printing restaurant, opened to a special group of customers who dined on a nine-course meal prepared right before their eyes using 3D printers. Even the restaurant’s tables and chairs, lamps, cups, and plates were created with 3D technology. With London just the beginning, Food Ink plans to bring its restaurant form to other cities around the world.
Like other 3D applications, printing food is a process that builds layers (层) upon layers of material on top of each other. Each layer is pushed through a print head to form an object with a desired shape, texture, size, and so on. Unlike other 3D printing, which uses spool (绕线轮) to create objects out of plastic, food materials (材料) in 3D printing are put into a syringe—like container (注射器形状的容器) which are then pressed into the shape required. Any food materials that can be pureed (煮成糊状) or turned into a paste can be used in 3D food printing.
Fine dining is only one aspect of the food industry about to be improved by 3D printing. Researchers have been exploring ways to use 3D printing to deal with world hunger. Mass production of food using powdered (粉末状的) nutritional ingredients could help feed a growing population. The 3D-printed food would have the advantage of being produced cheaply and having a long shelf life. This is especially important with the world population projected to be 8.5 billion by 2030.
The technology will also enable consumers to quickly make meals with ingredients to suit their special health needs. Take the example of feeding elderly people, who often need to have their food pureed because they have problems with swallowing and chewing (咀嚼). Many elderly people did not like their food like pureed food and they don’t eat it. The Netherlands Organization for applied scientific research is turning to 3D printing to mash up peas, cabbages, and carrots to produce 3D-printed versions of the vegetables. These are easier to chew but keep their shape because of the addition of a gelling agent (胶凝剂). The 3D-printed vegetables are being served throughout nursing homes in Germany.
It seems that there is no end to the potential (潜力) of 3D printing. In 2013, NASA offered a large amount of money to develop a functional 3D food printer. The printer aims to create nutritional food to feed astronauts on long space missions. From creating special restaurant meals, to improving nutrition, to potentially feeding the world, 3D food printing is creating exciting new possibilities for food.
1. What can we learn about 3D food printing?| A．3D food printing is developing for astronauts on space missions. |
| B．3D food printing ends world hunger with its cheaply-produced food. |
| C．3D food printing is being widely applied in fine dining restaurants. |
| D．3D food printing differs from other 3D printing in the process of building layers. |
| A．3D food printing solves the elders’ eating problems with pureed food. |
| B．Consumers can use 3D food printing quickly to make healthy meals. |
| C．The Netherlands Organization is doing research on 3D food printing. |
| D．3D food printing technology will meet people’s special health needs. |
| A．To explain how 3D food printing works. |
| B．To discuss what 3D food printing has brought us. |
| C．To show the possibilities created by 3D food printing. |
| D．To stress the importance of 3D food printing to the world. |
2 . 
On Christmas Eve, a team of reindeer (驯鹿) will help Santa Claus deliver gifts to children all around the world. The reindeer, led by their fearless leader Rudolph, won’t be the only ones doing something special. Back in the highest Arctic, their cousins have an extraordinary ability—changing their eye color.
During the summer months, when the days are long and the sun is bright, reindeer’s tapetum lucidum (荧光膜), a mirror-like layer at the back of their eye, appears golden, which helps bounce most of light off the eyes, effectively acting like a pair of natural sunglasses. As winter comes, and the days become shorter and darker, the tapetum lucidum turns blue to absorb more light, allowing reindeer to improve their night vision and see clearly in low light conditions.
With these adaptations, reindeer can get used and live in one of the most terrible environments on Earth. Unlike humans, reindeer can see well into the shorter Ultra Violet (UV紫外线) range. This UV vision enables them to locate food and enemies more effectively in the snow. Lichens (地衣), a key part of their winter diet, absorb UV, so they show up dark against UV-reflecting white snow. Wolf and polar bear fur also absorb UV, so instead of disappearing against snow, they pop out in high contrast, allowing reindeer to see possible threats from a distance.
Reindeer change their eyes by adjusting their tapetum lucidum, which is made of collagen fibers (胶原纤维). In winter, the collagen fibers become packed tighter. This change happens when reindeer widen their pupils (瞳孔). In summer, the reindeer’s pupils return to a smaller size, which helps reindeer reduce the amount of light entering the eyes.
Today, the increasing use of artificial lighting, especially during the winter months, is harmful to their sensitive eyes. It can make reindeer lose their way. So it is important for us to be careful of our use of electricity and make efforts to reduce light pollution to ensure the well-being and survival of these wonderful creatures.
1. What do we know from Paragraph 2?| A．The shape of reindeer’s eyes changes with seasons. |
| B．It is difficult for reindeer to live in low light conditions. |
| C．Reindeer’s eyes appear golden in winter while blue in summer. |
| D．The tapetum lucidum helps reindeer get used to seasonal changes. |
| A．To help them see clearly on dark nights. |
| B．To tell food of different colors apart quickly. |
| C．To better locate food and enemies during snowy days. |
| D．To protect their eyes from harmful sunlight in summer. |
| A．To show the reasons for the drop in reindeer population. |
| B．To call on people to protect reindeer from light pollution. |
| C．To present humans’ great efforts to reduce artificial lighting. |
| D．To prove reindeer’s ability to get used to terrible environments. |
3 . It is said that people have been keeping dogs for more than 2000 years. Different dogs have different good points. Each kind has its own look and talents, and its own role in the people world. Here are three examples of “a dog’s life” in people’s world.
Today, many hospitals let specially trained dogs in to bring love and cheer to patients. They are called therapy (治疗) dogs. They visit children who are ill in hospital and help patients feel calm and at peace, which can be very hard in a busy hospital. They help both children and parents stay strong during long hospital stays, and some even help them get better.
Today, some beagles (检疫犬) work in airports for customs (海关). They are part of the programme called the Beagle Brigade. A beagle is good for the work because of its powerful nose and ability to follow smells. The Beagle Brigade’s job is to smell everything that comes into the country. They make officers notice illegal (非法的) fruits, vegetables, and other foods in bags. The beagles do the job better than people could.
Some dogs are working hard, but other dogs are free to spend their days resting and playing. Across the world, many people treat their pet dogs like their children. Many dogs have their own rooms and all the things a dog could want. Some even have their own clothes. Many of these pets spend their days playing, learning to follow, or even going to classes. Their owners give them the best, and enjoy doing so.
Dogs have become helpful to people in many ways. For example, with the trainers’ help, domestic dogs play many important roles in some special places. They help us live a better life. We should take more care of them.
1. What can we know about beagles?| A．The beagles are very good at taking care of patients. |
| B．The Beagle Brigade’s job is to check everything. |
| C．The beagles spend their days playing with their owner. |
| D．A beagle can use its powerful nose to find illegal things. |
| A．Kind. | B．Trained. | C．Hungry. | D．Free. |
| A．To ask people to treat dogs as their children. |
| B．To explain why people need beagles in work. |
| C．To show how dogs help people in their lives. |
| D．To tell people about the history of dogs’ work. |
4 . Many people have taken part into lots of virtual (虚拟的) meetings these years. Some research shows this might not impact workplace productivity to any great degree. A new study, though, suggests otherwise.
In the study, 602 participants were paired and asked to come up with creative uses for a product. They were also selected to work together either in person or virtually. The pairs were then ranked by their total number of ideas, as well as those ideas’ degree of creativity, virtual pairs came up with significantly fewer ideas, while face-to-face interaction gave more creative ideas. The findings could stiffen employers’ determination to urge or require their employees to come back to the office.
“We ran this experiment based on feedback from companies that it was harder to innovate (创新) with remote workers,” said lead researcher Melanie Brucks. “Unlike other forms of virtual communication, videoconferencing copies the in-person experience quite well, so I was surprised when we found meaningful differences between in-person and video interaction for idea generation.”
When some objects were placed in both the virtual and physical rooms, the virtual pairs of participants spent more time looking directly at each other rather than looking around the room and taking in the entire scene. Eyeing one’s whole environment and noticing the objects were closely connected with increased idea generation. On platforms, the screen occupies our interactions. We don’t see around. “Looking away might come across as rude, so we have to look at the screen because that is the defined context of the interaction, the same way we wouldn’t walk to another room while talking to someone in person.”
Like most educators, Brucks has taught virtually in the past three years, and she did notice some benefits of the approach as well. Her students were more likely to take turns speaking and her shyer students spoke up more often, for her students felt “freer” and more creative when asked to do so. And this may be sound advice for the workplace.
Virtual teamwork can’t replace face-to-face teamwork. Idea selection proficiency (能力) is only valuable if you have strong options to select from, and face-to-face teams are the best means to generate winning options. Perhaps the workplace will find a sweet spot in the middle that balances working from both home and office.
1. What does the underlined word “stiffen” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?| A．Shake. | B．Reconsider. |
| C．Challenge. | D．Strengthen. |
| A．videoconferencing can’t compare with in-person communication |
| B．participants should make eye contact in an online meeting |
| C．the feedback from companies seems questionable |
| D．creative ideas may emerge from casual thoughts |
| A．Her students have less anxiety by speaking up. |
| B．Her students progressed in focusing attention. |
| C．Her students took advantage of virtual learning. |
| D．Her students showed their talent for public speaking. |
| A．Interacting Virtually Impacts Working Participation |
| B．Maintaining Teamwork Improves Idea Generation |
| C．Grouping Properly Increases Productivity |
| D．Brainstorming Online Limits Creativity |
5 . You feel sick, so you go to the doctor. She checks your fever, looks at your throat, she gives you some medicine, but also a list of thinking skills that you are supposed to practice daily. She says that the way you think is causing some of your illness.
Doctors and other scientists who study the human mind and try to explain why people behave in the way that they do, called psychologists, are starting to believe it. You know that your brain is connected to every part of your body through your nervous system (神经系统).
Stress is caused whenever there is a problem or a change in your life. Of course, everybody has stress more or less; nobody’s life is perfect. In fact, we would never learn anything or grow or change. We would probably be bored to death. But too much stress can hurt you. It can weaken your body’s protection so that you are more likely to catch diseases. It can even make you more likely to have an accident.
When you feel stress, your brain sends a message to your body to produce a chemical called adrenaline (肾上腺素). Adrenaline speeds up your breathing and your heartbeat. Today you have a different kind of stress. Problems like endless homework or troubles with your family are the kind of things you can’t fight or run away from, and that’s what can do something bad to you.
What can you do about stress? First, you can try to find ways to change things so you aren’t under so much stress. You can set up a plan to finish homework or go to a doctor or a psychologist to try to work things out with your family or your friends. But sometimes you can’t change a stressful situation. Sometimes you don’t even want to. A big change might be a good change, but it will still be stressful.
The link (关联) between your body and brain works in two ways. Your body can help your mind deal with stress. If you are under stress, you need to take especially good care of your body. It’s important to get enough sleep and eat nutritious meals. Some people take a vitamin-mineral pill every day. Another thing that you can do is daily exercise. If you go walking or do aerobic dancing or work out at the gym, a person who isn’t used to much physical activity should start slowly. Anyone with a continuing physical problem should check with a doctor before starting any exercise programs.
1. A psychologist is a person who may help you with your ________.| A．illness and abilities |
| B．thoughts and behaviour |
| C．mind and nervous system |
| D．physical activity and daily exercise |
| A．You shouldn’t go to the gym if you are under stress. |
| B．One can do his homework to burn up adrenaline. |
| C．Diseases and accidents are caused by stress. |
| D．Everyone needs stress to improve himself. |
| A．it’s difficult to change a stressful situation |
| B．it’s not stressful when a good change takes place |
| C．a big change will cause another stressful situation |
| D．a stressful situation can’t be changed without any effort |
6 . Have you heard the latest buzz (蜂鸣)? Bumblebees have. According to a new study, trends can pass through a bumblebee colony (族群) as bees watch and copy one another’s behavior. This means the bees have a culture, which is a set of shared behaviors animals learn from one another. People once thought humans were the only species to develop cultures, but some animals have also been found to have this ability.
A research team from the UK set up puzzle boxes that offered a sweet-tasting reward when opened. “Demonstrator” (演示者) bees were taught to open the boxes by pushing a red tab or a blue tab. Some “Observer” (观察者) bees saw the demonstrator bees open the boxes, while other bees were not allowed to watch before trying to open the boxes themselves.
The group of bees that had watched a demonstrator were able to open the puzzle boxes about 28 times a day, while the other group opened them only once a day. The observer bees almost always used the same method as the demonstrators did. For example, those who watched a bee open a box using the red tab almost always pushed the red tab as well.
“Some of them would play around with the box and find another way but they still would return really strongly to the demonstrator’s preferred behavior,” Alice Bridges, the lead author of the study, told The Washington Post. She said the bees were developing “a local trend”.
Even when the researchers allowed groups of bees to see both methods, each group soon developed its own trend. A skill was passed along as new bees learned from more experienced bees. After several days, one colony came to prefer the “blue method” while the other almost always chose the “red method”.
“The fact that bees can watch and learn, and then make a habit of that behavior, adds to the fact that they are far smarter creatures (生物) than a lot of people have thought,” said study co-author Lars Chittka.
1. How does the scientists explain their findings about the bumblebees?| A．By introducing some rules. |
| B．By listing a lot of numbers. |
| C．By mentioning achievements in others’ studies. |
| D．By making comparisons in different experiments. |
| A．A bumble bee colony. | B．The blue method. |
| C．A set of shared behaviors. | D．The red method. |
| A．A Recent Study on Different Bees |
| B．A Culture among Bumblebees |
| C．How do Bumblebees Make a Buzz |
| D．Why Bumblebees Live as a Colony |
7 . Can you see the glass as half full, rather than half empty? Are you always looking on the bright side of life? If so, you might be an optimist.
An optimist is someone who is hopeful about the future and tends to expect that good things will happen. A number of studies have shown that optimists enjoy higher levels of happiness, better sleep, lower stress and even better cardiovascular (心血管的) health and immune (免疫的) function. And now, a study connects being an optimist with a longer life.
Researchers followed the lifespan (寿命) of some 160, 000 women aged 50 to 79 for 26 years. They were divided into two groups by completing a self-report measure of optimism. Women with the highest scores were considered optimists. Those with the lowest scores were considered pessimists. Then, the researchers followed up with the study. They found that those who had the highest levels of optimism were more likely to live longer. So why is it that optimists live longer?
One possible reason is that it could be related with their healthier lifestyles. For example, research from several studies has found that optimism is related with eating a healthy diet, staying physically active and being less likely to smoke cigarettes. These healthy behaviors are well known to improve heart health and reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease. Accepting a healthy lifestyle is also important for reducing the risk of other potentially deadly diseases, such as cancer.
Another possible reason could be the way optimists manage stress. When faced with a stressful situation, optimists will reduce stress levels and boost the power to take steps. They use methods to solve the source of the stress, or look at the situation in a less stressful way. For example, optimists will plan ways to deal with the matter, call on others for support or try to find hope in the stressful situation.
In short, the ways optimists deal with stress might help protect them somewhat against its harmful effects. Be the person who looks at the glass half full. Appreciate the little things in your life and face your problems with a smile and a take-charge attitude. Optimism is the best tool when it comes to changing your outlook on life.
| A．Tom is upset on rainy or snowy days. |
| B．Lucy is unwilling to ask others for support. |
| C．Chris keeps volunteering at the Nursing Home. |
| D．Marry believes she can solve the problem she meets. |
| A．People who see half-empty glass are more hopeful. |
| B．Healthy lifestyle will help treat cardiovascular disease. |
| C．Optimism is related with being likely to smoke cigarettes. |
| D．Optimists may enjoy longer lifespan than the less optimistic ones. |
| A．share | B．increase | C．lose | D．limit |
| A．To call on people to be optimistic towards life. |
| B．To give suggestions on how to deal with stress. |
| C．To show the results of a study on healthy lifestyles. |
| D．To tell the effects of being optimistic among women. |
8 . If you are on a bus or train, you’ve probably noticed that most people spend the ride looking at their cell phones. No doubt, they think doing nothing but sit there would be boring, so they prefer distracting themselves. This squares (一致) with past research showing people will do almost anything to avoid boredom.
But results from new research suggest we should rethink that choice. We are probably underestimating (低估) how enjoyable and interesting it is to do nothing but pay attention to wherever our thoughts take us.
In a series of experiments, researchers brought Japanese university students into a lab and told them that they would soon go into a room without their belongings to wait and do nothing but sit for 20 minutes. While waiting, they could think about anything, but were not allowed to sleep, walk, or exercise; look at a smartphone; or check a watch. Before entering the room, they were asked to predict how much they’d enjoy waiting and thinking, how interesting or boring it would be, and how much it would engage them so that they would lose themselves in it and forget the time. Then, they went in the room to wait. Afterward, they reported how waiting actually felt—how engaging, pleasurable, interesting, or boring it was. In some variations of the experiment, they waited in a dark room without any stimulation (刺激). Either way, researchers found that the participants (参与者) were not good at predicting how much they’d enjoy doing nothing but think. Even in a dark room with no stimulation, they ended up being more engaged and interested than they’d expected.
“People don’t recognize the real value of waiting/thinking,” says researcher Kou Murayama of the Motivation Science Lab at the University of Tübingen in Germany and coauthor of the study. “Once they engage in it, though, they appreciate it.” Spontaneous (自发的) thinking often involves mind-wandering, daydreaming, thinking about the future, or recollecting memories, all of which can have upsides. For example, daydreaming and mind-wandering have been found to improve our mood, creativity, goal-setting, and job performance.
Though it’s hard to know if these results with students would apply (适用) to the rest of us, Murayama did at least compare German students to Japanese students and found both groups underestimated the pleasure of waiting to a similar degree. This suggests that it’s not necessarily a culturally-driven phenomenon (现象), though more research would need to be done to check that.
Overall, says Murayama, the results suggest we rethink whipping out our cell phones every time we are waiting or bored. Instead, we might benefit from having a moment to think freely about whatever catches our fancy—and enjoy ourselves just as much.
1. What can we learn from the experiments mentioned in the passage?| A．Participants could sleep when they stayed in the lab. |
| B．Participants felt more interested than they had expected. |
| C．Participants could enter the dark room with their watches. |
| D．Participants predicted they would enjoy waiting and thinking. |
| A．upset | B．surprise | C．confuse | D．attract |
| A．More studies are needed to support the findings. |
| B．Both Germans and Japanese undervalued the pleasure of waiting |
| C．Underestimating the pleasure of waiting may not be related to culture. |
| D．The study results with students would be able to apply to the rest of us. |
| A．To present the results of new research. |
| B．To introduce a culturally-driven phenomenon. |
| C．To discuss the true meaning of waiting and thinking. |
| D．To advise us to think freely when we have nothing to do. |
9 . We rely on our memory for sharing stories with friends or learning from our past experiences. Yet evidence shows that our memory isn’t as consistent as we’d like to believe.
There are countless reasons why tiny mistakes might happen each time we recall past events. And whenever these mistakes happen, they can have long-term effects on how we’ll recall that memory in the future.
Take storytelling for example. When we describe our memories to other people, we might ask ourselves whether it’s important to get the facts straight, or whether we only want to make the listener laugh. And we might change the story’s details depending on the listener’s attitudes. It isn’t only the message that changes, but sometimes it’s also the memory itself. This is known as the “audience-tuning effect”, showing us how our memories can change automatically over time, as a product of how, when, and why we access them.
In fact, sometimes simply the act of repeating a memory can be exactly what makes it easy to change. This is known as “retrieval-enhanced suggestibility”. In a typical study of this effect, participants watched a short film, then took a memory test a few days later. But during the days between watching the film and taking the final test, two other things happened. First, half of the participants took a practice memory test. Second, all of the participants were given a description of the film to read, which contained some false details. Participants who took a practice memory test shortly before reading the false information were more likely to reproduce this false information in the final memory test.
Why might this be? One theory is that repeating our memories of past events can temporarily make those memories malleable. In other words, retrieving（找回）a memory might be a bit like taking ice-cream out of the freezer and leaving it in direct sunlight for a while. By the time our memory goes back into the freezer, it might have naturally become a little misshapen, especially if someone has influenced it purposely in the meantime.
These findings lead us to wonder how much our most treasured memories have changed since the very first time we remembered them. Remembering is an act of storytelling, after all. And our memories are only ever as reliable as the most recent story we told ourselves.
1. The writer takes storytelling for example to prove that ______.| A．it is impossible to change the listener’s attitudes |
| B．it is important to describe our memories directly |
| C．we can make other people laugh by telling stories |
| D．we may change our memories according to the listener |
| A．Our memories can change our personalities. |
| B．Our memories can correct mistakes on their own. |
| C．We can take a practice memory test to strengthen our memories. |
| D．We can reproduce the information while repeating our memories. |
| A．reasonable | B．valuable | C．changeable | D．controllable |
10 . The sun is setting, brightening your kids’ faces as they play in the waves. You reach for your phone for this perfect moment. But before you do, here’s a bit of surprising science: Taking photos is not the perfect way to keep memory as you think.
Taking too many pictures could actually harm the brain’s ability to keep memories, says Elizabeth Loftus, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine. So we get the photo but kind of lose the memory.
Photos may outsource memories. It works in two ways: We either shake off the responsibility of remembering moments when taking pictures, or we’re so distracted (分心的) by the process that we miss the moment altogether.
The first explanation is the loss of memory. People know that their camera is recording that moment, so they don’t try to remember. Similarly, if you write down someone’s phone number, you’re less likely to remember it offhand because your brain tells you there’s just no need. That’s all well and good—until that piece of paper goes missing.
The other is distraction. We’re distracted by the process of taking a photo—how we hold our phone, composing the photo, such as smiling faces, the background to our liking and clear image, all of which uses up our attention that could otherwise help us memorize.
However, taking photos can benefit memory—when done mindfully. While taking a photo may be distracting, the act of preparation by focusing on visual (视觉的) details around has some upsides.
When people take the time to zoom in (拉近镜头) on specific things, memories become strengthened.
Another benefit is that we recall moments more accurately with the photos. Memory has been reshaped with the help of new information and new experiences. Thus, photos or videos help us recall moments as if they really happened.
Memories die away without a visual record backing them up. Therefore, a photo is an excellent tool to help remember when done purposefully, which is worth exploring further.
1. What does Professor Elizabeth Loftus think of taking too many photos?| A．It can benefit our memories. |
| B．It could be harmful to keep memories. |
| C．It could be helpful to recall the perfect moment. |
| D．It will use up our attention to remember the beautiful moments. |
| A．Memories will disappear when we back up a visual record. |
| B．We may not pay full attention to the moment when taking pictures. |
| C．Take photos if you want to get new information or new experiences. |
| D．It is useless to remember someone’s phone number by writing it down. |
| A．Photography or Memories |
| B．Fewer Photos, More Memories |
| C．Photography Does Good to Memories |
| D．Remember the Moment and Take Photos Properly |
