1 . Armed with a toolkit of techniques and tricks to calm the mind and bring focus back to your body, you can stop stressful situations from sabotaging your day, says Katy Georgiou.
GROUND YOURSELF
Making contact with the ground is your baseline go-to response for stress. This technique can be especially helpful if you find your stress regularly turns into panic. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, place your feet flat on the ground so that you feel stable, and then close your eyes. If you’re able to sit on the floor cross-legged or to lie down flat, then even better.
Think of this as earthing: really connect with the ground beneath your body. Some studies suggest that this simple act can help reduce or relieve symptoms of stress such as pain and fatigue, reduce blood pressure, and improve sleep. If you’re feeling disconnected from the world, it can also remind you that you belong to it and are a crucial part of it — the ground will always be there for you.
LOVE THYSELF
Adopting regular, daily or weekly routines for self-care can be very containing, creating consistency amid all sorts of stressful life events happening around you. Looking in the mirror each day can actually remind you that you exist, so feel free to factor some reflective gazing into your daily routine, whether it’s while applying moisturiser, shaving, or brushing your hair. Studies have shown that being confronted with your reflection can have powerful effects, taking us out of our heads and into the immediate present. For added effect, pay attention to the way your products interact with your hair and skin as you apply them.
Playing around with smells, colours and textures in your hands will also engage your senses. Using a scented shampoo or smoothing on body lotion after a warm bath can be easy ways to do this.
CLEAR YOUR MIND
Abandon all your thoughts and try to focus only on your surroundings. What can you see, hear, smell, taste and touch? Identify three things you can hear, one thing you can taste, four things you can see and two things you can feel on your skin. Pick out colours in the room you are sitting in, notice textures and different kinds of light. If somebody is with you, tell them what you are experiencing. The point here is that your senses are your best and easiest route back to feeling calm, by coming out of your head and rooting yourself back in the present. This is incredibly helpful if you’re having a panic attack or flop response.
1. If your friend Jane always feels worn out and suffers from sleep deprivation, which of the following techniques will you especially recommend to her?| A．Connect her body to the ground beneath her. |
| B．Adopt a daily gaze at her reflection in the mirror. |
| C．Exchange her scentless shampoo for an aromatic one. |
| D．Focus on what she can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. |
| A．Lying down flat can better relieve your stress. |
| B．Grounding yourself can give you a sense of belonging to the world. |
| C．Brushing your hair while looking in the mirror can remind you of your existence. |
| D．Those having a panic attack should shut their senses down. |
| A．help people understand themselves better |
| B．introduce some practical methods for stress management |
| C．emphasize the significance of exploiting multiple senses |
| D．promote a mindset of living in the moment |
2 . Two of the most critical lessons learned from the pandemic are the need for effective national leadership and for clear, consistent communication. Countries that fared well had both in abundance; those that didn’t often faltered. The TIMES survey results reflect this, with
The TIMES survey also identifies global health governance as a top
Improvements in global public health must begin locally and be driven by leaders who will learn the hard
| A．proposal | B．refusal | C．adjustment | D．substitute |
| A．influence | B．promise | C．secure | D．pattern |
| A．smashed | B．stuffed | C．smoothed | D．staffed |
| A．careers | B．goals | C．trends | D．signs |
| A．employs | B．emphasizes | C．emerges | D．empowers |
| A．imposing | B．stretching | C．challenging | D．intruding |
| A．appeal | B．solution | C．principle | D．priority |
| A．possibility | B．feasibility | C．availability | D．practicality |
| A．property | B．combination | C．process | D．calculation |
| A．hands | B．ears | C．mouths | D．eyes |
| A．achievements | B．judgements | C．pavements | D．investments |
| A．donations | B．collaborations | C．qualifications | D．regulations |
| A．determine | B．overlook | C．initiate | D．evaluate |
| A．lessons | B．causes | C．subjects | D．models |
| A．make with | B．show up | C．take over | D．agree on |
3 . Sending messages into deep space could be the best way for Earthlings to find extraterrestrial (地球以外的) intelligence, but it carries a risk: alerting unfriendly aliens to our presence. Game theory may provide a way to deal with this situation.
So far the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has mostly been restricted to listening for signs of technology elsewhere. Only a few attempts have been made to broadcast messages towards distant starts. Many scientists are against such “active” SETI for fear of revealing our presence. If all aliens feel the same way then no one will be broadcasting, and the chance of detecting each other is limited.
To weigh up the potential losses and gains, Harold de Vladar of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria in Klosterneuburg turned to the prisoner’s dilemma, a game-theory problem in which two prisoners choose between admitting their shared crime or keeping quiet, with different sentences depending on what they say. An individual prisoner gets off scot free if he betrays (出卖) a partner who remains silent, with the silent partner getting a maximum sentence. If they both betray each other, each gets a medium sentence. By contrast, if both stay silent, both get minimum sentences---the best overall result.
De Vladar reasoned that the SETI dilemma is essentially the same, but reversed. Mutual betrayal for prisoners is equivalent to mutual silence for aliens. And while a selfish prisoner stops keeping silent, a selfish civilization is silent, waiting for someone else to take the risk of waving “Over here!” at the rest of the universe.
This led de Vladar to apply the mathematics of the prisoner’s dilemma to SETI. In the classic version of the prisoner’s dilemma, each selfishly betrays the other. But as we do not know the character of any aliens out there, and as it is difficult to put a value on the benefits to science, culture and technology of finding an advanced civilization, de Vladar varied the reward of finding aliens and the cost of unfriendly aliens finding us. The result was a range of best broadcasting strategies. “It’s not about whether to do it or not, but how often,” says Vladar.
One interesting idea was that as you increase the rewards placed on finding aliens, you can decrease the frequency of broadcasts, while keeping the expected benefit to Earthlings the same. Being able to keep broadcasts to a minimum is good news, because they come with costs--- equipping our planet with transmitters won’t come cheap---and risk terrible disasters, such as interstellar (星际的) wars.
1. According to the passage, which of the following can be classified as “passive” SETI?| A．Concealing our presence from aliens. | B．Listening for signs of technology elsewhere. |
| C．Broadcasting to distant stars. | D．Detecting the existence of aliens. |
| A．both civilizations sending messages | B．people on the earth sending messages |
| C．both civilizations keeping silent | D．people on the earth keeping silent |
| A．Equipping the earth with the most advanced transmitters. |
| B．Preparing for the disasters such as interstellar wars. |
| C．Sending to space as few messages as possible. |
| D．Decreasing the rewards for finding aliens. |
| A．Earthlings are likely to be attacked by extraterrestrial intelligence. |
| B．Scientists are looking for better approaches to finding aliens. |
| C．Earthlings should be more active in broadcasting to aliens. |
| D．Decision to contact aliens is a game-theory dilemma. |
4 . Google’s £ 400m acquisition of the UK artificial intelligence research company DeepMind in 20l4 was testimony to the quality of British scientific research. Furthermore, the insistence of the three UK co-founders that their company would not move to California was seen as evidence of London’s potential to become a successful centre for technology innovation. Four years later, the future of the UK capital’s tech aspirations and of DeepMind’s centre of gravity look a lot less certain.
DeepMind’s announcement last week that it would transfer control of its health unit to a new Google Health division in California has raised questions about data privacy. The health unit has access to the records of 1. 6m patients of Britain’s National Health Service. After four years of relative operating freedom, the company is confronting the hard reality of being owned by Google. For Google, however, which has been patient so far about its return on investment, the time for DeepMind’s work to be commercialised-specifically a patient management App called Streams-appears to have arrived.
The UK Company founded by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman has repeatedly vindicated Google’s assessment of its world class artificial intelligence research. In2016, its AlphaGo programme beat the world’s best player of the fiendishly complex board game “Go” after thousands of practice games. In2017 its progeny, AlphaGo Zero, did it again---without any expert human input.
When algorithms beat humans at their own games it is impressive; when they start beating them at their work it becomes unsettling. This year, another DeepMind algorithm proved better than retinal specialists at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital at making referrals when tested on patient scans.
This was clear progress. DeepMind’s health work is what is most immediately relevant to Britons since, through a partnership with the Royal Free Hospital, it has access to the data of so many patients. The move to California has understandably raised privacy concerns at a time when big tech companies, including Facebook, are coming under growing scrutiny for the careless way they have exploited private data for commercial gain. Moreover, the transfer appears to contravene promises by DeepMind that “at no stage will patient data ever be linked or associated with Google accounts, products or services”. It is worrying that at the same time DeepMind’s independent review panel-set up to scrutinize its sensitive relationship with the NHS-is also being wound up.
DeepMind, which sees the move as a way of ensuring millions benefit from its work, claims that its contracts with the NHS are sufficient to protect patients’ data, which will remain under the strict control of Britain’s health service. Google has said nothing. There is a clear need for both companies to offer much greater assurances.
Last year, DeepMind set up an ethics and society department, whose independent advisers were selected for their integrity. They had a reputation for asking tough questions which set the company apart in the tech sector. If indeed the founders believed this culture would be unaffected by the gravitational pull of a buyer as powerful as Google, they were naive. WhatsApp and Instagram made the same mistake.
But for the sake of the NHS patients whose data are at issue, it is to be hoped that the same culture and integrity survives in California. The Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things” might work for companies developing software. It has no place governing healthcare and technology.
1. The first paragraph is used to_________.| A．take about the future of DeepMind |
| B．remind readers of the cost of Google’s acquisition of DeepMind |
| C．leading to the problems that DeepMind will face |
| D．highlighting the quality of British scientific research |
| A．DeepMind has no relative operating freedom. |
| B．Google Health division is allowed to retrieve the records of 1. 6m patients. |
| C．Britain’s National Health Service leaks the private data of their patients. |
| D．Some companies have collected private data for commercial gain carelessly. |
| A．Both Google and DeepMind should offer the public much greater assurances. |
| B．WhatsApp and Instagram are likely to leak information of their clients. |
| C．People feel nervous about algorithms employed by high-tech. |
| D．The ethics and society department set up by DeepMind may work. |
| A．Critical | B．Positive |
| C．Negative | D．Ambiguous |
5 . TikTok, a social media app dedicated to short-form videos, has emerged as a major firer of food trends — from mushroom coffee and pancake cereal to cloud bread and feta pasta. But another trend, the #whatieatinaday trend, is dominating TikTok, which is nearing 9 billion
Even though #whatieatinaday posts may be
The
Often the overly stylized (程式化) meals do not
Younger audiences, especially girls and young women, internalize the message that they must eat like these creators to achieve and maintain not only health, but also social
Even if the #whatieatinaday posts are displaying a
People making these videos are overwhelmingly thin, young, able-bodied and white. There is a complete lack of body
| A．views | B．statements | C．analyses | D．identities |
| A．emphasized | B．simplified | C．requested | D．intended |
| A．moral | B．scientific | C．potential | D．instant |
| A．modern | B．staged | C．educational | D．labelled |
| A．prioritize | B．commercialize | C．recognize | D．exchange |
| A．promoting | B．representing | C．spoiling | D．perfecting |
| A．welfare | B．equality | C．desirability | D．justice |
| A．individual | B．instinctive | C．restrictive | D．changeable |
| A．attracting | B．seeking | C．losing | D．offering |
| A．fixed | B．balanced | C．relaxing | D．demanding |
| A．reader | B．advertiser | C．browser | D．poster |
| A．Therefore | B．Finally | C．Additionally | D．Meanwhile |
| A．lose weight | B．share interests | C．assume burden | D．make contributions |
| A．language | B．diversity | C．warmth | D．response |
| A．available | B．predictable | C．inadequate | D．unachievable |
6 . Parents, teachers and caregivers have long suspected the magic of storytelling to calm kids. Researchers have now quantified the biological and emotional benefits of a well-told tale.
“We know that narrative has the power to transport us to another world,” says Guilherme Brockington from Brazil’s Federal University. “Earlier research suggested that stories help children process and regulate their emotions — but this was mostly conducted in a laboratory, with subjects answering questions while lying inside functional MRI machines. There are few studies on biological and psychological effects of storytelling in a more commonplace hospital setting.”
So investigators working in several Brazilian hospitals split a total of 81 patients aged 4 to 11 into two groups, matching them with storytellers who had a decade of hospital experience. In one group, the storyteller led each child in playing a riddle game. In the other, youngsters chose books and listened as the storyteller read them aloud. Before and after these sessions, the researchers took spit samples from each child, then asked them to report their pain levels and conducted a free-association word quiz.
Children in both groups benefited measurably from the interactions; they showed lower levels of cortisol — the stress-related hormone and higher levels of oxytocin, which is often described as a feel-good hormone. Yet kids in the storytelling group benefited significantly more: their cortisol levels were a quarter of those in the riddle group, and their oxytocin levels were nearly twice as high. Those who heard stories also reported pain levels dropping almost twice as much as those in the riddle group, and they used more positive words to describe their hospital stay.
The study demonstrates that playing games or simply interacting with someone can relax kids and improve their outlook but that hearing stories has an especially dramatic effect. The researchers “really tried to control the social interaction component of the storyteller, which I think was the key,” says Raymond Mar, a psychologist at York University who was not involved in the new research.
Next, the investigators plan to study how long these effects last, along with storytelling’s potential benefits to kids with particular illnesses such as cancer. For now Brockington says the results indicate storytelling is a low-cost and extremely efficient way to help improve health outcomes in a variety of settings. Mar agrees. “It’s very promising and scalable,” he says, “and possibly generalizable.”
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The effects of story-telling on children. |
| B．The limitations of the earlier research. |
| C．The methods used in earlier studies. |
| D．The major breakthroughs achieved so far. |
| A．accessible | B．comparable | C．adjustable | D．readable |
| A．It measured participants’ blood levels. |
| B．It divided subjects into groups of 81. |
| C．It quantified the benefits of story-telling. |
| D．It compared impact of two types of story-telling. |
| A．listening to stories reduces pain and stress in hospitalized kids |
| B．interacting with others improves sick kids’ mental sharpness |
| C．story telling has potential benefits for kids with cancers |
| D．riddle guessing is as effective as storytelling in helping sick kids |
7 . Gone are the days when a mother’s place was in the home: in Britain women with children are now as likely to be in paid work as their unburdened sisters. Many put their little darlings in day care long before they start school. Mindful that a poor start can spoil a person’s chances of success later in life, the state has intervened ever more closely in how babies and toddlers are looked after. Inspectors call not only at nurseries but also at homes where youngsters are minded; three-year-olds follow the national curriculum. Child care has increasingly become a profession.
For years after the government first began in 2001 to twist the arms of anyone who looked after an unrelated child to register with the schools, the numbers so doing fell. Kind but clueless neighbours stopped looking after little ones, who were instead herded into formal nurseries or handed over to one of the ever-fewer registered child-minders. The decline in the number of people taking in children now appears to have halted. According to data released by the Office for Standards in Education on October 27th, the number of registered child-minders reached its lowest point in September 2010 and has since recovered slightly.
The new lot are certainly better qualified. In 2010 fully 82% of nursery workers held diplomas notionally equivalent to A-levels, the university-entrance exams taken mostly by 18-year-olds, up from 56% seven years earlier, says Anand Shukla of the Daycare Trust, a charity. Nurseries staffed by university graduates tend to be rated highest by inspectors, increasing their appeal to the pickiest parents. As a result, more graduates are being recruited.
But professionalization has also pushed up the price of child care, defying even the economic depression. A survey by the Daycare Trust finds that a full-time nursery place in England for a child aged under two, who must be intensively supervised, costs £194 ($310) per week, on average. Prices in London and the south-east are far higher. Parents in Britain spend more on child care than anywhere else in the world, according to the OECD, a think-tank. Some 68% of a typical second earner's net income is spent on freeing her to work, compared with an OECD average of 52%.
The price of child care is not only eye-watering, but has also become a barrier to work. Soon after it took power the coalition government pledged to ensure that people are better off in work than on benefits, but a recent survey by Save the Children, a charity, found that the high cost of day care prevented a quarter of low-paid workers from returning to their jobs once they had started a family. The government pays for free part-time nursery places for three-and four-year-olds, and contributes towards day-care costs for younger children from poor areas. Alas, extending such an aid during stressful economic times would appear to be anything but child’s play.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?| A．Nursery education plays a leading role in one’s personal growth. |
| B．Pregnant women have to work to lighten families’ economic burden. |
| C．Children in nursery have to take uniform nation courses. |
| D．The supervision of the state makes child care professional. |
| A．the registered child-minders are required to take the university-entrance exams |
| B．the number of registered child-minders has been declining since 2001 |
| C．anyone who looks after children at home must register with the schools |
| D．the growing recognition encourages more graduates to work as child-minders |
| A．prevents mothers from getting employed |
| B．may further depress the national economy |
| C．makes many families live on benefits |
| D．is far more than parents can afford |
| A．Objective. | B．Skeptical. | C．Supportive. | D．Biased. |
| A．The professionalization of child care has pushed up its price. |
| B．The high cost of child nursing makes many mothers give up their jobs. |
| C．The employment of more graduates makes nurseries more popular. |
| D．Parents in Britain pay most for child nursing throughout the world. |
8 . Frequently Asked Questions for Yellowstone National Park
How much is the entrance fee?
| $85-Private, non-commercial vehicle; $30-Motorcycle or snowmobile (winter); $20-Visitors 16 and older entering by foot, bike, ski, etc. *This fee provides the visitor with a 7-day entrance permit for both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. |
Your decision may depend on how much time you have and what you want to see the most. If you plan on visiting Yellowstone National Park for only a few days and want to experience some of the main attractions then West Yellowstone would be a good base. If you want to have the full park experience then perhaps lodging (住宿) at Old Faithful would be a good choice. If you want to view the most wildlife, then we suggest the Northeast Entrance. |
This depends on what your interests are. Spring has abundant wildlife, roaring waterfalls and wild weather. Summer has it all including the most crowds, so you’d better get out early and eat your breakfast on the road! Fall is a special time of year. Everything seems to be declining including the crowds. Winter is a time of being a bit of social isolation. In years past it was more “economical” to visit most of the park. Now it is more restricted unless you can afford a snow-coach or guided snowmobile tour. |
Free public Wi-Fi is available at Al-bright Visitor Center and at some park lodges for registered guests. Cell service is extremely limited, with reception only available in or near major developed areas. In summer, service often reaches its limit in these areas. Yet, it is sad to see the latest generation fade away from normal everyday activities and conversation. Get out, look around, admire the wonders. There’re plenty of natural and human distractions around every corner. The last thing we want to do is distract visitors from Yellowstone’s wonders especially while driving. |
| A．$50 | B．$85 | C．$105 | D．$125 |
| A．most of the park was restricted to visitors in winter in the past |
| B．visiting Yellowstone in winter is preferred by most local people |
| C．winter used to be the best time to visit the park in terms of expenses |
| D．nowadays most people choose to tour the park on a snow-coach in winter |
| A．the wireless connection is not satisfactory |
| B．Old Faithful provides a full view of the park |
| C．the entrance ticket applies to Yellowstone only |
| D．younger generations make up the majority of park visitors |
9 . Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching one has been the inevitable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.
It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers. Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews. To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once considered suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.
We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament (装饰) to the publications in which it appeared. In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered. Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about. These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press. “So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism,” Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define ‘journalism’ as ‘a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are’.”
Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten. Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket. During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England’s foremost classical-music critics, a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller. He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored. Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.
Is there any chance that Cardus’s criticism will enjoy a revival? The prospect seems remote. Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized. Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the first two paragraphs?| A．English-language newspapers with more arts coverage sell well. |
| B．Young readers nowadays enjoy reading high-quality arts criticism. |
| C．The criticism published in the 20th century lacked learned contents. |
| D．There were more arts reviews in English-language newspapers in the past. |
| A．The newsprint was too cheap to make profits. |
| B．Not all writers were capable of journalistic writing. |
| C．Arts criticism was removed from the print newspapers. |
| D．Writers are likely to be tempted into journalism. |
| A．Because he mainly wrote essays on the game of cricket. |
| B．Because people cast doubt on his reputation as a knight. |
| C．Because his music criticism failed to appeal to readers nowadays. |
| D．Because his works were quite amateur rather than professional. |
| A．The Distinguished Critics in Memory | B．The Lost Horizon in Newspapers |
| C．The Shortage of Literary Geniuses | D．The Newspapers of the Good Old Days |
10 . Mime (哑剧) opens up a new world to the beholder, but it does so insidiously (隐匿地), not by purposely injecting points of interest in the manner of a tour guide. Audiences are not unlike visitors to a foreign land who discover that the modes, manners, and thoughts of its inhabitants are not meaningless oddities, but are sensible in context.
I remember once when an audience seemed puzzled at what I was doing. At first, I tried to gain a more immediate response by using slight exaggerations. I soon realized that these actions had nothing to do with the audience’s understanding of the character. What I had believed to be a failure of the audience to respond in the manner I expected was, in fact, only their concentration on what I was doing; they were enjoying a gradual awakening — a slow transition of their understanding from their own time and place to one that appeared so unexpectedly before their eyes. This was evidenced by their growing response to succeeding numbers.
Mime is an elusive art, as its expression is entirely dependent on the ability of the performer to imagine a character and to re-create that character for each performance. As a mime, I am a physical medium, the instrument upon which the figures of my imagination play their dance of life. The individuals in my audience also have responsibilities—they must be alert collaborators. They cannot sit back, mindlessly self-content, and wait to have their emotions aroused by fantastic musical sounds or visual rhythms or acrobatic feats, or by words that tell them what to think. Mime is an art that, paradoxically, appeals both to those who respond instinctively to entertainment and to those whose appreciation is more analytical and complex.
Between these extremes lie those audiences conditioned to resist any collaboration with what is played before them, and these the mime must charm despite themselves. There is only one way to attack those reluctant minds—take them unaware! They will be delighted at an unexpected pleasure.
1. The author compares mime artist with tour guide because both ________.| A．bring others to strange places | B．explore new means of self-expression |
| C．employ artistic methods to communicate | D．shape the way others perceive a new situation |
| A．show how challenging the career of a mime can be |
| B．eliminate some misconceptions about what a mime is like |
| C．portray the intensity required to see the audience’s point of view |
| D．indicate the adjustments an audience must make in watching mime |
| A．easy to summarize | B．difficult to define |
| C．hard to comment | D．natural to imitate |
| A．Effective combination of various dramatic elements. | B．Incorporation of realistic details. |
| C．Audience involvement. | D．Large audiences. |
