1 . Going to sleep at a certain time is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease, according to researchers. A team led by the U.K. -based University of Exeter found that going to sleep between 10 and 11 p.m. was beneficial compared to earlier or later bedtimes.
The research included 88,000 participants in the U.K. Biobank who were recruited between 2006 and 2010. The average age of the group — ranging from 43 to 79 years old — was 61 and 58 percent were women. Participants filled out demographic (人口统计的), lifestyle, health and physical questionnaires, according to a European Society of Cardiology news release. The study looked at the association between objectively measured sleep onset timing and cardiovascular disease using wrist-worn accelerometers, collecting a week’s worth of data.
Using Cox proportional hazards models, an age- and sex-controlled base analysis found that sleep on set time of 10 to 10:59 p.m. was associated with the lowest incidence of cardiovascular (心血管的) disease. Another model that controlled for sleep duration, sleep irregularity and established cardiovascular risk factors like smoking status and body mass index did not reduce the impact of the association.
There was a 25 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease with sleep onset at midnight or later, a 12 percent greater risk for 11 to 11:59 p.m. and a 24 percent raised risk for falling asleep before 10 p.m. compared to sleep onset from 10 to 10:59 p.m. More than 3,170 cases, or 3.6 percent, were reported during an average follow-up period of nearly six years. Sensitivity analyses revealed the association with increased risk of cardiovascular disease was stronger in women, with only sleep onset earlier than 10 p.m. significant for men.
“The body has a 24-hour internal clock, called circadian rhythm (昼夜节律), that helps regulate physical and mental functioning,” study author David Plans of the University of Exeter said in a statement. “While we cannot conclude causation from our study, the results suggest that early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body clock, with adverse consequences for cardiovascular health.”
1. How many participants are male in the study?| A．34,320. | B．51,040. | C．53,680. | D．36,960. |
| A．Sleeping regularly. | B．Sleeping at a proper time. |
| C．Adjusting the body clock. | D．Increasing sleep time. |
| A．9:00 p.m.. | B．10:30 p.m.. | C．11:00 p.m.. | D．12:00 p.m.. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By giving example. |
| C．By analyzing causes. | D．Ry describing a process. |
2 . Stefani Shamrowicz lives in Colorado. The 24-year-old woman has spent 23 days picking up126 bags of rubbish across the country
Having over a month off from her job at a campus recreation center, Stefani Shamrowicz decided to take a trip to help clean up the environment.
She's now driven over 70 hours through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana Florida,Georgia,Tennessee,Kentucky，Ohio，Pennsylvania，and New York-cleaning up everything from pee-filled bottles to lawn ornaments. About 80 percent of the rubbish was drinking bottles. Stefani said she had found a few fast-food toys and a tire with a pair of cowboy boots in it and her aim wasn't to shame, but rather encourage people to do what they can
Collecting anywhere from one to 16 bags at a time, Stefani's been discouraged. She felt she wasn't doing enough. She said there was a place that had an ocean of rubbish and she pushed out four bags, but then she broke down because she realized how much rubbish there was and it felt like four bags didn't do anything. But she remembered to just do what she could, especially since she had gone beyond her goal. She said she dedicated that to her parents because they raised her to be an independent person and had been very supportive on the trip
People donated $10 a bag for Stefani to clean up in their name, which she uses for lodging and gas. The person's name is written on how many bags they've donated towards and Stefani posted a picture on her Instagram when they were filed, thanking them for helping clean up the cit she was in.
People online and in person have responded positively to the project. Stefani recalled people sent her pictures of bags of trash they picked up. Once, when she started doing a bag on the beach in Florida,two ladies saw her and started helping her fill the bag.
With her job resuming June 1, Stefani is now back home but she has so many good things to say about her unique U.S.road trip.There's litter everywhere, so I'm just happy to be able to make a little bit of an impact everywhere I go. Cleaning up this litter is a huge thank you for all the joy and good times national parks and nature in general has brought to my life,”she said.
1. Why did Stefani drive ower70 hours across the USA?| A．To call on people to donate money |
| B．To earn a living by classifying rubbish. |
| C．To encourage people to protect the environment. |
| D．To enjoy the scenery of the national parks and nature |
| A．People offered their help along her journey |
| B．Her parents make joint efforts to support her. |
| C．People begin to donate their money for her project. |
| D．Many people take action to clean up the environment |
| A．Discouraged. | B．Anxious | C．Surprised. | D．Pleased. |
| A．Cleaning up rubbish is a tough task. | B．A kind act can make a big difference |
| C．Believing in oneself is the key to success. | D．One will realize his dream if he persists in it. |
3 . People have speculated (思索) for centuries about a future without work. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in a wasteland. A different prediction holds that without jobs to give their lives meaning, future people will simply become lazy and depressed.
But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with dissatisfaction. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could provide strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure.
These days, spare time is relatively rare for most workers. “When I come home from a hard day's work, I often feel tired,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different — perhaps different enough to throw himself into a hobby with the enthusiasm usually reserved for professional matters.”
Daniel Everett, an anthropologist (人类学家) at Bentley University studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Piraha for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun,” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”
Everett described a typical clay for the Piraha: A man might get up, spend a few hours fishing, have a barbecue, and play until the evening. Does this relaxing life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything like depression there, except people who are physically ill,” Everett says. While many may consider work necessary for human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Piraha, it’s quite a desirable state.”
1. What might be some people’s attitude towards the work-free world?| A．Objective. | B．Negative. |
| C．Skeptical. | D．Cautious. |
| A．Risks. | B．Losses. |
| C．Challenges. | D．Disadvantages. |
| A．work plays an important role in our future life |
| B．people don’t know how to balance work and life |
| C．people’s work-free future life will be full of charm |
| D．higher unemployment makes life tougher for workers |
| A．To justify John Danaher’s opinion. | B．To show a future life without work. |
| C．To compare different views on work. | D．To introduce the Piraha in the Amazon. |
4 . A few days before Christmas 2012, I found myself in Walmart. It was the last
The school my kids attended asked if we needed help for Christmas, and we
My children were with me that day at Walmart. Our cupboards were bare, and I had only eighty dollars to
My husband worked very hard to
As I chose my groceries, I kept a running total in my head. As my cart (手推车) filled, my
When I went to the checkout, I set aside the cologne gift box. My kids
What happened left me speechless, and being the
A wave of emotion came over me as I
| A．place | B．moment | C．season | D．station |
| A．refused | B．answered | C．accepted | D．ignored |
| A．warm | B．feed | C．help | D．inspire |
| A．respond | B．appreciate | C．purchase | D．accomplish |
| A．room | B．excuse | C．energy | D．courage |
| A．offer | B．afford | C．owe | D．earn |
| A．bill | B．collection | C．taste | D．clothes |
| A．stand | B．compete | C．prepare | D．provide |
| A．choice | B．mistake | C．heart | D．nature |
| A．create | B．design | C．maintain | D．discover |
| A．smooth | B．tight | C．unexpected | D．simplified |
| A．increase | B．discount | C．steadiness | D．absence |
| A．regret | B．anxiety | C．blame | D．complaint |
| A．likely | B．important | C．necessary | D．difficult |
| A．cheered | B．followed | C．protested | D．supported |
| A．lost | B．calmed | C．beat | D．sank |
| A．outgoing | B．optimistic | C．talkative | D．hardworking |
| A．approached | B．guided | C．pleased | D．trusted |
| A．ever | B．even | C．once | D．already |
| A．threw | B．cancelled | C．recommended | D．added |
5 . The last decade saw the rise of the field of “plant neurobiology (神经生物学)”. That debatable field is based on the idea that plants——which do not possess brains ——handle information in ways similar to complicated animal nervous systems. This thinking implies that plants could feel happiness or sorrow or pain, make intentional decisions and even possess consciousness. But the chances of that are “effectively zero," Lincoln Taiz and colleagues write in an opinion piece in Trends in Plant Science. "There's nothing in the plant remotely comparable to the complexity of the animal brain," says Taiz, from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Some plants are capable of complicated behavior. Wounded leaves can send warning signals to other parts of the plant, and harmful chemicals can warn animals that eat them. Some plants may even have a version of short-term memory: Tiny sensing hairs can count the number of touches that come from a clumsy insect. But plants perform these with equipment that's very different from the nervous systems of animals, no brain required, Taiz argues.
He and colleagues point out methodological (方法的) faults in some of the studies that claim plants have brain-like command centers, animal-like nerve cells and changing patterns of electricity that are similar to activity found in animal brains. But beyond the debate over how these studies are conducted, Taiz's team argues that plant consciousness doesn't even make sense from an evolutionary (进化的) point of view.
Complicated animal brains advanced in part to help a living being catch a meal and avoid becoming one, Taiz says. But plants are rooted to the ground and rely on sunlight for energy, an inactive lifestyle that doesn't require quick thinking or outsmarting a predator (捕食者)——or the energetically expensive nervous systems that enable those behaviors.
“What use would consciousness be to a plant?” Taiz asks. The energy required to power awareness would be too costly, and the benefit from such awareness too small. If a plant worried and suffered when faced with a threat, it would be wasting so much energy that it wouldn't have any left to do anything about that threat, Taiz says.
Imagine a forest fire. "It's unbearable to even consider the idea that plants would be conscious beings aware of the fact that they're being burned to ashes, watching the young trees die in front of them," Taiz says. The frightening scene illustrates "what it would actually cost a plant to have consciousness."
Furthermore, plants have plenty to do without having to be conscious, too. With sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, plants create the compounds (化合物) that sustain much of the rest of life on Earth, Taiz points out. "Isn't that enough?"
1. According to Paragraph 1, a plant neurobiologist would most probably agree that ______.| A．plants are capable of independent thinking |
| B．plants are as biologically complex as animals |
| C．plants developed nervous systems for survival |
| D．plants feel emotions in the same way as animals |
| A．A predator. |
| B．A meal. |
| C．An inactive plant. |
| D．A living being. |
| A．Plants possess brain-like command centers. |
| B．The lifestyle of plants requires nervous systems. |
| C．It is unnecessary for plants to have consciousness. |
| D．Nervous systems enable plants to fight their predators. |
| A．suggest new ways to study the behaviors of plants |
| B．discuss the possibility of plants escaping a disaster |
| C．illustrate how plants make decisions in face of dangers |
| D．prove consciousness would do plants more harm than good |
6 . Hibernation
For people who aren’t fans of winter, animals that hibernate seem to have the right idea: It’s the equivalent of burying your head under the covers until spring comes — isn't it? Not quite.
“Most of the physiological functions are extremely slowed down,” says Marina Blanco, a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Lemur (狐猴) Center in Durham, North Carolina. For example, when lemurs hibernate, they reduce their heart rates from over 300 beats per minute to fewer than six, says Blanco. And instead of breathing about every second, they can go up to 10 minutes without taking a breath. Their brain activity “becomes undetectable.” This is very different from sleep, which is gentle resting state where unconscious functions are still performed.
Put simply: “Hibernation is a means of energy conservation,” says Kelly Drew, a neuropharmacologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who studies the brain chemistry of hibernating Arctic ground squirrels.While hibernation is often seen as a seasonal behavior, it’s not limited to cold-weather animals. There are tropical hibernators that may do so to beat the heat. And “some species hibernate in response to food shortages,” notes Drew. For example, echidnas ( 针 鼹 ) in Australia will hibernate after fires, waiting until food resources rebound to resume normal activities.
To slow their metabolism (新陈代谢), animals cool their bodies by 5 to 10 °C on average. The Arctic ground squirrels Drew works on can take this much further, supercooling to subfreezing temperatures. Drew’s research has shown that cooling is likely regulated by levels of adenosine (腺苷) in the brain. Not only does adenosine increase in winter in ground squirrels, the receptors for the molecule become more sensitive to it.
But species don’t stay in their cold, sleeping state for the duration of their dormant period. About 80 percent of their energy is spent intermittently (间歇地) waking and warming up. Why they do this is “one of the greatest mysteries” of the field, says Thomas Ruf, a professor of animal physiology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Some think they need to turn back on their immune systems to fight disease, while others think they may simply awaken so they can sleep.
One bird and a variety of amphibians(两栖动物), reptiles and insects also exhibit hibernation-like states. There is even at least one fish — the Antarctic cod — that slows down its metabolism in winter, becoming 20 times less active. And, of course, there are lots of mammals. While bears might be the first that come to mind, most mammalian hibernators are on the smaller side. “The average hibernator weighs only 70 grams,” says Ruf. That’s because little bodies have high surface area to volume ratios, making it more taxing for them to stay warm in cold weather — so they need the seasonal energy savings more than larger animals.
1. How does the author distinguish between hibernation and sleep?| A．By highlighting reasons. | B．By presenting definitions. |
| C．By introducing arguments. | D．By comparing the data. |
| A．animals cool their bodies by 5 to 10°C on average |
| B．tropical hibernators may hibernate to beat the heat |
| C．some species hibernate in response to food shortage |
| D．hibernation is most often seen as a seasonal behavior |
| A．when certain animals hibernate | B．what kinds of animals hibernate |
| C．why some animals hibernate | D．how animals hibernate |
| A．It is harder for smaller animals to keep warm in winter. |
| B．The cooling of bodies may influence the levels of adenosine. |
| C．Scientists don’t agree on the reasons of intermittent hibernation. |
| D．Body functions are still unconsciously performed during hibernation. |
7 . This Too Shall Pass
When my family moved to Ohio over the summer, I feared attending another new school and knowing no one because I was able to expect what was coming. I had bright red hair and enormous glasses. In addition, I was
Boarding the school bus that first day, I felt like all eyes on me. I could hear the
The following day was even
It was then that I sank into myself. I began walking everywhere. I would wander through the woods behind our house. I would also walk to a
One of my newly-found friends also
While I would not want to
| A．outgoing | B．overweight | C．intelligent | D．friendly |
| A．whisper | B．whistle | C．giggle | D．laugh |
| A．drive | B．lift | C．ride | D．travel |
| A．worse | B．longer | C．funnier | D．duller |
| A．throwing | B．losing | C．leaving | D．dropping |
| A．Though | B．While | C．Since | D．Because |
| A．opinions | B．statements | C．comments | D．discussions |
| A．determined | B．attempted | C．pretended | D．managed |
| A．kept away | B．took back | C．put away | D．held back |
| A．garden | B．market | C．church | D．library |
| A．escaping | B．missing | C．delaying | D．stopping |
| A．uninterestedly | B．uncertainly | C．unfortunately | D．unexpectedly |
| A．changes | B．friends | C．efforts | D．decisions |
| A．struggled | B．competed | C．dealt | D．lived |
| A．run | B．play | C．chat | D．walk |
| A．along | B．across | C．by | D．in |
| A．oneself | B．myself | C．herself | D．itself |
| A．relive | B．remind | C．relate | D．rethink |
| A．excited | B．upset | C．proud | D．regretful |
| A．exist | B．stretch | C．lead | D．stay |
8 . For several decades, there has been an extensive and organized campaign intended to generate distrust in science, funded by those whose interests and ideologies are threatened by the findings of modern science. In response, scientists have tended to stress the success of science. After all, scientists have been right about most things.
Stressing successes isn’t wrong, but for many people it’s not persuasive. An alternative answer to the question “Why trust science?” is that scientists use the so-called scientific method. If you’ve got a high school science textbook lying around, you’ll probably find that answer in it. But what is typically thought to be the scientific method — develop a hypothesis (假设), then design an experiment to test it — isn’t what scientists actually do. Science is dynamic: new methods get invented; old ones get abandoned; and sometimes, scientists can be found doing many different things.
If there is no identifiable scientific method, then what is the reason for trust in science? The answer is how those claims are evaluated. The common element in modern science, regardless of the specific field or the particular methods being used, is the strict scrutiny (审查) of claims. It’s this tough, sustained process that works to make sure faulty claims are rejected. A scientific claim is never accepted as true until it has gone through a lengthy “peer review” because the reviewers are experts in the same field who have both the right and the obligation (责任) to find faults.
A key aspect of scientific judgment is that it is done collectively. No claim gets accepted until it has been vetted by dozens, if not hundreds, of heads. In areas that have been contested, like climate science and vaccine safety, it’s thousands. This is why we are generally justified in not worrying too much if a single scientist, even a very famous one, disagrees with the claim. And this is why diversity in science — the more people looking at a claim from different angles — is important.
Does this process ever go wrong? Of course. Scientists are humans. There is always the possibility of revising a claim on the basis of new evidence. Some people argue that we should not trust science because scientists are “always changing their minds.” While examples of truly settled science being overturned are far fewer than is sometimes claimed, they do exist. But the beauty of this scientific process is that it explains what might otherwise appear paradoxical (矛盾的): that science produces both novelty and stability. Scientists do change their minds in the face of new evidence, but this is a strength of science, not a weakness.
1. How does the author think of the scientific method?| A．Stable. | B．Persuasive. |
| C．Unreliable. | D．Unrealistic. |
| A．Explained. | B．Examined. |
| C．Repeated. | D．Released. |
| A．it is not persuasive to reject those faulty claims |
| B．settled science tends to be collectively overturned |
| C．a leading expert cannot play a decisive role in a scrutiny |
| D．diversity in knowledge is the common element in science |
| A．Put Your Faith in Science | B．Defend the Truth in Science |
| C．Apply Your Mind to Science | D．Explore A Dynamic Way to Science |
9 . Once there was a piano player in a bar. People came just to hear him play. But one night, a lady asked him to sing a song.
I don’t sing, “said the man.
But the lady told the waiter, “ I’m tired of listening to the piano. I want the player to sing! “
The waiter shouted across the room,” Hey,friend! If you want to get paid,sing a song!” So he did. He had never sung in public before. Now he was singing for the very first time! Nobody had ever heard the song Mona Lisa sung so beautifully!
He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the rest of his life as a no - name piano player in a no - name bar. But once he found, by accident，that he could sing well,he. went on working hard and became one of the best - known singers in the US. His name was Nat King Cole.
You,too,have skills and abilities. You may not feel that your talent is great,but it may be better than you think. With hard work, most skills can be improved. Besides, you may have no success at all if you just sit on your talent.
1. Nat King Cole succeeded because .| A．the lady helped him a lot | B．he caught the chance |
| C．he continued to play in the bar | D．he played the piano well |
| A．fail to realize | B．forget to use |
| C．try to develop | D．manage to show |
| A．hide it and wait | B．ask others for help |
| C．pay no attention to it | D．work hard to improve yourself |
| A．Sing in the Bar | B．Achieve Success in Life |
| C．Never Lose Heart | D．Find Your Hidden Talent. |
10 . Alida Monaco doesn’t spend her summers doing the usual teenage work, like working at the mall. Instead，she ‘ s studying.
It used to be that a summer job was considered a teenage thing. Today, Monaco ,who has never had a summer job, is part of growing trend (趋势)teenagers focusing on their studies, even during the summer. That’s down from 72% of Americans aged 16 to 19 who worked in July of 1978, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fierce (激烈的)competition, older workers returning to the workforce and weak economic growth are all adding to the decrease of teenagers in the workforce. But as schoolwork grows increasingly heavy and homework eats up more time, data suggest the biggest reason why some teens won’t be working this summer is that they simply don’t1 have time.
For college - bound teens, some teachers even advise students not to waste time on a summer job. “ Some of my students only have about six weeks off in the summer,” said Shannon Reed, a lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh and a former high school English teacher.” I could never advise that they get jobs during that short break. ”
Young people who don’t work may miss out on valuable skills that they’11 need control and help people learn to deal with adult situations. But Monaco, who plans to attend Harvard, isn’t fazed by her lack(缺乏)of work experience. “Maybe I have missed out on a couple of life skills, “she said. “ But I don’t think it will harm me in way .”
1. What is the trend of American teenagers?| A．They are becoming lazy. |
| B．They are fond of doing holiday jobs. |
| C．They are focusing more on studies than on jobs. |
| D．They are becoming particular about (挑剔)holiday jobs |
| A．The reasons for teenagers giving up work. |
| B．The fierce competition teenagers face. |
| C．The structure (结构)of America’s workforce. |
| D．The effects of America9 s weak economy. |
| A．uncaring. | B．favorable(支持的). | C．worried. | D．doubtful. |
| A．supported. | B．helped. | C．upset. | D．confused. |
