1 . All 50 states received final approval Tuesday to begin construction on a first nationwide network of EV charging stations (电车充电站) that places one roughly every 50 miles (80 kilometers) along interstate highways, part of the Biden administration’s plan to encourage widespread use of zero-emission cars.
The Transportation Department said it had OK’d EV charger plans from a last set of 17 states, causing the release of $1. 5 billion in federal funds to all jurisdictions (权限) nationwide — or $5 billion over five years — to build or upgrade chargers along 75, 000 miles (120, 000 kilometers) of highway from coast to coast, with a goal of 500, 000 EV chargers nationwide. Plans for the other 33 states and the District of Columbia were approved earlier this month.
By year’s end, drivers could start seeing expansions and upgrades to existing highway EV stations in states such as California, Colorado, Florida and Pennsylvania that now have at least four fast-charger ports, enabling EVs to fully recharge in about an hour.
“America led the original car revolution in the last century, and . . . we’re prepared to lead in the 21st century with electric vehicles,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He said the plans will “help ensure that Americans in every part of the country can be positioned to unlock the savings and benefits of electric vehicles.”
The approval is a major step toward building widespread acceptance and use of electric vehicles among consumers, who most often express unwillingness over EVs’ shorter range and limited use of public chargers. President Joe Biden has set a goal that 50% of new U. S. car sales be electric by 2030, and his administration touts (推销) new tax credits next year of up to $7, 500 as making electric vehicles accessible for everyday Americans. Still, the five-year plans suggest a potentially long and rough road ahead for a highway EV network, with states saying risks such as a lack of electricity grid capacity (电网容量), supply chain shortages and equal rights concerns.
1. What’s the real purpose of the EV network plan?| A．To unlock the advantages of EVs. |
| B．To enable the spread of EV chargers. |
| C．To make the government funds available to all states. |
| D．To encourage the spread of environment-friendly EVs. |
| A．the number of chargers to be built | B．the miles of EV chargers to cover |
| C．the approval of the charger plans | D．the introduction of the whole plans |
| A．examples of successful building | B．the bright future of EV market |
| C．possible problems in some states | D．the impressive progress of the plan. |
| A．All 50 states can use EV chargers now |
| B．States get final OK to highway EV chargers |
| C．Advantages and disadvantages of EVs. |
| D．A 5-year plan to promote EVs in the USA. |
2 . Have you heard of the save soil movement? It was
The efforts of Sadhguru have
The movement aims to
The main motive of the campaign was to bring together people from all around the world to protect the soil’s health. Sadhguru has become
Sadhguru is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. He has been a(n)
| A．launched | B．sponsored | C．experienced | D．commanded |
| A．resulted in | B．originated from | C．paid back | D．reacted to |
| A．airports | B．companies | C．conferences | D．locations |
| A．abilities | B．struggles | C．characters | D．requests |
| A．transform | B．address | C．drag | D．confirm |
| A．messages | B．responses | C．proposals | D．positions |
| A．exhausted | B．ambitious | C．successful | D．confident |
| A．improvement | B．awareness | C．imagination | D．standard |
| A．locally | B．individually | C．nationally | D．globally |
| A．urging | B．requiring | C．cheering | D．permitting |
| A．stable | B．ongoing | C．favorable | D．temporary |
| A．However | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．Meanwhile |
| A．ensure | B．bring | C．affect | D．define |
| A．strong | B．pleasant | C．determined | D．influential |
| A．circumstance | B．lifestyle | C．atmosphere | D．soil |
3 . I had gone from being a daughter in my parents’ home to marrying and being a wife. Within a year of marrying, I had a child and a new role— mother. It seemed that I was
In between having four more children,
And then I wrote a short story aimed at children. I typed it and sent it out. To my great surprise, it was accepted. I wrote more stories. Many of them were
“I didn’t know you
| A．sometimes | B．seldom | C．always | D．never |
| A．apparently | B．importantly | C．interestingly | D．strangely |
| A．urging | B．comforting | C．instructing | D．supporting |
| A．looked for | B．looked after | C．looked up to | D．looked down upon |
| A．wait | B．rank | C．exist | D．stand |
| A．replaced | B．received | C．rejected | D．resisted |
| A．status | B．chance | C．passion | D．voice |
| A．casual | B．tight | C．flexible | D．rough |
| A．honest | B．outgoing | C．independent | D．ambitious |
| A．difference | B．fortune | C．conclusion | D．promise |
| A．find | B．free | C．appreciate | D．obtain |
| A．benefited from | B．got rid of | C．gave in to | D．suffered from |
| A．argument | B．dialogue | C．friendship | D．bargain |
| A．deepened | B．adjusted | C．formed | D．worsened |
| A．justice | B．achievement | C．belonging | D．security |
4 . Ever fought with a problem? Picked up a new skill? Encountered a difficult concept? The language of learning is full of references to parts of the body outside the brain. Perhaps that’s because these phrases suggest something deeper. Researchers are detecting that learning is easier, quicker and more long-lasting if it involves the body.
“In the past, people have argued that as we grow, we become more able to think abstractly (抽象地),” says Andrew Manches, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Conventional (传统的) thinking might suggest that teachers should help prevent children from using body gestures to prepare them for the adult world. But in truth, the physical world never really leaves our thinking. For example, when we process verbs such as lick, kick and pick, medical scanners show that the parts of our brain that control the muscles in our face, legs and hands, respectively, light up with activity.
Science is beginning to back up the idea that actions really might speak louder than words in the classroom. Spencer Kelly, a psychologist at Colgate University in New York, has found that people spend three times as much time gesturing when they think the message they get across is remarkably important, suggesting that even if only at the subconscious (潜意识的) level, we appreciate the communicative value of our body language. Kelly has also found evidence that a teacher is more appealing to students when he or she uses arm and hand movements to stress points.
Also, some studies indicate that young children obtain more if their teacher uses gestures when explaining a concept. Meanwhile, Sunsan Wagner Cook, a psychologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, has found that children pick up new concepts more effectively, if they are taught to mirror and repeat gestures their teacher uses.
1. How did people in the past understand learning?| A．The older a student grows, the less likely he will think abstractly. |
| B．Teachers are advised to encourage students to use body gestures. |
| C．Body gestures should be removed to promote adult-like thinking. |
| D．The physical world never really leaves our thinking. |
| A．By presenting different researches. |
| B．By explaining some rules. |
| C．By making some predictions. |
| D．By analyzing the theory. |
| A．People use gestures every time they convey the messages. |
| B．Body movements can increase a teacher’s popularity. |
| C．Young students like to mirror their teacher’s gestures. |
| D．Body language is more powerful than spoken language. |
| A．The Language of Learning: A Vital Approach |
| B．Body Gestures: A Sharp Tool for Fast Learning |
| C．Body Language: A Universal Language Signal |
| D．Thinking Abstractly: A Symbol of Adult World |
5 . The turn of the year is traditionally the time for reviewing one’s life, and perhaps for making some resolutions as to what to concentrate on in the coming year; and for many years past I have taken advantage of the holiday period to review my own goal and ambition.
One thing I do decide to do this year, with some unwillingness, is to give up writing the Grumpy Old Bookman column in this magazine. It’s not that I’ve lost interest in the book world, you understand. But Leonard Woolf, husband of writer Virginia Wool, used to say that a man should change his career every seven years. Though personally I would say that changing your whole career so often is going a bit far, I do find, during my own working life, that it acts as a great refresher if you can occasionally try a new job within the same organization or line of business.
It is in fact well over 15 years since our editor wrote to me and asked if I would be interested in writing a regular piece about what was, even then, a rapidly changing publishing scene. He approached me because since 2004 I had been writing a regular blog called, amazingly enough, Grumpy Old Bookman.
As my monthly survey of developments in both traditional and digital publishing continued, in this magazine, I began to realize that writers in this century, of both fiction and non-fiction, are living in something close to a paradise. Once, you struggled for years to find a publisher—or an agent if you wanted one—but now you can publish your own stuff, either digitally or in paperback, without it costing you a penny piece. Amazing.
After about five years of producing such columns, at just under a thousand words a time, it occurred to me that, rather than let these essays drift away on the seas of time, it might be of value to potential readers to publish my thoughts and comments in book form. Hence, in 2014, I published the first 69 GOB columns in paperback format, using Amazon’s Create space facilities. Title: Writers Rejoice! A monthly diary of the dawn of the digital age, which was my first trial. And now I sincerely wish a new 2022.
1. Why does the author want to give up writing the column?| A．He follows Leonard Woolf’s suggestion. |
| B．He is very keen on trying something new. |
| C．He is fed up with the career linked to books. |
| D．He’s used to changing his job every seven years. |
| A．It is a blessing to live in the present times. |
| B．Publishing industry is a profitable business. |
| C．It is rather hard to publish books nowadays. |
| D．Now it is amazing to find a publisher easily. |
| A．Purposeful and good at self-reflecting. |
| B．Dedicated but easy to doubt himself. |
| C．Emotional and good at controlling himself. |
| D．Ambitious but reluctant to change himself, |
| A．Giving up timely is another virtue. |
| B．The beginning of a year is a new start. |
| C．Reflection can drive us to push forward. |
| D．Changing the job means a new opportunity. |
6 . It’s recognized that people think that they pick what they like when making choices. However, research suggests that we like something because we have chosen it. In other words, we dislike things we don’t choose.
In an experiment, Lisa Feigenson’s team brought some 10 to 20 months’ old babies into a lab and gave them two same bright and colorful soft blocks to play with. They set each block far apart, so the babies had to crawl(爬)to one or the other—a random(随机的)choice. After the baby chose one of the toys, the researchers took it away and came back with a new choice. The babies could then pick either the toy they didn’t play with before, or a new toy. It turned out that the babies chose to play with the new toy instead of the one they had not chosen. “As if they say were saying, ‘Hmm, I didn’t choose that toy last time, I guess I didn’t like it very much’,” said Feigenson.
This is a common phenomenon(现象)in life. Adults will less like the thing they didn’t choose, even if they had no real preference in the first place. It looks like babies do just the same. It shows that the act of making choices changes how we feel about our choices. The random choices might become our preferences.” They are really not choosing based on their preference,” said Alex Silver, co-author of the study.
This new finding explains why adults build unconscious biases(无意识偏见)when they make choices between the same things. “I chose this, so I must like it. I didn’t choose this other thing, so it must not be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously,” Feigenson said.
This also makes sense for us as we live in a consumer(消费者)culture and must make so many choices every day, between everything from tooth-paste brands to styles of jeans.
1. What was most probably the aim of the experiment done by Lisa Feigenson’s team?| A．To check if babies like new toys instead of old ones. |
| B．To test if babies prefer the things they have chosen. |
| C．To explain how babies and adults make choices differently. |
| D．To study if too many choices could create problems for babies. |
| A．Babies preferred bright and colorful toys. |
| B．Babies’ choices influenced their preference. |
| C．Babies preferred adults to help them make choices. |
| D．Babies’ preference influenced how they make choices. |
| A．The value of the experiments. |
| B．The source of adults’ unconscious biases. |
| C．The problems with adults’ unconscious biases. |
| D．The wise ways of making choices in a consumer culture. |
| A．Random Choices Matter |
| B．Preference Affects the Choice |
| C．Babies Like What They Choose |
| D．Too many Choices Confused the Adults |
7 . The movie Moonfall follows the story of a mysterious force knocking the moon from its orbit. Although it’s just a Hollywood movie, is there any fact behind the fiction (虚构的事)? Would it be possible to change the moon’s orbit around Earth?
One way for the orbit of an object in space to change would be if it were hit by another object.
This risk is one area of focus for NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). CNEOS identifies and tracks near-Earth objects (NEOs), such as asteroids (小行星) and comets (彗星). They then determine whether the object creates a threat to Earth, the moon, or other neighbors.
Size is a significant factor when determining the risk created by an object from space. If the impact of an asteroid could affect the moon’s orbit, the asteroid “would have to be at least as big as the moon itself”, Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s NEO office, told Live Science.
Due to the size of the moon, “it would have to be a huge object that would have to hit it at high speed”, he added. Because of the incredibly low chance of an object the size of the moon wandering into our solar system, it can therefore be determined that the chance of the moon’s orbit changing enough for it to hit Earth is minuscule.
Viewers of the night sky are convinced that the moon isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, although it’s unlikely to ever hit our planet, the moon still has an impact on life on Earth. A study from NASA states that the moon’s orbit is likely to begin “wobbling (摇晃)” sometime in the 2030s. This is a natural event that occurs every 18 years.
This period will see tides (潮汐) around the world “amplified (放大): High tides get higher, and low tides get lower”, which creates a risk to coastal cities around the globe, according to NASA.
1. What do we know about NEOs from the text?| A．Some of them create the risk of impact. | B．They are objects in orbit around Earth. |
| C．They are at least as large as the moon. | D．They are asteroids in the solar system. |
| A．There is no chance of the moon hitting Earth. |
| B．many objects larger than the moon are wandering into our solar system. |
| C．High speed is vital factor determining the danger from an object from space. |
| D．Size plays a small role when judging the threat from an object from space. |
| A．Tiny. | B．Dangerous. | C．Difficult. | D．Unpredictable. |
| A．The moon’s impact on life on Earth. | B．The possibility of the moon hitting Earth. |
| C．Possible ways to change the moon’s orbit. | D．The potential dangers of near Earth objects. |
8 . A young man came across his old teacher. “I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you,” said the young man and told him the following story:
One day, a friend of mine
Then you shut the door and told us all to get up and began to
You went from pocket to pocket, and when my
If an educator must make students lose the
| A．watched | B．cleaned | C．entered | D．designed |
| A．borrowed | B．stole | C．learned | D．heard |
| A．imagined | B．feared | C．realized | D．regretted |
| A．immediately | B．obviously | C．possibly | D．actually |
| A．change | B．share | C．throw | D．return |
| A．forced | B．annoyed | C．amazed | D．frightened |
| A．fill | B．search | C．exchange | D．use |
| A．encouraged | B．expected | C．allowed | D．required |
| A．turn | B．choice | C．chance | D．result |
| A．considered | B．continued | C．started | D．stopped |
| A．interesting | B．confusing | C．shameful | D．dangerous |
| A．goal | B．face | C．business | D．dream |
| A．mentioned | B．described | C．argued | D．complained |
| A．reason | B．excuse | C．report | D．message |
| A．admiration | B．impression | C．trust | D．support |
9 . Some women say the voice in their head gets kinder as they enter midlife, while other women become more critical of themselves. The difference in views appears to be related to the ability to accept age-related changes to their body, researchers have found.
In 2013, Professor Paxton, of the Universityof La Trobe’s Department of Psychology, was interviewed on ABC Melbourne about body image and well-being in women entering midlife. The ABC posted on their Facebook page the topic of the program and the question: Does the voice in your head get kinder as you get older?
The study found 56 percent of comments suggested the voice in women’s heads did get somewhat kinder with age. This view was associated with women accepting the age-related changes in their body as normal. “If they gained weight or they got wrinkles, it was a normal part of aging and they felt fine about it and it didn’t disturb their sense of self,” Professor Paxton said, “They were more likely to value health and well-being as opposed to appearance.”
On the other hand, 40 percent of comments suggested the voice did not get any kinder with age. This view was associated with women finding it difficult to accept being so different from the youthful ideal of women that is upheld in advertising and in the media. Women who expressed this view were concerned about how “invisible” they had become as a consequence. “They reacted negatively to the changes in their bodies as they aged and were very much aware that in our culture, youthful bodies are idealized,” Professor Paxton said.
Understanding why some women are preoccupied with body image in midlife more than others is important given that having a bad body image can lead to physical and mental health problems, Professor Paxton said. This can include self-consciousness and anxiety, eating disorders, and an unwillingness to show oneself in public, which can reduce the amount women exercise or socialize. “They become unsociable and don’t fulfill their full potential. Those sorts of things can make a person very unhappy.”
She said the insights from studies like this support the use of cognitive (认知的) behavioral therapy (治疗) designed to help women in midlife who have a preoccupation with body image to change negative thought patterns. This would involve discouraging them from comparing themselves to younger women, and encouraging acceptance of bodily changes related to age, and “self care” behaviors that improve health and well-being.
1. What causes the difference in women’s opinions on body image?| A．Women’s self-acceptance. | B．Professors’ advice. |
| C．The impact of Facebook. | D．Personal health. |
| A．Introduced. | B．Tested. | C．Advocated. | D．Praised. |
| A．By trying to show themselves in public. | B．By adopting a new thinking model. |
| C．By doing as much exercise as possible. | D．By comparing themselves to younger women. |
| A．To show public responses to the changes in their bodies. |
| B．To explain that health is more important than appearance. |
| C．To criticize views on body image expressed in the media. |
| D．To give advice to middle-aged women on bodily changes. |
10 . Though researchers have long known that adults build unconscious (无意识的) preferences over a lifetime of making choices between things that are essentially the same, the new finding that even babies engage in this phenomenon demonstrates that this way of justifying choice is intuitive (凭直觉的) and somehow fundamental to the human experience.
“The act of making a choice changes how we feel about our options,” said Alex Silver, a Johns Hopkins researcher. “Even infants who are really just at the start of making choices for themselves have this preference.”
The findings are published today in the journal Psychological Science. People assume they choose things that they like. But research suggests that’s sometimes backwards: we like things because we choose them. And, we dislike things that we don’t choose. “Adults make these inferences unconsciously,” said co-author Lisa Feigenson, a Johns Hopkins scientist in child development. “We justify our choice after the fact.”
This makes sense for adults in a consumer culture who must make random choices every day, between everything from toothpaste brands to styles of jeans. The question was when exactly people start doing this. So they turned to babies, who don’t get many choices so, as Feigenson puts it, are “a perfect window into the origin of this tendency.”
The team brought 10-to 20-month-old babies into the lab and gave them a choice of objects to play with; two equally bright and colorful soft blocks. They set them far apart, so the babies had to crawl to one or the other — a random choice. After the baby chose one of the toys, the researchers took it away and came back with a new option. The babies could then pick from the toy they didn’t play with the first time, or a brand new toy. Their choices showed they “dis-prefer the unchosen object.”
To continue studying the evolution of choice in babies, the lab will next look at the idea of “choice overload.” For adults, choice is good, but too many choices can be a problem, so the lab will try to determine if that is also true for babies.
1. What is people’s assumption about the act of making choices?| A．They like what they choose. |
| B．They choose what they like. |
| C．They base choices on the fact. |
| D．They make choices thoughtfully. |
| A．To help them make better choices. |
| B．To guide them to perceive the world. |
| C．To track the root of making random choices. |
| D．To deepen the understanding of a consumer culture. |
| A．They like novel objects. |
| B．Their choices are mostly based on colors. |
| C．Their random choices become preferences. |
| D．They are unable to make choices for themselves. |
| A．The law of “choice overload”. |
| B．The problem of adults’ many choices. |
| C．Why too many choices can influence adults. |
| D．Whether babies are troubled with many choices. |
