1 . Previous studies have found that the number of years spent in school relates to cognition (认知) later in life, but few studies have examined the influence of educational quality.
“Our study establishes a link between high-quality education and better later-life cognition and suggests that increased investment in schools could be a powerful strategy to improve cognitive health among older adults in the United States,” said Jennifer Manly, senior author of the study.
The study, led by Manly and Dominika Šeblová, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia, used data from Project Talent, a 1960 survey of high school students across the United States, and follow-up data collected in the Project Talent Aging Study. The researchers examined the relationships between six indicators (指标) of school quality and several measures of cognitive performance in participants nearly 60 years after they left high school. Since high-quality schools may be especially beneficial for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the researchers also examined whether associations differed by geography, gender, race and ethnicity.
The researchers found that attending a school with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the most consistent predictor of better later-life cognition, especially in language fluency (for example, coming up with words within a category). Attending a school with a high number of graduate-level teachers was about equal to the difference in cognition between a 70-year-old and someone who is one to three years older. Other indicators of school quality were related to some, but not all, measures of cognitive performance.
According to Manly and Šeblová, there may be many reasons explaining why attending schools with well-trained teachers may affect later-life cognition. “Instruction provided by more experienced and knowledgeable teachers might be more intellectually inspiring and provide additional neural or cognitive benefits,” said Šeblová, “and attending higher-quality schools may also influence life track, leading to university education and greater earnings, which are in turn linked to better cognition in later life.”
1. How did Manly and Šeblová conduct the research?| A．By conductıng surveys. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By explaining examples. | D．By interviewıng the elders. |
| A．The physical health determines your future life. |
| B．Good education contributes to good later-life cognition. |
| C．Language fluency is based on postgraduate training. |
| D．Good schools should have many well-trained teachers. |
| A．To remind the public of seniors’ health. | B．To look into investment in schools. |
| C．To achieve the fairness of humans. | D．To attach importance to education. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Uncaring. | D．Opposing |
2 . Not long after my daughter was born in early 2013, I had a serious thought about the life that lay ahead for her. With health and luck, she will live long enough to see the dawn of the 22nd century.
As a journalist, I often encounter the date 2100. It’s a milestone year frequently mentioned in climate change news reports, stories about future technologies and science fiction. But it’s so far ahead that the route we will take to get there is difficult to see. I rarely consider that, like my daughter, millions of people alive today will be there as 2100 arrives, inheriting the century my generation will leave behind.
For many of us, how often can we truly say we are thinking about the well-being of these future generations? How often do we think about the impact of our decisions on the decades and centuries ahead?
Part of the problem is that the “‘now’commands so much more attention,” the sociologist Elise Boulding once said. “If one is mentally out of breath all the time from dealing with the present, there is no energy left for imagining the future.” No wonder problems like climate change or inequality feel so hard to handle right now.
That’s why researchers are coming to the same conclusion that short-termism (短期主义) may be the greatest threat our species is facing this century. Despite our natural ability to look and plan ahead, we have a weakness in our thinking called “present bias.” For example, people are more likely to accept an offer of£10 today, rather than a guarantee of £12 in a week. They also tend to spend on pleasures, not save for rainy days.
I understand the dangers of short-termism. I can both justify the argument and feel the need to care more about future generations. But I admit I still struggle with how to translate that into clear action as an individual. To realize that we are just one in a chain of generations, we owe an obligation (义务) to our future generations to leave a better world than the one we inherited ourselves.
1. What is Paragraph2 mainly about?| A．People’s expectation of the year 2100. |
| B．The author’s thoughts on the year 2100. |
| C．The author’s plan for his daughter’s future. |
| D．People’s attitude to the importance of the year 2100. |
| A．Owing to our ignorance of the future. |
| B．Because of people’s inability to plan for the future. |
| C．Because of our difficulty in handling future problems. |
| D．Due to the lack of our mental energy to consider the future. |
| A．Preference. | B．Disorder. | C．Balance. | D．Freedom. |
| A．To criticize those who favor short-term rewards. |
| B．To express his dissatisfaction with the young generations. |
| C．To inspire people to think more about the future generations. |
| D．To show his determination to speak for his daughter’s future. |
3 . According to a study published this week, habitual napping (打盹) appears to be associated with a large brain volume in adults although experts stressed that further research was needed. It reduces the cost caused from the lost time and the fatigue-related errors. The work followed previous studies that suggested a brief doze could improve people’s ability to learn.
Arianna Huffington, a co-founder of Huff Post and the founder and chief executive of Thrive Global, said, “Given the latest science on the effectiveness of napping and the clear link between employees feeling well rested and their productivity, it’s long past time that businesses embrace short naps at work.”
Some businesses, including Thrive Global, have already introduced facilities for employees to take naps. Google introduced sleep pods as far back as 2014 and companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry’s introduced nap rooms. The practice has even been adopted by the NHS, with a growing number of hospitals introducing sleep pods for staff in an effort to help them get more rest. Employees, it seems, are enthusiastic. Sean Greenwood, of Ben & Jerry’s, said, “If a quick nap gets employees more involved and creative, we’re happy to provide that for our team members.”
Unfortunately, the practice of napping still suffers from our collective concept that sleep equals weakness and laziness. However, the performance-enhancing benefits of naps have been no secret to many leaders throughout history. It also gives the higher-ups the chance to acknowledge the 24/7 culture and come up with top-down solutions that encourage workers to take care of themselves in and out of work.
While sleep experts stressed that a daytime doze could be beneficial, they said it was crucial to get enough shut-eye at the end of a day. It is the late stage of sleep, sometimes missed by early risers, that strengthens the nerve circuits that make for learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neutral connections. Additionally, prioritizing sufficient sleep during the regular nightly sleep period is essential for overall well-being.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．Work stress. | B．Learning abilities. |
| C．A research finding. | D．The brain volume. |
| A．Dismissive. | B．Approving. |
| C．Unclear. | D．Critical. |
| A．To advocate enough rest. | B．To praise creative employees. |
| C．To compare the differences. | D．To present the current situation. |
| A．The approaches to shut-eye. | B．The importance of napping. |
| C．The secrets to well-being. | D．The benefits of memory. |
4 . Goldfish may seem like simple creatures swimming in a glass tank, but they possess a rather complicated navigation system, as discovered by researchers at the University of Oxford Led by Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux, the study aims to shed light on our understanding of how fish, and potentially humans, estimate distances using what could be described as an internal GPS.
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Sibeaux and colleagues report how they created a tank in their experiment with 2cm-wide black and white vertical stripes (条纹) on the walls, connected by similar stripes across the floor. The team trained nine goldfish to swim a set distance of 70cm and then return to their starting point when waved at. The experiment aimed to investigate how the fish would estimate this distance without any gestures, under different patterns.
Over multiple trials, the goldfish averaged a swim distance of 74cm, give or take 17cm, when presented with the vertical 2cm-wide stripes. However, when the stripe pattern was altered to either narrower vertical stripes, checked patterns, or horizontal stripes, the fish’s behavior changed significantly. Narrower vertical stripes led them to overestimating the distance by 36%, while horizontal stripes resulted in highly inconsistent estimations.
According to the researchers, the goldfish appeared to be using an “optic (光学的) flow mechanism” based on the visual density of their environment. They kept track of how frequently the vertical pattern switched between black and white to estimate how far they had traveled. The study suggests that different optic flow mechanisms are used by mammals, including humans, based on angular (有角度的) motion of visual features. The study implies that the use of visually based distance information could have emerged early in the evolutionary timeline.
“This study is novel because, despite knowing that fish respond to geometric information regarding direction and distance, we don’t know how they estimate distances,” Professor Colin Lever, although not involved in the study, said, “it’s exciting to explore fish spatial mapping because fish navigation evolved earlier and better than most mammals.”
1. Why did Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux conduct the study on goldfish?| A．To test the accuracy of goldfish’s internal GPS. |
| B．To create an advanced navigation system for humans |
| C．To uncover how an inbuilt GPS helps calculate distances. |
| D．To explore the relationships between goldfish and humans |
| A．People gestured the goldfish throughout the experiment |
| B．The tank was decorated with colorful background patterns |
| C．Goldfish tended to underestimate distances with horizontal stripes. |
| D．The change in the tank setting led to the goldfish's incorrect judgment. |
| A．optic flow mechanism is unique to humans |
| B．mammals developed flow mechanism long before goldfish |
| C．goldfish evaluated the distance with multidimensional visual information |
| D．visual density of the environment strengthened the locating ability of goldfish |
| A．Neutral. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Disapproving. | D．Favorable. |
5 . Personal growth doesn’t necessarily only happen when the conditions are perfect. Seeds tend to develop only when conditions are right. A seed will remain dormant (休眠) until moisture (湿度) and temperature are favorable for growth. Unfortunately, as humans, we don’t always have the luxury of growing when conditions are just right. Sometimes you must cultivate (促进) personal growth and flower where you’re planted, often in spite of external (外部的) circumstances.
For much of my life, I let external circumstances control my happiness. If things weren’t going well, then I wasn’t well. I told myself that I would be happier if conditions were right. With this mindset, I gave myself permission to stay emotionally dormant. I was waiting for things around me to change before I would do the work to become a better version of myself. In other words, I made my personal growth conditional on external circumstances.
The problem with waiting for change outside of yourself is that you might have to wait a very long time, maybe even forever. And if you stay dormant while waiting, you aren’t growing. You’re simply stuck in place. You certainly aren’t becoming the better version of yourself that you want to be.
If you want to engage in personal growth, like planting seeds, you have to do some work to make it happen. You can’t wait around for everything to fall into place. Start with pulling up your emotional weeds. Examine yourself and remove the pessimistic thoughts and behaviors that are holding you back. Then, work on the foundation that you have. Practice positive life habits that build your self-respect and happiness.
Personal growth is something you can fight for. It may not come naturally, but when you develop this mindset, you will flower no matter where you’re planted.
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing the first paragraph?| A．To stress the importance of personal effort in growth. |
| B．To complain about the lack of perfect conditions. |
| C．To highlight the influence of external circumstances. |
| D．To compare human development and seed growth. |
| A．Personal experiences. | B．Outside influence. |
| C．Sense of timing. | D．Positive thoughts. |
| A．To look for the right conditions. | B．To get emotionally prepared for failures. |
| C．To stop waiting and take action. | D．To keep yourself pure through gardening. |
| A．Happiness: You Are Your Own Master |
| B．Life Journey: Insist Till Efforts Bear Fruits |
| C．Growth: Flower in Any Circumstances |
| D．Life Changes: The Chance Is in Your Possession |
6 . Girls are better at reading and writing than boys as early as fourth grade, according to a study, and the gap continues to widen until senior year.
Scientists generally agree that boys and girls are psychologically more alike than they are different. But reading seems to be a(n)
David Reilly, lead author of the study, said the study
Factors explaining the results could include learning
To investigate how
| A．distinction | B．exception | C．objection | D．limitation |
| A．pattern | B．standard | C．circumstance | D．feature |
| A．strategy | B．signal | C．sign | D．evidence |
| A．confirmed | B．represented | C．questioned | D．introduced |
| A．underestimated | B．overemphasized | C．underrepresented | D．justified |
| A．increasing | B．promoting | C．accepting | D．reducing |
| A．objectives | B．drills | C．difficulties | D．advantages |
| A．contributions | B．differences | C．communications | D．similarities |
| A．literacy | B．literary | C．academic | D．cognitive |
| A．pulled down | B．settled down | C．turned down | D．broke down |
| A．granted | B．measured | C．designed | D．engineered |
| A．Likewise | B．Overall | C．However | D．Besides |
| A．overtake | B．discourage | C．parallel | D．distinguish |
| A．psychological | B．emotional | C．behavioral | D．mental |
| A．in line with | B．at the mercy of | C．on account of | D．in favor of |
7 . Hangzhou, China—a stunning opening ceremony laden with Hangzhou characteristics amazed the world on Saturday, as President Xi Jinping declared the 19th Asian Games open.
With the city’s profound history, culture and its modern image presented in an eye-catching and high-tech fashion, the opening show helped to express the host’s warm hospitality and its wish to unite the world through sports. Following an opening performance depicting the autumn equinox (秋分), one of China’s 24 solar terms that celebrates the harvest season, over 50,000 spectators burst into cheers as Xi announced the opening of the Hangzhou Games, making the Zhejiang provincial capital the third Chinese city to host the continental sporting gala, following Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010.
Wang Hao, president of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou Organizing Committee, said Hangzhou is honored to play host to such a grand event, which started on September 23rd. Raja Randhir Singh, the acting president of the Olympic Council of Asia, showed appreciation for the Chinese host’s meticulous (细心的) organization in his speech. “You have done a fantastic job in preparing for the Asian Games. The one-year postponement due to the pandemic was unprecedented in OCA history, but your diligence and determination will bear fruit over the next 16 days and you will be rewarded with the most magnificent and successful Asian Games ever,” said Singh.
Supported by new technologies, the Hangzhou ceremony boasted many historic firsts. For the first time in China, organizers switched from a traditional fireworks show to a virtual display, projected (放映) onto a giant curtain screen the size of nine IMAX screens.
To adhere to the principle of delivering the greenest possible Games, zero-emission methanol was used to fuel all of the torches and the main cauldron. For the finale, hundreds of millions of virtual sparks, each representing a participant of the online torch relay, formed the shape of a human torchbearer, who ran into the stadium to light the main cauldron together with the physical relay’s final bearer — Zhejiang native and Olympic champion swimmer, Wang Shun.
1. Why was the autumn equinox depicted at the beginning of the Hangzhou Asian Games Opening Ceremony?| A．Because Hangzhou wants to show its warm hospitality. |
| B．Because Hangzhou wishes to unite the world through sports. |
| C．Because Hangzhou highlights the history of China. |
| D．Because Hangzhou wishes participants a good harvest in the game. |
| A．It is the fourth time that China has hosted the Asian Games. |
| B．The Asian Games was supposed to be held in 2022. |
| C．Wang Hao sang high praise for the organization of the game. |
| D．Raja Randhir Singh was responsible for the organization of the game. |
| A．By fueling all torches and the main cauldron with coal. |
| B．By displaying virtual fireworks and demonstrating the history of the city. |
| C．By employing zero-emission methanol and installing a giant curtain screen. |
| D．By representing a participant of the online torch relay |
| A．Technology and Tradition Combine for the Hangzhou Opening Gala |
| B．History Goes Down in the Hangzhou Opening Gala |
| C．Meticulous Organization is Praised by the World |
| D．Best Wishes are Conveyed in the Hangzhou Opening Gala |
8 . Liu Jichen, 23, a student from Tsinghua University, has developed a WeChat mini-program called “Clear Your Plate”. After a meal, users can open the mini-program and take a picture of their empty plates. Once the image is recognized by the AI(Artificial Intelligence), students can collect points and use them to buy gifts or purchase charity meals to children in impoverished(贫困的) rural areas.
Liu and his team, together with other organizations, launched the “Clear Your Plate” campaign in November for the third year. It has swept over 1,017 universities across the country. The one-month campaign attracted almost 1.6 million participants and collectively reduced food waste by 862 tons and carbon emissions(碳排放) by 3,337 tons.
“Technological innovation is a good way to reduce food waste,” Liu thought. He organized a team of 20 members to work on the project at the end of 2017. To solve the AI’s problem of identifying photos of empty plates, the team spent half a year collecting over 100,000 samples in canteens and restaurants. In 2018, the mini-program was officially put into operation on Oct 16, World Food Day. They then launched a campaign later that year.
“There were so many unknowns in research and development. For our team members, the biggest challenge was whether we were confident enough to complete it,” Liu said. They not only achieved their goal, but now, the mini-program has more than 5 million registered users, according to Liu. “We hope our efforts can start a new trend among the younger generation by encouraging them to cherish(珍惜) their food and develop the habit of thrift(节约),” Liu added.
1. What can we know about the “Clear Your Plate” mini-program?| A．It aims to put an end to waste and encourage thrift. |
| B．Its 6 million users are mostly students. |
| C．It helped reduce food waste by 3,337 tons. |
| D．It is an exchange of food for rewards to help poor children. |
| A．They found it tough to promote the campaign. |
| B．They felt uncertain whether they could complete the project. |
| C．They lacked professional technical support. |
| D．They had difficulty gathering enough samples. |
| A．Optimistic and demanding. | B．Generous and responsible. |
| C．Talented and humorous. | D．Creative and determined. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A news report. | C．A book review. | D．A textbook. |
9 . Whenever you read text, your brain processes the visual stimuli (刺激物) to create meaning and understand the content. Chances are, you don’t pay much attention to the way the information is presented- particularly the font (字体) choice. That’s because your main target is reading comprehension, not aesthetics.
Although typography(排印) is missed by most of us, it’s essential in making texts legible, readable and appealing for audiences. Beyond the visual aspect, research shows that fonts play a significant role in the mental processes of understanding that happen while we read. A font’s impact on the way you learn and memorize information might be hard to notice consciously, but your brain is certainly tuned in. Perhaps surprisingly, hard-to-read fonts such as Bodoni, Comic Sans, or Monotype Corsiva are better for memorizing information than fonts like Arial or Times New Roman, according to some studies.
“Difficulty can function as an alarm signal, giving the reader a sense that the task is challenging and will require mental effort,” says Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and one of a 2010 study authors, “Additionally, slowing down the reading speed to deal with the disfluency may increase the probability of spotting errors in a text.”
Font characteristics such as style, size and color play a role in information retention memory or recall as well, says Stephen Banham, a typography lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Experiments have proved a U-shape relationship between font size and memory: Large-font items may predict higher recall regardless of style, but very small font sizes can also introduce a desirable difficulty.
A document’s specific method of formatting information also makes an impact. Using font styles like bold or italics to indicate significance can also improve memory. That’s because people are better able to remember information they consider important, says Oppenheimer. Researchers found that bolded text has a higher recall than text in italic or regular styles, regardless of the font size. However, if an entire document is bolded, the emphasis is lost, and readers can no longer spot vital passages.
1. Why do readers often ignore the font choice?| A．They lack aesthetic knowledge. | B．They aim to understand the meaning. |
| C．Their brains are not sensitive to the font. | D．Fonts are of little significance in reading. |
| A．They can lead to desirable challenges. | B．They may distract readers from the text. |
| C．The meaning of the text may be mistaken. | D．They will affect reading performance negatively. |
| A．Using fonts of medium size. | B．Choosing bright font colors. |
| C．Putting the words in italic type | D．Making the whole passage bold. |
| A．What Fonts Make Reading Easy | B．What Fonts Make Memory Lasting |
| C．Why Fonts Impact Retention and Recall | D．How Fonts Affect Learning and Memory |
10 . Worth nearly $1trn, Facebook is the world’s sixth-most-valuable company. Its revenues have grown by 56% in the past year, and its share price by more than a quarter. Nearly 3bn people use its products every month. Why did such a successful company change its name as Meta?
The likely official reason for the rebranding is that the firm has outgrown the social network that Mark Zuckerberg started 17 years ago in a Harvard dorm. Today it includes other social apps (Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger) and video hardware (Oculus, Portal). It has launched a digital wallet (Novi) and may yet offer a currency (Diem). Mr Zuckerberg expects people eventually to associate his firm more with the “metaverse”(元宇宙), a virtual space for work, play and more, than with social media.
Facebook wouldn’t be the first tech giant to do so. In 2015 Google set up Alphabet, a holding company for the search engine and its many side projects. Under this model, Facebook would become just another app within a wider family, though by far it has been the biggest earner.
There is another possible motive for a makeover. For all its financial success, the Facebook brand has become tarnished. The social network is blamed for fueling everything from teenage anorexia(厌食症) to uprising at the US Capitol. Public trust in it is lower than in most tech giants, and falling. Although two years ago the firm started branding its apps as being “from Facebook”, its new smart glasses, which can record video and take phone calls, feature only the logo of its partner, Ray-Ban. A former employee revealed that Facebook was trying to cover up a drop in young American users.
Mr Zuckerberg himself has been a reason for much of the criticism of Facebook, and of bossy tech firms more generally. As the all-powerful founder, he has a higher profile than his opposite numbers at TikTok, YouTube and other social networks. Normally, a brand facing a reputational crisis might dump its unpopular CEO. But Mr Zuckerberg’s position is immovable, which may explain why he would want to dump the brand instead.
1. Facebook changed its name because________.| A．it wanted people to associate its name with universe |
| B．it was trying to follow the fashion led by Google |
| C．it expected to expand its business to a wider range |
| D．its former name has brought bad reputation to the company |
| A．It was founded by Zuckerberg in Harvard’s dormitory. |
| B．It has a positive influence on teenagers’ mind and actions. |
| C．It is as popular among young people in the US as it was. |
| D．It produced smart glasses with two companies’ logos on it. |
| A．distinguished | B．abandoned | C．globalized | D．spoiled |
| A．a science review | B．a business magazine |
| C．a technical report | D．the website of Facebook |
