1 . Fortunately, the days of being spread on thick baby oil and lying in the sun to get you skin yellowish-brown—or more likely burnt—are long over. Many sunscreens work by filtering (过滤) the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays to keep them from reaching skin cells and causing the DNA damage that can lead to wrinkles and skin cancer. But in recent years, the safety of some of those filtering chemical ingredients, particularly oxybenzone (氧苯铜), has been in question.
A 2019 study published in JAMA found evidence that oxybenzone is absorbed into the bloodstream, leading to concerns about whether it might affect functions of our body. Oxybenzone has also been detected in breast milk for newborn babies. Because of concerns about higher intake in children, doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics advise against sunscreen with oxybenzone for kids.
The Environmental Working Group, an activist organization that monitors chemical safety, has called for a ban, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers sunscreens with oxybenzone safe. “It’s uncertain,” says Deborah S. Sarnoff, president of the U.S. Skin Cancer Foundation. “Just because you’re absorbing the chemical doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.” Further study is required.
But oxybenzone is a risk to coral reefs. Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands have banned the sale of sunscreens with oxybenzone. In a 2022 study published in Science, researchers found that some certain sea plants, when exposed to sunlight, turn oxybenzone into energy or something needed in a way that damages and kills corals.
Some companies have been trying to stop using oxybenzone gradually in stages, and many big brands offer oxybenzone-free options. For anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding, or simply looking to avoid these chemical filters, Dr. Sarnoff recommends mineral sunscreens, which contain mainly physical barriers.
1. What is the advantage of sunscreen?| A．It gets your skin yellowish-brown. | B．It stops wrinkles and skin cancer. |
| C．It keeps UV rays from harming you. | D．It prevents skin cells from DNA damage. |
| A．They don’t want children to absorb more oxybenzone. |
| B．They don’t want oxybenzone to hurt babies’ functions. |
| C．They know oxybenzone can affect children’s bloodstream. |
| D．They know oxybenzone has been found in newborn babies. |
| A．Coral reefs in Hawaii were damaged or killed by sunscreens. |
| B．More research is needed to prove the danger of oxybenzone. |
| C．Some organizations have already banned the use of sunscreens. |
| D．Mineral sunscreens are much safer than those with oxybenzone. |
| A．The findings about sunscreens with oxybenzone. |
| B．Questions on safe use of oxybenzone raised by doctors. |
| C．Discussion on safety of oxybenzone between organizations. |
| D．Effects of sunscreens on humans and plants in recent studies. |
2 . The Linda Hall Library is open to the public free of charge during regular library hours. There is no charge for getting a library card. Patrons can request and use materials in the library provided the items are in good physical condition.
◇ To sign up for a borrowing account, you must be a resident of the Kansas City area. You have to provide a current state or federal photo ID with a KC area street address.
◇ A photo ID plus utility bill in your name is needed if the current address differs from that on the ID.
◇ Patrons must show their LHL. library card or a photo ID at the time of check-out.
Who Can Borrow
◇ Individuals living within the Kansas City area as defined below:
● Missouri—Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Platte, Ray
● Kansas-Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, Wyandotte
◇ Established businesses within the KC area. Contact Reference Services at 8169268701 or reference@lindahall.org for more information about authorized borrowing for businesses, or fill out our web application.
◇ Students, faculty, and staff participating in Courtesy Card institutions. Contact for more information about the Courtesy Card Program.
If you wish to borrow from the Linda Hall Library but do not meet the above criteria, please contact your local library and request to borrow through interlibrary loan from Document Delivery Services.
For more information on how to request library materials, please see this guide on Making Requests in Primo. You may wish to register to attend an in-person “Navigating Linda Hall Library” session.
1. What is a must for applying for the borrowing account of the library?| A．A currently taken photo. | B．An in-person library session. |
| C．An address in the defined area. | D．A national borrowing account. |
| A．A student studying in a college. | B．A person working a company in the KC area. |
| C．An individual living in Washington. | D．A person working for Courtesy Card Program. |
| A．Fill out an application online. | B．Borrow some materials online. |
| C．Follow the official guidance. | D．Turn to your local library for help. |
3 . Philosophers have a bad reputation for expressing themselves in a dry and boring way. The ideals for most philosophical writing are precision, clarity, and the sort of conceptual analysis that leaves no hair un-split.
There is nothing wrong with clarity, precision, and the like — but this isn’t the only way to do philosophy. Outside academic journals, abstract philosophical ideas are often expressed through literature, cinema, and song. There’s nothing that grabs attention like a good story, and there are some great philosophical stories that delight and engage, rather than putting the reader to sleep.
One of the great things about this is that, unlike formal philosophy, which tries to be very clear, stories don’t wear their meanings on their sleeve — they require interpretation, and often express conflicting ideas for the reader to wrestle with.
Consider what philosophers call the metaphysics (形而上学) of race — an area of philosophy that explorers the question of whether or not race is real. There are three main positions that you can take on these questions. You might think that a person’s race is written in their genes (a position known as “biological realism”). Or you might think of race as socially real, like days of the week or currencies (“social constructionism”). Finally, you might think that races are unreal — that they’re more like leprechauns (一种魔法精灵) than they are like Thursdays or dollars (“anti-realism”).
A great example of a story with social constructionist taking on race is George Schuyler’s novel Black No More. In the book, a Black scientist named Crookman invents a procedure that makes Black people visually indistinguishable from Whites. Thousands of African Americans flock to Crookman’s Black No More clinics and pay him their hard-earned cash to undergo the procedure. White racists can no longer distinguish those people who are “really” White from those who merely appear to be White. In a final episode, Crookman discovers that new Whites are actually a whiter shade of pale than those who were born that way, which kicks off a trend of sunbathing to darken one’s skin-darkening it so as to look more While.
Philosophically rich stories like this bring more technical works to life. They are stories to think with.
1. What does the author think of philosophical stories?| A．The meaning behind is very obvious. |
| B．They am extremely precise and formal. |
| C．They often cause conflicts among readers. |
| D．They are engaging and inspire critical thinking. |
| A．Social constructionism. | B．Anti-realism. |
| C．Biological realism. | D．Literary realism. |
| A．Racial issues caused by skin colors. |
| B．A society view on race and self-image. |
| C．Black people accepted by the white society. |
| D．The origin of sun bathing among white people. |
| A．Stories Made Easy | B．Stories to Think with |
| C．Positions in Philosophy | D．Nature of Philosophical Writing |
4 . In our information-driven society, shaping our worldview through the media is similar to forming an opinion about someone solely based on a picture of their foot. While the media might not deliberately deceive us, it often fails to provide a comprehensive view of reality.
Consequently, the question arises: Where, then, shall we get our information from if not from the media? Who can we trust? How about experts- people who devote their working lives to understanding their chosen slice of the world? However, even experts can fall prey to the allure of oversimplification, leading to the “single perspective instinct” that hampers (阻碍) our ability to grasp the intricacies (错综复杂) of the world.
Simple ideas can be appealing because they offer a sense of understanding and certainty. And it is easy to take off down a slippery slope, from one attention-grabbing simple idea to a feeling that this idea beautifully explains, or is the beautiful solution for, lots of other things. The world becomes simple that way.
Yet, when we embrace a singular cause or solution for all problems, we risk oversimplifying complex issues. For instance, championing the concept of equality may lead us to view all problems through the lens of inequality and see resource distribution as the sole panacea. However, such rigidity prevents us from seeing the multidimensional nature of challenges and hinders true comprehension of reality. This “single perspective instinct” ultimately clouds our judgment and restricts our capacity to tackle complex issues effectively. Being always in favor of or always against any particular idea makes you blind to information that doesn’t fit your perspective. This is usually a bad approach if you would like to understand reality.
Instead, constantly test your favorite ideas for weaknesses. Be humble about the extent of your expertise. Be curious about new information that doesn’t fit, and information from other fields. And rather than talking only to people who agree with you, or collecting examples that fit your ideas, consult people who contradict you, disagree with you, and put forward different ideas as a great resource for understanding the world. If this means you don’t have time to form so may opinions, so what?
Wouldn’t you rather have few opinions that are right than many that are wrong?
1. What does the underlined word “allure” in Para.2 probably mean?| A．Temptation. | B．Tradition. | C．Convenience. | D．Consequence. |
| A．They meet people’s demand for high efficiency. |
| B．They generate a sense of complete understanding. |
| C．They are raised and supported by multiple experts. |
| D．They reflect the opinions of like-minded individuals. |
| A．Simplifying matters releases energy for human brains. |
| B．Constant tests on our ideas help make up for our weakness. |
| C．A well-founded opinion counts more than many shallow ones. |
| D．People who disagree with us often have comprehensive views. |
| A．Embracing Disagreement: Refusing Overcomplexity |
| B．Simplifying Information: Enhancing Comprehension |
| C．Understanding Differences: Establishing Relationships |
| D．Navigating Complexity: Challenging Oversimplification |
5 . In the late 1970s, archaeologists (考古学家) uncovered the remains of a woman and a young dog, her hand resting on the puppy’s chest in a 12,000-year-old village.
The find is some of the earliest evidence of the bond between humans and dogs. But even after years of study researchers are divided on how this bond began. Did it arise over thousands of years, as early dogs became tamer (驯服的) and more accustomed to human behaviors? Or was this fire already burning in the ancestors of dogs: the gray wolf?
Christina Hansen Wheat, a behavioral ecologist at Stockholm University, and workmates hand-raised 10 gray wolves from the time they were 10 days old. When the animals were 23 weeks old, a caregiver led them one at a time into a mostly empty room. Over the course of several minutes, the caregiver exited and entered the room, sometimes leaving the wolf alone, sometimes leaving it with a complete stranger. The team repeated the experiment with 12 23-week-old Alaskan huskies (哈士奇), which they’d raised similarly since puppyhood.
For the most part, the scientists saw few differences between the wolves and the dogs. When their caregiver entered the room, both species scored 4.6 on a five-point scale of “greeting behavior”—a desire to be around the human. When the stranger entered, dog greeting behavior dropped to 4.2 and wolf to 3.5, on average, suggesting both animals made a distinction between the person they knew and the one they didn’t. It’s this distinction that the team counts as a sign of attachment.
In addition, dogs barely paced—a sign of stress—during the test, while wolves paced at least part of the time. However, the wolves stopped pacing almost entirely when a stranger left the room and their caretaker returned. Hansen Wheat says that’s never been seen before in wolves. It could be a sign, she says, that the animals view the humans who raised them as a “social buffer”.
For her, that’s the most interesting part of the study. “If this is true, this sort of attachment is not what separates dogs from wolves,” she says. In other words, it didn’t have to be bred into them by humans, but could have been the seed we selected for, and then strengthened over thousands of years.
1. What’s the purpose of Hansen Wheat’s experiment?| A．To find out what makes gray wolves and dogs different. |
| B．To explain the reasons why humans raised dogs from ancient times. |
| C．To argue gray wolves after being tamed are easier to keep than dogs. |
| D．To prove whether gray wolves can make doglike attachment to people. |
| A．Researchers began to raise gray wolves from their birth. |
| B．Researchers used equal numbers of gray wolves and dogs. |
| C．Gray wolves felt more stressful than dogs when a stranger came. |
| D．“Greeting behavior” of the two animals was significantly different. |
| A．A reminder of feeding. | B．A sign of social attachment. |
| C．A source of comfort and support. | D．A warning of stopping pace. |
| A．Dogs are more attached to humans than gray wolves. |
| B．It is the attachment to humans that sets gray wolves apart from dogs. |
| C．The attachment between dogs and humans is the result of being tamed. |
| D．The attachment to humans plays a role in the choice of dogs or gray wolves. |
6 . For decades, India’s time zone has been a hotly debated issue. Back in 1884 when time zones were officially established, two time zones were used — Bombay Time and Calcutta Time. Indian Standard Time (IST) was introduced in 1906, but Calcutta Time and Bombay Time continued to be maintained after
India’s independence in 1947, until 1948 and 1955 respectively. The current single time zone, though a legacy of British rule, is often viewed as a symbol of unity. Yet, not everyone thinks it is a good idea. India stretches 3,000 km from east to west, spanning roughly 30 degrees longitude. This corresponds to a two-hour difference in mean solar time, based on the position of the sun in the sky. Thus, the sun rises nearly two hours earlier in the east than in India’s far west. In Northeastern states, sunrise can be as early as 4 a.m. in summer and sunset by 4 p.m. in winter, much earlier than the official working hours. This results in great loss of daylight hours and more consumption of electricity, and often reduced productivity.
Meanwhile, recent studies point out that the current system leads to a serious problem in education for some students. Nationwide, the school day starts at roughly the same time; thus, children go to bed later and have reduced sleep in west India, where the sun sets later. Such sunset-induced sleep deprivation is more pronounced among the poor, mostly due to their noisy environment and lack of sleep-inducing facilities like window shades or indoor beds. On average, an hour’s delay in sunset time reduces children’s sleep by 30 minutes, and an hour’s delay in annual average sunset time reduces education by about 0.8 years. As a result, children living in locations with later sunsets are less likely to complete primary and middle school education.
Despite various requests and proposals for multiple time zones, the government is keen to retain the current system. Reasons provided include prevention of confusion and safety issues regarding railway and flight operations.
1. Which of the following illustrates the Indian time zone system since 1955?A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Noisy. | B．Distant. | C．Flexible. | D．Outstanding. |
| A．The number of traffic accidents can be reduced. |
| B．Children may have better-quality sleep and education. |
| C．India may have more energy resources to generate electricity. |
| D．The country may rid itself of the impact of British colonization. |
| A．7 p.m. | B．6 p.m. | C．5 p.m. | D．4 p.m. |
7 . According to Oxford Dictionaries, morality means: “Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.” Though morality is a rather subjective subject, there are some principles that are universal across all cultures found by an Oxford University study: "help your family, help your group, return favors, be brave, obey superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others, property”. The fact that these morals are found across 60 cultures from around the world demonstrates that morality, though subjective, is the cornerstone of keeping our societies together. Here are some reasons to be moral: without morality, a social life is almost impossible to maintain; having a good reputation and having a clear conscience is psychologically healthy; and most philosophies regard unselfish and principled behavior as important.
There is no doubt that without morals, a society cannot function effectively. A confused situation would appear. According to the Society of Morality, “We are social animals, and the actions we take - the things we do and the things we don’t do - have consequences on our environments and on the others around us. As a result, we need to be able to govern our behavior in the near term so as not to injure ourselves or our community in the long term. This system of controlling our actions and our thoughts in order to operate in a community is what we often refer to as morality”. Therefore, we need a set of morals in order to operate within a social circle and a social environment. Acting immoral usually results in being excluded from social activities or being avoided by a society based on laws and cultural standards.
Besides acting moral having a sociological need, it also has a psychological basis. Most people are concerned to some extent about their reputation. According to PsyPost, “A lot of economic models of human behavior assume that people are only rational (理性的)when they narrowly pursue their own self-interest, but history shows us that people are also tremendously concerned with being and appearing moral”. So, the fear of one’s reputation being damaged is often a strong motivator to be moral. And if someone has been immoral, most people go out of their way to make sure no one finds out, or to correct the behavior in order to not be caught. This goes in line with conscience as well. People generally feel in a better psychological state if they feel that their conscience is clean. A dirty conscience can result in a lack of sleep, anxiety, internal stress, and even illness.
On the side of philosophy, the study of ethics (伦理)comes into play. Most philosophers agree that one should rationally choose a set of standards of behavior in order to function. Though there is moral relativism, there are universal anthropological (人类学的)morals, as mentioned in the introduction. By the nature of our societies and cultures, we choose what we believe is right and wrong. But surprising, this rational behavior comes to a general agreement on morals. So, there is a fine line between moral relativism and moral absolutism. But the main thing to take away from this discussion is that philosophers generally believe that each individual has the right to rationally come up with a set of ethics to live by, and that it is healthy to do so.
1. The author discusses morality in the first paragraph in order to_________.| A．explain the relationship between morality and culture |
| B．describe the moral rules found all around the world |
| C．contrast the distinction between right and wrong |
| D．introduce the definition, principles and reasons of morality |
| A．acting moral allows us to fit into groups better |
| B．morality brings the system of controlling behaviors |
| C．acting immoral weakens laws and cultural standards |
| D．Our controlled behaviors establish sets of morals |
| A．Pursuit of self-interest. | B．A clean conscience. |
| C．The concern about reputation. | D．A dirty conscience. |
| A．To reach a general agreement on morals based on ethics. |
| B．To carve one’s own sense of ethics to operate in this world. |
| C．To choose between moral relativism and moral absolutism. |
| D．To exclude philosophers’ beliefs and solutions as well. |
8 . Jobs that use both technical and creative thinking are among the fastest-growing and highest-paying ones, according to a new report from Burning Glass Technologies, a job market analytics (分析) company in Boston.
It studied millions of job postings to better understand the skills companies require. What they discovered was that many want workers with experience in such new abilities as big-data (数据) gathering and analytics, or design using digital technology.
Burning Glass came up with the term “hybrid jobs” to describe these kinds of positions, which require skills not normally found together. For example, these hybrid jobs might require people with skills in data science and advertising, or engineering and sales. “The jobs of the future don’t involve just one skill,” says Matt Sigelman, chief manager of Burning Glass.
The company expects general job growth of about 10% between 2018 and 2028, but the hybrid jobs by 21%. What’s more, hybrid jobs pay more than positions that call for a traditional set of skills. For example, a marketing manager mastering a database program gets paid 41% more than a traditional one, with an average yearly salary of $100, 000. Moreover, an engineer who improves her sales skills and becomes a consulting engineer for a software company can more than double her pay from $180, 000 to $400, 000.
While data shows that workers who fail to update their skills will be able to find fewer jobs, people in hybrid jobs are less likely to become out of date, with only 12% possibility of being replaced by machine, compared with 42% for general jobs, says Burning Glass. Hybrid jobs are mostly not beginner roles, so they mainly go to workers with years of experience and, most importantly, more training after leaving college. That means workers, bosses and educators will have to think about how to better prepare people for these roles.
1. Why did the company research into job advertisements?| A．To understand the growth of best paid workers. |
| B．To compare workers’ experience with new abilities. |
| C．To find out companies’ requirements about skills. |
| D．To tell the possible changes in future job market. |
| A．Data engineer. |
| B．Machine operator. |
| C．Marketing manager. |
| D．Medical consultant. |
| A．$180, 000. | B．$71, 000. | C．$41, 000. | D．$10, 000. |
| A．How to Get Trained for Jobs |
| B．The Skills for “Hybrid” Jobs |
| C．Future Jobs Requiring “Hybrid” Skills |
| D．Tips on Finding Fastest-Growing Jobs |
9 . HANDSTITCHED WORLDS: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF QUILTS
Quilts (床罩) are a narrative art; with themes that are political, spiritual, communal, or commemorative, they are infused with history and memory, mapping out intimate stories and legacies through a handcrafted language of design. Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts is an invitation to read quilts as maps, tracing the paths of individual histories that illuminate larger historic events and cultural trends.
Spanning the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, this insightful and engaging exhibition brings together 18 quilts from the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York, representing a range of materials, motifs, and techniques from traditional early-American quilts to more contemporary sculptural assemblages. The quilts in Handstitched Worlds show us how this too-often overlooked medium balances creativity with tradition, individuality with collective zeitgeist. Like a road map, these unique works offer a path to a deeper understanding of the American cultural fabric.
Number of Works:18 quilts
Organized by: American Folk Art Museum, New York
Approximate size:175-200 linear feet
Security: Moderate security
Participation Fee: Please inquire
Shipping: IA&A makes all arrangements; exhibitors pay outgoing shipping costs within the contiguous U.S.
Booking Period:12 weeks
Tour: June 2021—August2024
Contact: TravelingExhibitions@ArtsandArtists.org
Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI
June 12, 2021—August 29, 2021
Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, WA
September 17, 2021—January 23, 2022
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
February 19, 2022—May 14, 2022
Fort Wayne Muesum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN
June 18, 2022—September 11, 2022
AVAILABLE
October 2022—January 2023
Dane G. Hansen Memorial Museum, Logan, KS
February 17,2023—May 14, 2023
AVAILABLE
June 2023—December 2023
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS
January 30, 2024—April 21, 2024
AVAILABLE
May 2024—August 2024
All tour dates can be customized to meet your scheduling needs. Please contact Traveling Exhibitions @ Artsand Artists.org for more information.
1. What is the purpose of the exhibition of Handstitched Worlds: The Cartography of Quilts?| A．To promote creativity and individuality thorough the engaging exhibition. |
| B．To provide an opportunity for visitors to learn to make quilts stitch by stitch. |
| C．To give visitors an insight into the history and culture of America in specific periods. |
| D．To enrich the understanding of the American culture by a tour visit to museums across America. |
| A．The exhibition is free both for the exhibitors and for the visitors. |
| B．Exhibitors that are interested can choose whatever dates they want. |
| C．The artistic and historic value of handstitched quilts used to be neglected. |
| D．Exhibitors that are interested can book the exhibition 12 weeks in advance. |
| A．exhibitors | B．visitors | C．artists | D．historians |
10 . Some documents have been making the rounds lately — where people who work various positions in different industries share how much they’re paid.
Bravo! It’s about time we blew up that old belief that salaries have to stay secret. This is not just a matter of curiosity. Having information about salaries can help narrow the gender wage gap, which has barely changed for more than a decade. Recently released date from the US Census Bureau shows that, on average, women working full time still are paid only 82 cents for every dollar paid to a man. And the gap is even wider for many women of color: Black women make 62 cents, and Latinas just 54 cents. What’s more, the pay gap even extends into her retirement. Because she earned less and therefore paid less to the social security system, she receives less in social security benefits.
Having greater access to salary information is helping to speed things up. A new research report by the American Association of University Women shows that the wage gap tends to be smaller in job sectors where pay transparency (透明) is a must. For example, among federal government workers, there’s just a 13 percent pay difference between men and women, and in state government, the gap is about 17 percent. But in private, for-profit companies, where salaries are generally kept under wraps, the gender wage gap jumps to 29 percent.
Fortunately, salary information is increasingly available on some websites. Certain companies and many human resources departments are pushing ahead with this practice. Of course, it’s going to take more than salary transparency to equalize earnings between women and men. But sharing salaries can and must be part of the solution. The more information women have about how jobs are valued — and what different people earn — the better they will understand their value in the labor market and be able to push for the pay they deserve.
1. Why are the figures mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To reveal the severity of gender wage gap. |
| B．To confirm the previous belief about salaries. |
| C．To satisfy readers’ curiosity about others’ salaries. |
| D．To appeal to readers to share their salary information. |
| A．The inequality between men and women. |
| B．The need to keep salary information a secret. |
| C．The advantage of working for the government. |
| D．The benefit of making salary information public. |
| A．Critical. | B．Favourable. |
| C．Unclean | D．Negative. |
| A．Why It Pays to Share How Much You Make |
| B．Where Salary Information Difference Lies |
| C．What It Takes to Realize Gender Equality |
| D．How Woman’s Value Improves at Work. |
