1 . If the eyes are the romantic’s window into the soul, then the teeth are an anthropologist’s door to the stomach.
In a study published recently in the journal Science, Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas and his partner, Matt Sponheimer of the University of Colorado, US, examined the teeth of ancient human beings to find out what they were really eating.
They already knew that different foods cause different marks on teeth. Some cause scratches, while others cause pits(坑). The carbon left on teeth by different foods is also different. Tropical grasses, for example, leave one kind of carbon, but trees and bushes leave another kind because they photosynthesize(进行光合作用)differently.
Traditionally, scientists had looked at the size and shape of teeth and skulls to figure out what early humans ate. Big flat teeth were taken to be signs that they ate nuts and seeds, while hard and sharp teeth seemed good for cutting meat and leaves. But this was proved wrong.
The best example was the Paranthropus(傍人属类人猿), one of our close cousins, some of whom lived in eastern Africa. Scientists used to believe that they ate nuts, fruits and seeds because they had big crests(突起)on their skulls, suggesting that they had large chewing muscles and big teeth. If this had been true, their teeth should have been covered with pits like the surface of the moon. They would also have had a particular type of carbon on their teeth that typically comes from tree products, such as nuts and seeds.
However, when the two scientists studied the Paranthropus, it turned out to have none of these characteristics. The teeth had a different kind of carbon, and were covered with scratches, not pits. This suggested they probably ate grass, not nuts and seeds. It was the exact opposite of what people had expected to find.
Carbon “footprints” give us a completely new and different understanding of what different species ate and the different environments they lived in, which also provide a groundbreaking perspective on the diets and habitats of various species. This method has reshaped our understanding of ancient human diets, challenging previous assumptions based on tooth and skull morphology.
1. Which of the following best explains the underlined sentence?| A．Anthropologists can know the structure of human stomachs by studying their teeth. |
| B．Anthropologists can find out the diet of early humans by studying their teeth. |
| C．Anthropologists can learn whether humans were healthy by looking at their teeth. |
| D．Anthropologists can get the most useful information about humans from their teeth. |
| A．Pits on teeth are caused by eating grass or leaves. |
| B．Scratches on teeth are caused by eating nuts or seeds. |
| C．Different foods leave different marks and carbon on teeth. |
| D．Early humans with hard and sharp teeth at e meat and leaves. |
| A．To show they had different eating habits from other humans. |
| B．To prove living environment makes a difference to skull structure. |
| C．To demonstrate they were one of our close cousins living in eastern Africa. |
| D．To reveal the size and shape of teeth don’t show accurately what early humans ate. |
| A．Cause and effect. |
| B．Problem and solution. |
| C．Comparison and contrast. |
| D．Listing and classification. |
2 . Interlibrary Loan is the service that the Osterhout Free Library offers for free to our patrons (顾客). You can use Interlibrary Loan to borrow an item (books, DVDs, music CDs, etc.) from within the continental 48 states if it is unavailable in the Luzerne County Library System.
How to request an Interlibrary Loan item·To request an Interlibrary Loan item, you must either call the Osterhout Free Library, or come to our Information Services Desk.
·You must know exactly what item(s) you would like. We do not accept requests for general topics, for instance, “I would like books on antique cars.”
·Be sure to check the Luzerne County Library System’s catalog before asking Interlibrary Loan for an item.
Interlibrary Loan Processing
·When a patron requests Interlibrary Loan items, they are allowed to request more than one item, but there is a maximum of 5 requests in the system per patron.
·When the item comes in, the patron will be contacted via phone to ask him/her to pick it up. If the item is not able to be obtained, the patron will be notified via e-mail.
·If you wish to renew your Interlibrary Loan item, you must call us at least one week before the due date.
Interlibrary Loan Penalties (处罚)
·Interlibrary Loan overdue fees are $0.50/day per item.
·The following actions will result in an additional $3.00 per item fine:
(1)Returning an Interlibrary Loan item to any library other than the Osterhout Free Library.
(2)Returning an Interlibrary Loa n item without the paperwork with the due date.
1. What is a must when you borrow a book from Interlibrary Loan?| A．Renewing the book 3 days in advance. | B．Specifying your desired book. |
| C．Visiting the Osterhout Free Library. | D．Giving priority to Interlibrary Loan. |
| A．Being reminded of an unavailable item by e-mail. |
| B．Borrowing at least 5 items at a time. |
| C．Being given unlimited renewal of an item. |
| D．Having a free delivery service. |
| A．$4. | B．$6.5. |
| C．$7. | D．$3.5. |
3 . Teachers worried about students turning in essays written by a popular artificial intelligence chatbot now have a new tool of their own.
Edward Tian, a computer science major at Princeton University, has built an App called GPTZero to detect whether a text is written by Chat GPT, which is a popular chatbot that has caused fears over its possibility for immoral uses in American academic circles. His motivation to create the computer program was to fight what he sees as an increase in AI plagiarism (剽窃). Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, there have been reports of students using the language model to pass off AI-written assignments as their own. Many teachers have reached out to him after he released GPTZero, telling him about the positive results they’ve seen from testing it.
To determine whether an essay is written by a computer program, GPTZero uses two indicators: “confusion” and “burstiness (突发性)”. The first indicator measures the complexity of text; if GPTZero is confused by the text, then it has a high complexity and it’s more likely to be human-written. However, if the text is more familiar to GPTZero — because it’s been trained on such data — then it will have low complexity and therefore is more likely to be AI-generated. Besides, the second indicator compares the variations of sentences. Humans tend to write with greater burstiness, for example, with some longer or complex sentences alongside shorter ones. AI sentences tend to be more uniform.
In a demonstration video, Tian compared the App’s analysis of a story in The New Yorker and a Linked In post written by ChatGPT. It successfully distinguished writing between human and AI. However, GPTZero isn’t foolproof, as some users have reported when putting it to the test. He said he’s still working to improve the model’s accuracy.
Tian is not opposed to the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. GPTZero is “not meant to be a tool to stop these technologies from being used,” he said. “But with any new technologies, we need to be able to adopt it responsibly and we need to have protections.”
1. What have some students done since ChatGPT was released?| A．They have built language models from ChatGPT. |
| B．They have copied AI-written text from ChatGPT |
| C．They have accessed their assignments through ChatGPT. |
| D．They have passed their writing exams through ChatGPT. |
| A．The more uniform the text is, the more likely it is to be AI-generated. |
| B．The less complex the text is, the more likely it is to be human-written. |
| C．GPTZero sometimes confuses human-written texts with AI-generated texts. |
| D．GPTZero is more familiar with human-written texts than with AI-generated texts. |
| A．User-friendly. | B．Time-efficient. |
| C．Perfectly legal. | D．Completely reliable. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Disapproving. | C．Objective. | D．Ambiguous. |
4 . Sharon downsized her parents’ home and then cleared out her father’s stuff after he died. “So much of it hadn’t been used in years. So I decided that we wouldn’t do the same thing to our children.” Sharon spent six months looking over each object in her home. Each day, she sold, donated or threw one away. “It was liberating,” she said. “Now, life is much simpler and the clutter (杂乱) is gone.”
This process has its own reality TV show, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Inspired by a best-selling book by Magnusson, 89, three Swedes travel across the Atlantic to help Americans clean house and face death. “A loved one wishes to inherit (继承) nice things from you,” mentions Magnusson in her book, “not all things from you.” If you’re lucky enough to meet your material needs, then letting go of some of your stuff, or not buying it in the first place, can bring immediate benefits. The clutter is linked to stress and anxiety, even depression. Prioritizing relationships and experience over possessions has been proven to boost our happiness.
What is Swedish death cleaning? It isn’t about clearing out closets. It’s about rethinking your relationship with things. Rather than making do with less, it’s about getting more from the things that make you happy. Death cleaning happens to agree with scientists’ understanding of our relationship with things and why we’re unwilling to part with them. Decades of research has shown that we subconsciously see our possessions as physical extensions of ourselves. For most of us, of course, a degree of attachment is healthy, but it’s not the number of things or the quality that matters. It’s about the symbolic meaning of it. That can bring a lot of happiness.
Things take up space in our minds, well beyond what our storerooms and garages hold. By clarifying what’s important and what’s not, you make room. Your loved ones can receive what they might like before you go, relieving themselves of the burden of cleaning up once you’re gone.
1. Why does the author mention Sharon’s experience in paragraph 1?| A．To lead to the topic. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To support an argument. | D．To reach a conclusion. |
| A．To reduce the waste. | B．To remember their loved ones. |
| C．To boost their happiness. | D．To make the reality TV show. |
| A．The quantity. | B．The popularity. |
| C．The significance. | D．The degree of attachments. |
| A．Old Stuff: a Heavy Burden or a Sweet Memory. |
| B．Everyone’s Stuff: Physical Extensions of Himself. |
| C．The Way to Deal with Your Belongings: Give Away. |
| D．Swedes’ Secret to Happiness: You Aren’t Your Stuff. |
5 . Food polluted with fungi (真菌) can be an inconvenience at best and life-threatening at worst. But new research shows that removing just one protein can leave some fungal toxins (毒素) high and dry, and that’s potentially good news for food safety.
Some fungi produce toxic chemicals called mycotoxins that not only ruin food such as grains but can also make us sick. “It is a silent enemy,” said fungal researcher Ozgur Bayram of Maynooth University in Ireland, as most people don’t notice when foods like corn or wheat are ruined.
For years, researchers have known that some fungi produce these toxins, but didn’t know all the detail. Now, Bayram and his colleagues have identified a group of proteins responsible for turning on the production of mycotoxins. Genetically engineering the fungus to remove even just one of the proteins prevents the toxins from being made, the researchers reported in the September 23 issue of Nucleic Acids Research.
“The newly identified proteins act like a keystarting a car,” Bayram said. “The researchers wanted to figure out how to remove the key and prevent the starting signal from going through, meaning that no toxins would be made in the first place.”
Bayram and his team identified the proteins in a kind of fungus named A. nidulans, revealing that four proteins come together to make the key. The researchers genetically engineered the fungus to delete each protein in turn. When any of the four proteins are missing, the key does not start mycotoxin ignition(点火装置), the team found.
Fungi and fungi-like organisms are estimated to ruin a third of the world’s food crops each year. If that contamination could be prevented, Bayram estimates the saved food would be enough to feed 800 million people in 2024.
The new research is a good start, but it will still be a challenge to try to understand how this can be operationalized for agricultural purposes. “It’s difficult to apply the technique, and getting US regulatory agencies to approve the use of a genetically modified fungus on key food crops might be difficult,” said Felicia Wu a food safety expert.
1. Why is the mycotoxin called “a silent enemy”?| A．It is hard to be proved. | B．It tends to be unnoticed. |
| C．Its protein is harmful. | D．Its damage is incurable. |
| A．Pollution | B．Increase | C．Spread | D．Control |
| A．Changing the genes of fungus. | B．Putting the technique to practical use. |
| C．Enlarging the size of farmland. | D．Using genetically modified food. |
| A．Many crops are ruined by fungi each year. | B．Fungi bring great harm to people’s health. |
| C．Deleting a protein can stop toxin production. | D．Researchers found new proteins producing toxins. |
6 . One early morning, I was cleaning the bathroom shower curtain and its liner (衬布) when it hit me. I had to clean a two-dollar plastic liner because I didn’t have a few extra dollars to buy a new one. I couldn’t believe it! Complaining wasn’t how I would start the day, especially when the sun was shining.
To continue the day optimistically, I left the cleaning for my daily walk at the beach. Along the way through the down town area, something on the sidewalk caught my attention. I walked over and picked it up. It was a small paper bag with no markings, so it wasn’t possible to figure out who it belonged to. I assumed someone must have dropped it, perhaps while loading other bags into his/her car. I turned it over for any identification. No store name, but the brand marking on the front clearly specified it was a shower curtain liner!
Speechless, I turned it over many times in my hands. Believe it or not, it was really an unopened shower curtain liner. I just happened to be the person who walked by and found it on the sidewalk. It took me a few minutes to decide what to do next, not wanting to claim something that wasn’t mine. If I brought it to the police station across the street, the police might just share a good laugh over a two-dollar shower curtain liner. I decided to keep it for myself.
But I was still surprised because the worthless plastic liner that had needed cleaning inspired my complaint and an early morning walk had suddenly transformed itself into a gift on the sidewalk for me. How that moment brightened my day!
At home, my focus was on myself, my anxieties, and my limits in being able to fix the problem. Once outside, I relaxed in the perspective of a much bigger picture. My personal complaint changed to thankfulness for the beauty that extended before my eyes in the form of a brand-new shower curtain liner, which matched perfectly with my bathroom!
1. What is the purpose of the author going for a walk on the beach?| A．To seek a replacement for the liner. |
| B．To start her day in an optimistic way. |
| C．To get energetic for the day’s work. |
| D．To get relaxed after the heavy cleaning. |
| A．The curiosity of opening the bag. |
| B．The urge to keep it to herself. |
| C．The chance to find the owner. |
| D．The fear of being laughed at. |
| A．It was strange that a free liner should make her day. |
| B．The worthless liner turned out a gift from friends. |
| C．There was a special way for her financial support. |
| D．A chance meeting gave her confidence in life. |
| A．Learn to be grateful. | B．Fix the problem timely. |
| C．Avoid complaints. | D．Broaden your perspective. |
7 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.
The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.
The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.
The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.
It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.
1. What do the researchers focus on about the brain?| A．Its protecting system. | B．Its exposure to diseases. |
| C．Its controlling function. | D．Its connection to the body. |
| A．By explaining a theory. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By presenting cause and effect. |
| A．Cheaper. | B．More specific. |
| C．Safer. | D．More direct. |
| A．Brain health depends on immune changes. |
| B．Brain stimulation leads to negative emotions. |
| C．The brain can help enhance psychological health. |
| D．The brain may be key to treating physical diseases. |
8 . “The mountains are calling and I must go” — the famous quote is from John Muir(1838-1914), who is described as “the wilderness poet” and “the citizen of the universe.” He once jokingly referred to himself as a “poet-geologist-botanist and ornithologist (鸟类学家)-naturalist etc. etc.!” He is known as the Father of American National Parks.
Famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns recently said, “As we got to know him… he was among the highest individuals in America; I’m talking about the level of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thomas Jefferson— people who have had a transformational effect on who we are.”
So where is the quote from? Well, John Muir was a productive writer. Whether he was writing poetry or simply letters to his family, John Muir was always putting pen to paper. The quote is from within one of his many letters written to his sister:
September 3rd, 1873 Yosemite Valley Dear sister Sarah,I have just returned from the longest and hardest trip I have ever made in the mountains, having been gone over five weeks. I am weary, but resting fast; sleepy, but sleeping deep and fast; hungry, but eating much. For two weeks I explored the glaciers of the summits east of here, sleeping among the snowy mountains without blankets and with little to eat on account of its being so inaccessible. After my icy experiences, it seems strange to be down here in so warm and flowery a climate. I will soon be off again, determined to use all the season in carrying through my work—will go next to Kings River a hundred miles south, then to Lake Tahoe and surrounding mountains, and in winter work in Oakland with my pen. Though slow, someday I will have the results of my mountain studies in a form in which you all will be able to read and judge them. The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can, studying incessantly (永不停息地). I will write again when I return from Kings River Canyon. Farewell, with love everlasting. Yours, John |
1. What can we learn from John Muir’s self-description in paragraph 1?
| A．He longed to expand his own career. |
| B．He enjoyed his involvement in nature. |
| C．He wanted to find his real advantage. |
| D．He valued his identity as a poet most. |
| A．Muir’s political influence. | B．A documentary film on Muir. |
| C．Muir’s historic significance. | D．The social circle around Muir. |
| A．Relieved but regretful. | B．Exhausted but content. |
| C．Excited but lonely. | D．Defeated but hopeful. |
| A．To go on with his mountain studies. |
| B．To seek freedom from social connection. |
| C．To attend an appointment in Oakland. |
| D．To experience the hardship of wilderness. |
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1. Which of the following will restrict your access to NGS websites?| A．Gathering broad information. |
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| D．Using your IP address. |
| A．You will be still on NGS Services. |
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| C．You are sending information to another website or app. |
| D．Your privacy will be leaked by NGS Services. |
| A．Promotion of an application. | B．Advertisement for a computer. |
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10 . On the day he almost died, Kimbal Musk had food on the brain. The Internet startup talent and restaurateur had just arrived in Jackson Hole from a conference where chef Jamie Oliver had spoken about the benefits of healthy eating. This was something Musk thought about a lot — how he might make a difference to the food industry — but beyond expanding his farm-to-table movement along with his restaurant, Musk hadn’t yet broken the code. Then he went sailing down a snowy slope (坡) and fell over, breaking his neck. The left side of his body was paralyzed.
Musk eventually made a full recovery, but it involved spending two months on his back, which gave him plenty of time to come up with a plan. Since then, he has launched an initiative to put “learning gardens” in public schools across America; attracted Generation Z to the farming profession by changing shipping containers into high-tech, data-driven, year-round farms; and this year, is kicking off a new campaign to create one million at-home gardens.
Aimed at reaching low-income families, the Million Gardens Movement was inspired by the pandemic, as both a desire to feel more connected to nature and food insecurity have been at the forefront of so many people’s lives. “We were getting a lot of inquiries about gardening from people that had never gardened before,” says Musk. “People were looking to garden for a bunch of reasons: to supplement their budget, to improve the nutritional quality of their diets, or just to cure the boredom that came with the lockdown.”
The program offers free garden kits that can be grown indoors or outdoors, and will be distributed through schools that Musk’s non-profit, Big Green, has already partnered with. It also offers free courses on how to get the garden growing and fresh seeds and materials for the changing growing seasons. “I grew up in the projects when I was young, in what we now call food deserts,” says EVE, one of the many celebrities who have teamed up with the organization to encourage people to pick up a free garden. “What I love about this is that it’s not difficult. We are all able to grow something.”
1. What inspired Musk to make a difference to food industry?| A．A skiing accident. | B．Jamie Oliver’s lecture. |
| C．The pandemic. | D．The Million Gardens movement. |
| A．Advocating people to value nature. |
| B．Providing free food for low-income farming. |
| C．Launching “learning gardens”across America. |
| D．Educating new gardens to grow their own food. |
| A．confident | B．stubborn | C．charitable | D．ambitious |
| A．To encourage people to start a free garden. |
| B．To introduce his experience in a food desert. |
| C．To share free courses on getting garden growing. |
| D．To clarify the reason why he loves growing something. |
