1 . We recognize our friends’ faces. And we’re not alone. Many social animals can identify individuals of their own species by features of their faces. That's important, because they need to be able to change their behavior depending on who they meet. And a recent research has shown that some species of monkeys, birds, and domesticated (家养的) animals can even tell different faces apart by looking at photographs alone.
Ethologist Léa Lansade of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment did an experiment to find out how well horses can recognize individual people in photographs.
She and her team first taught the horses how to “choose” between two side-by-side pictures by touching their noses to a computer screen. The horses were then shown photos of their present keeper alongside faces of unfamiliar humans. They had never seen photos of any of the people before. The horses correctly identified their current keeper and ignored (忽视) the stranger’s face about 75%of the time. In fact, even though the horses didn't get it right every single time, they were at least as correct in picking out their earlier keeper as they were at identifying their present one.
The results suggest that not only can horses differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human faces, they also naturally understand that photographs are two dimensional representations (二维呈现) of real life, without any other intimations such as smell or sound. And they’re even better at this than our oldest animal parter, the domestic dog.
In addition, horses seem to have a strong long-term memory for human faces, like their long lifespan and history of domestication. In future experiments, the researchers would like to test whether looking at photos of people that they have had bad experiences with in the past might cause horses to act anxious or even avoidance. So maybe think twice before doing anything that might give a horse a long face.
1. Why did researchers show the horses both the keeper’s photos and the strangers’?| A．To find out what horses would do in the experiment. |
| B．To see why horses could recognize the keeper in the pictures. |
| C．To test whether horses could recognize the strangers in pictures. |
| D．To study to what degree horses can make out different people in pictures. |
| A．Clues. | B．Differences. |
| C．Photographs. | D．Senses. |
| A．Whether horses can live longer than other animals. |
| B．Whether horses can remember human's faces for a long time. |
| C．Whether horses can show their emotions at the sight of photos. |
| D．Whether horses are better at recognizing photos than other animals. |
| A．To talk about animals’ species. |
| B．To explain animals’ facial features. |
| C．To show animals’ behaviour for adaptation. |
| D．To introduce animals’ ability to identifying faces. |
In Darrel Gregory’s encouraging picture book I’m Not Very Good at It, a mother suggests a means for her daughter to handle her low self-esteem.
The story centers on a downcast girl, who, when asked to do anything, tells herself, “Okay, but I’m not very good at it.” These words are voiced aloud whether she’s making a birthday card, baking, or helping her mother with a bird house. When her mother asks her why she responds in this manner, the girl replies, “Because that’s what my brain said.” Through a series of playful explanations, her mother advises her to listen to her heart instead. After a few attempts at practicing this new habit, the girl realizes that being good at something----or not!----is not as important as trying.
The story’s repetitive structure emphasizes its therapeutic message about stopping self-doubting talk and about practicing stillness. Though perfectionism and fear of failure are possible explanations for the girl’s behavior, the specific reasons and context for her self-doubt are absent. It is a depersonalized story whose heroine is generic, nameless, and tough to connect with. She is preschool-aged, but is asked to possess great self-awareness about her own personality and to shift her own features----it happens too early for a preschool-aged child, if not idealistic.
Ari Miller’s soft illustrations(插图) make the text vivid. Their detailed home scenes portray the girl’s activities. They are faithful depictions of the story that track the girl’s emotional change through subtle facial expressions. The girl’s mother is left out of these images, though her advice and support is one of the main features of the story.
Sincere in its description of growing past self-doubt, the picture book I’m Not Very Good At It encourages positive outlooks.
1. What type of writing is the text?| A．A report | B．An advertisement. |
| C．A review. | D．An announcement. |
| A．confident | B．shy | C．depressed | D．courageous |
| A．The girl follows her heart and grows stronger with few attempts. |
| B．The mother encourages her daughter to build up self-esteem. |
| C．Ari Miller’s illustrations describe the mother’s activities. |
| D．The story just centers on how to practice stillness. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Supportive. | C．Negative. | D．Critical. |
3 . Faster, cheaper, better-technology is one field many people rely upon to offer a vision of a brighter future. But as the 2020s dawn, optimism is in short supply. The new technologies that dominated the past decade seem to be making things worse. Social media were supposed to bring people together, but they are better known for leaking privacy. E-commerce, ride-hailing (网约车) and the gig economy (零工经济) may be convenient, but they are charged with underpaying workers, worsening inequality and blocking the streets with vehicles.
Today's pessimistic mood is centered on smart phones and social media, which took off a decade ago. Yet concerns that particular technologies might be doing more harm than good have arisen before. The 1920s witnessed a criticism against cars, which had earlier been seen as an answer to the problems caused by horse-drawn vehicles which filled the streets with noise and animal waste and caused accidents. And industrialization was criticized in the 19th century by Romantics who worried about the replacement of skilled workers, the robbing of the countryside and the suffering of factory hands.
However, that pessimism can be overdone. Too often people focus on the drawbacks of a new technology while taking its benefits for granted. Worries about screen time should be weighed against the much more substantial benefits of convenient communication and the instant access to information and entertainment that smartphones make possible. A further danger is that Luddite (反对技术进步者) efforts to avoid the short-term costs associated with a new technology will end up denying access to its long-term benefits-something Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a "technology trap". Fears that robots will steal people's jobs may discourage their use. Yet in the long run countries that wish to maintain their standard of living as their workforce ages and shrinks will need more robots, not fewer.
Any powerful technology can be used for good or ill. It is the choices people make about it that shape the world. Perhaps the real source of anxiety is not technology itself, but growing doubts about the ability of societies to hold this debate, and come up with good answers. So as the decade turns, put aside the pessimism for a moment. To be alive in the tech-obsessed 2020s is to be among the luckiest people who have ever lived.
1. What phenomenon is described in Paragraph 1?| A．The seriousness of social inequality. |
| B．The rapid development of technology. |
| C．Problems brought by personal privacy leaks. |
| D．Worries about the influence of new technologies. |
| A．Negative. | B．Uncertain. | C．Sympathetic. | D．Enthusiastic. |
| A．A lack of good jobs in the job market. |
| B．An increase in the number of Luddites. |
| C．A decrease in the number of skilled workers. |
| D．An interruption to the advancement of a new technology. |
| A．Pessimism vs Progress | B．Technology vs Civilization |
| C．2020s: The Age of Technology | D．Robots: Our Future Caretakers |
4 . At the time of writing this, it's been eight days since I moved into my dorm room at Montclair State University. Commuting (通勤) or going online completely is not an option for me. I can't drive a car. And I am studying journalism, which is difficult to practice with online-only classes.
Few people are on campus. The school is doing phased move-ins. For the safety of students and staff,you have to fill out charts and forms telling the school exactly where you go and when you will move in.
Housing was not a big concern because the on-campus population has been halved. I moved in at the earliest time I could: Aug. 10. During that time, the only people I saw were joggers wheezing up the many hills around my school. To get my double room, I had to fill out an abundance of paperwork. I agreed that in the event that I get COVID-19, I'll move to a single room completely lacking in human contact, besides food delivery and online classes.
And then there was the food situation. It's unknown whether dining options will be open in time for our classes next week, and if they are, how they will be handled. The tables I spent many hours sitting at with friends have all but disappeared. There are plenty of floor signs at the canteen for all students to follow. Instead of sitting down to eat, it was grab-and-go. Pick whatever you want, and an employee will pack it for you in a box and a plastic bag.
But here on campus, it's the calm before the storm. Somehow, society hasn't collapsed. Cats and dogs are not raining from the sky. Pigs aren't flying. Right now, it's like a nature reserve. I've seen more birds, deer and squirrels than humans here.
My bizarre (怪异的) college situation leaves me with sleepless nights. Much like this whole pandemic (疫情),everything is just one day at a time.
1. What are students from Montclair State University required to do?| A．Report their whereabouts. | B．Fill out application forms. |
| C．Take online courses at dorms. | D．Move in as soon as possible. |
| A．He was infected with COVID-19. |
| B．There were not so many applicants. |
| C．He came earlier than any other students. |
| D．He submitted all the necessary paperwork. |
| A．Food will be delivered by an employee. |
| B．Students will have more choices next week. |
| C．Students are not allowed to eat at the canteen. |
| D．The canteen provides more tables and floor signs. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Concerned. |
| C．Relaxed. | D．Indifferent. |
5 . Inventor, physicist, surveyor, astronomer, biologist, artist... Robert Hooke was all these and more. Some say he was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century. In the course of his work, he cooperated with famous men of science like Isaac Newton, and the great architect, Christopher Wren.
Hooke’s early education began at home, under the guidance of his father. He entered Westminster School at the age of 13, and from there went to Oxford, where he came in contact with some of the best scientists in England. Hooke impressed them with his skills at designing experiments and inventing instruments. In 1662, at the age of 28, he was named Curator of Experiments at the newly formed Royal Society of London — meaning that he was responsible for demonstrating new experiments at the society’s weekly meeting. Hooke accepted the job, even though he knew that the society had no money to pay him!
Watching living things through a microscope was one of his favourite pastimes. He invented a compound microscope for this purpose. One day while observing a cork under a microscope, he saw honeycomblike structures. There were cells — the smallest units of life. In fact, it was Hooke who invented the term “cell” as the boxlike cells of the cork reminded him of the cells of a monastery．
Another achievement of Hooke’s was his book Micrographia, which introduced the enormous potential of the microscope. It contains fascinating drawings of the thing he saw under the microscope. The book also includes, among other things, ideas on gravity, light and burning that may have helped scientists like Newton when they were developing their own theories on these phenomena.
Hooke made a valuable contribution to astronomy too. A crater on the moon is named after him in honour of his services to this branch of science.
1. We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Hooke is ________.| A．friendly | B．sociable | C．creative | D．helpful |
| A．He liked designing experiments. | B．His family needed his support. |
| C．He wanted to please the famous scientists in England. | D．His parents couldn’t afford his education. |
| A．Hooke went to Oxford in 1645. | B．Hooke was well paid in the Royal Society of London. |
| C．Hooke made a contribution to medicine. | D．Hooke’s book Micrographia may have helped Newton. |
| A．Hooke was the greatest experimental scientist of the 17th century |
| B．Hooke was good at making discoveries |
| C．Hooke’s contributions were not limited to one field |
| D．Hooke was one of the greatest astronomers |
6 . 54-year-old Abdul has a special job. He has been working as a living statue (活体雕像) for over three decades, standing perfectly still for six hours a day and resisting people' s attempts to make him move or smile, anything that proves he is a living person.
Abdul, known as “India's Statue Man”, has been performing his daily routine ever since 1985, soon after getting a job as a security guard. His boss had recently traveled to the UK, where he was So impressed by the statue-like members of the Royal Guard outside Buckingham Palace that he wanted to do something similar back home. So he had his guards receive three months of training, where they would sit perfectly still for around four hours. They weren't allowed to talk or smile, eat, drink, or even shoo away a fly if it sat on their faces. In the end, Abdul proved the best of the group, So he got the strange job.
Abdul isn't the only person in the world acting as a living statue, but what makes him special is the fact that he can do it for as long as six hours without even blinking his eyes. Once, a $ 155 prize was put up for anyone who can make him move a muscle. But try as they might, no one has ever succeeded. Actually, Abdul tries to move about as much as he can in his spare time, and only eats healthy home-cooked food, to keep his body in shape. But he claims yoga has been the biggest help. In the 32 years, Abdul has become a famous person in India and other Asian countries. Many Bollywood stars have come to witness this living statue and try to finally make him move, but none have succeeded.
Abdul earns about 10,000 rupees ($ 156) a month, which is enough to support his family, but definitely not enough to encourage his children to follow in his footsteps. It's just too stressful and taxing on the body. “Despite all the hardship and health problems, I love my job and I am thankful to people for the love and respect they have showered on me” he says, “When the time comes, I want to die playing a statue.”
1. What is Abduls daily routine?| A．Proving to be a living person. | B．Performing as a living statue. |
| C．Smiling at his customers. | D．Keeping his body in shape. |
| A．He had his special ambition. | B．He was most familiar with the job. |
| C．He stood out among the group. | D．He knew the boss more than others. |
| A．He eats a lot of snacks. | B．He practices yoga for 12 hours a day. |
| C．He cooks for his family. | D．He always moves a lot. |
| A．It's satisfying. | B．It's overpaid. | C．It's boring. | D．It's instructive. |
7 . When you visit Kinderdijk, one of the most visited villages in the Netherlands, you step right into the middle of Dutch history.
Kinderdijk lies in the Alblasserwaard, where the Lek and Noord rivers meet together. Much of the village is near or even below sea level. Although there are canals and dykes (堤坝), the lowlands of the village are still at risk of flooding (洪灾). Among the most deadly floods was Saint Elisabeth’s flood in 1421, which killed thousands after the dykes broke in several places. To deal with this kind of problem, the Kinderdijk windmills (风车) were built around 1740 to move water from the lower areas to higher ground and into the river.
Nineteen of the 20 Kinderdijk windmills remain and were named a UNESCO World Heritage (遗产) Site in 1997. Of the 19 windmills, 16 still have millers who live inside and control the huge sails (翼板) in the wind. These windmills continue to help manage the Netherlands ongoing fight to stay above water.
For tourists, boat tours are offered along the canals and walkways lead from the visitor center to the windmills. Two windmills serve as museums, filled with old millers’ items and photos. You can climb up inside to see how the windmills work. The windmills also are working, so be prepared to feel the whole building shake when the sails turn in the wind.
Each year, about 500,000 people visit the Kinderdijk windmills and the buildings have become a must-see on any trip to the Netherlands. There are some windmills north of Amsterdam that “were built for tourists, but we’re a historical site where tourists come, so it’s the other way around,” says Kinderdijk communications manager Peter Paul Klapwijk. “Tourism is a good way to support our site.”
1. Why were the Kinderdijk windmills built around 1740?| A．To protect dykes. | B．To produce clean water. |
| C．To prevent floods. | D．To keep the sea level from rising. |
| A．Most of them are working as before. |
| B．Most of them have become museums. |
| C．Several of them have been sold to millers. |
| D．Several of them were destroyed long ago. |
| A．Fearful. | B．Worried. | C．Excited. | D．Surprised. |
| A．The history of Kinderdijk |
| B．A famous historical site |
| C．An amazing village of canals |
| D．The traditions of the Netherlands |
8 . Most of us marry creativity to our concept of self either we're "creative" or we aren't, without much of a middle ground. "I'm just not a creative person!" a frustrated student might say in art class, while another might blame her talent at painting for her difficulties in math, giving a comment such as, "I'm very right-brained."
Dr. Pillay, a tech entrepreneur and an assistant professor at Harvard University, has been challenging these ideas. He believes that the key to unlocking your creative potential is to ignore the traditional advice that urges you to "believe in yourself." In fact, you should do the opposite: Believe you are someone else.
Dr. Pillay points to a 2016 study demonstrating the impact of stereotypes on one's behavior; The authors. educational psychologists Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar, divided their college student subjects into three groups, instructing the members of one to think of themselves as "romantic poets" and the members of another to imagine they were "serious librarians" (the third group was the control). The researchers then presented all the participants with ten ordinary objects, including a fork, a carrot, and a pair of pants, and asked them to come up with as many different uses as possible for each one. Those who were asked to imagine themselves as romantic poets came up with the widest range of ideas, whereas those in the serious-librarian group had the fewest. Meanwhile, the researchers found only small differences in students' creativity levels across academic majors.
These results suggest that creativity is not a fixed individual characteristic but a "malleable product of context and perspective, as long as he or she feels like a creative person. Dr. Pillay argues that, besides identifying yourself as creative, taking the bold, creative step of imagining you are somebody else is even more powerful. So, wish you were more creative? Just pretend!
1. According to the passage， who is more likely to unlock his creative potential?| A．An art major who always believes in himself. |
| B．A math major who has excellent academic performance |
| C．A physics major who likes to imagine himself as a poet. |
| D．A history major who works as a librarian on weekends. |
| A．The creativity of the college students. |
| B．The stereotypes of the college students. |
| C．The impact of stereotypes on one's behavior |
| D．The influence of creativity on one's behavior. |
| A．stable | B．sustainable | C．predicable | D．changeable |
| A．there is no doubt that we are either creative or not |
| B．a student who doesn't do well in art class is not creative |
| C．right brain determines whether a person is creative or not |
| D．if we pretend to be creative， then we might be really creative |
9 . A new study, published in Music Education Research, examined whether an extended music education had an impact on pupils’ experienced satisfaction with school. Nearly 1,000 pupils at ten Finnish schools with extended music classes and comparison classes participated in a survey that measured the quality of school life at Year 3 and Year 6.
According to the results, the differences between the extended music classes and the comparison classes were significant at Year 6. But there were no differences between the groups at Year 3. The most likely explanation is the amount of music lessons which was four hours per week for the extended music classes and one lesson per week for the normal classes.
Merely attending an extended education class at Year 3 did not cause differences in school satisfaction. To explore whether belonging to any extended education class would have the same benefits, some extended education classes that focus on visual arts and sports were recently included in the analysis. However, school satisfaction in these classes did not differ from that in the normal ones at Year 6.
"Singing in a choir and group performance are popular activities at extended music classes. Other studies have established that people find it very satisfying to synchronize (合拍)with one another. That increases connection within the group and may even make people like each other. Other objects in the school do not have as much training in synchrony and cooperation as music lessons, which could explain part of the phenomenon,” says doctoral student Pävi-Sisko Eerola, at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
A particular answer may be that girls usually tend to give more positive scores on satisfaction with school and they also make up the majority of pupils at extended music classes. However, the gender differences do not fully explain the observed results. In fact, it seems that extended music classes improve the quality of school life more for boys than girls.
Maybe it’s impossible to adopt the Finnish music education system, but the benefits of having a few extra hours of art and self-expression via music every week are dramatic and necessary.
1. What did the new study find?| A．Elder kids are content with school when receiving more music lessons. |
| B．Extended music education is getting popular in many Finnish schools. |
| C．Primary pupils have different preference for the class arrangements. |
| D．Music education may have different functions in different grades. |
| A．They pay more attention to kids’ feelings and emotions. |
| B．They stress visual appreciation and physical activity. |
| C．They are extended to the same length and frequency. |
| D．They are attended by both younger and elder kids. |
| A．They can promote teamwork between students. |
| B．They can build good teacher-student relationship. |
| C．They effectively practice studenls’ singing skill. |
| D．They will develop students’ interest in music. |
| A．The researchers. | B．Music teachers. |
| C．Finnish students. | D．School administrators. |
10 . Some people usually say that the joy of giving is the joy of living. Tony March’s story shows how someone who has enthusiasm for philanthropy(乐善好施) can live joyously by doing what he loves: Helping the less fortunate to achieve lives of self-sufficiency(自给自足) and dignity. Tony March is a man who rose from great poorness to extreme wealth, while, at the same time, generously giving his wealth and his time to improve the situation of those who struggled to survive in the world in which he was raised.
At a time when human kindness and sympathy seem to be on the endangered behavior list, it is exhilarating to learn of a man like Tony and be reminded that caring individuals still exist, that the human spirit, firmly focused, can achieve wonders, and that one person’s desire to improve the human condition can have such a strong influence on improving the quality of life for tens of thousands of people.
Tony grew up without a father and was regularly beaten by an unloving mother, moving 17 times before he turned 10. He was always laughed at and had to help feed his family by working at a grocery store. Through all the mental and physical abuse, Tony didn’t give up and used education to break the poorness cycle and became the owner of 21 auto dealerships. “It is education that brings success to me,” he said.
When the Director of Metropolitan Ministries (a homeless shelfter) found out about Tony, he suggested that Mr. March “go public” with his story so that others, inspired by what he had done, would be more willing to give their talent, time and money to help the less fortunate as well. It was a persuasive argument that Tony finally accepted. His book, Paying It Backward, will be published soon.
Paying It Backward reminds us that one can live joyously by giving joyously and we all can do a part to help the less fortunate by giving our time, talent, and money for charitable causes.
1. What does the underlined word “exhilarating”mean?| A．Worrying | B．Disappointing | C．Puzzling | D．Exciting |
| A．Tony March’s parents loved him very much |
| B．education influenced Tony March very much |
| C．Tony March lived in the shelters until he was 10 |
| D．Tony March’s mother forced him to work in a grocery store |
| A．He wanted to make himself known to everyone |
| B．He wanted to sell his book to earn money. |
| C．He wanted more people to do good deeds. |
| D．He wanted more people to read more books. |
| A．Giving Back to Society Is Joyful |
| B．The Joy of Giving Is the Joy of Living |
| C．Living Joyfully Can Make a Big Difference |
| D．Giving Our Time And Money Is Important |
