1 . Jonathan Tiong came into the world with a rare disease that gradually damages muscles over time. A doctor
Yet, Tiong not only surpassed (超出) the doctor’s
Beginning his
Despite the
His goal is not to lower expectations for individuals with disabilities but to
A.required | B.organized | C.delivered | D.explored |
A.operation | B.prediction | C.dream | D.experience |
A.proudly | B.sadly | C.creatively | D.secretly |
A.joke | B.team | C.idea | D.position |
A.fought against | B.come by | C.shown off | D.figured out |
A.struggling | B.professional | C.unique | D.uncertain |
A.beat | B.meant | C.reduced | D.ended |
A.relief | B.fear | C.wisdom | D.anxiety |
A.responsibility | B.comparison | C.burden | D.difference |
A.loneliness | B.treatment | C.recognition | D.honesty |
A.unexpected | B.inspiring | C.terrible | D.amazing |
A.survive | B.overcome | C.observe | D.discover |
A.quietly | B.obviously | C.originally | D.regularly |
A.challenge | B.spread | C.define | D.confirm |
A.advancing | B.contributing | C.battling | D.succeeding |
2 . From Wi-Fi-connected home security systems to smart toilets, the so-called Internet of Things (IOT) brings personalization and convenience to devices that help run homes. But with that come batteries that need to be replaced frequently. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Energy Materials have brought solar panel technology indoors to power smart devices. They show which photovoltaic (PV) (光伏) systems work best under cool white LEDs, a common type of indoor lighting.
Indoor lighting differs from sunlight. Light bulbs are dimmer than the sun, and sunlight includes ultraviolet, infrared and visible light, while indoor lights typically shine light from a narrower region of the spectrum (光谱). Scientists have found ways to harness power from sunlight, using PV solar panels, but those panels are not the best for turning indoor light into electrical energy. Some next-generation PV materials have been tested with indoor light, but it’s not clear which are the most efficient at turning non-natural light into electricity.
So, the researchers compared a range of different PV technologies under the same type of indoor lighting. The researchers obtained eight types of PV devices, ranging from traditional amorphous silicon to thin-film technologies such as dye-sensitized solar cells. They measured each material’s ability to turn light into electricity, first under simulated sunlight and then under a cool white LED light.
Gallium indium phosphide (磷化镓铟) PV cells showed the greatest efficiency under indoor light, turning nearly 40% of the light energy into electricity. As the researchers had expected, the gallium-containing material’s performance under sunlight was proper relative to the other materials tested due to its large band gap.
Gallium indium phosphide has not been used in commercially available PV cells yet, but this study points to its potential beyond solar power, the researchers say. However, they add that the gallium-containing materials are expensive and may not serve as a viable mass product to power smart home systems. Additionally, in the study, the researchers identified that part of the indoor light energy produced heat instead of electricity — information that will help improve future PVs to power indoor devices.
1. What normally goes hand in hand with home IOT?A.Abandoned batteries. | B.A huge electricity-free device. |
C.Inexpensive indoor solar panels. | D.A common type of indoor lighting. |
A.Track. | B.Hide. | C.Employ. | D.Prevent. |
A.They are accessible and affordable for the public. |
B.They actually produce heat instead of electricity. |
C.They show little efficiency under indoor light. |
D.They are not perfect enough to be popularized. |
A.Solar Panel Technology Is Losing Its Dominant Place |
B.Gallium-containing Materials Are Running Out Rapidly |
C.Internet of Things Are Greatly Influencing Our Daily Life |
D.PV Systems Are Stepping Indoors to Power Smart Devices |
3 . Artificial intelligence is almost twice as accurate as a biopsy (活组织检查) at judging the aggressiveness of some cancers, experts say. Cancer kills 10 million people globally every year, according to the WHO. But for patients the disease can be prevented if detected instantly and dealt with quickly.
A recent study suggested an AI algorithm (算法) was far better than a biopsy at correctly grading the aggressiveness of sarcomas (肉瘤), a rare form of cancer. Researchers hope AI will improve outcomes for patients by giving doctors a more accurate way of grading tumours (肿瘤). Because high-grade tumours can indicate aggressive disease, the tool could help ensure those high-risk patients are identified more quickly and treated instantly. Low-risk patients could also be spared unnecessary treatments, follow-up scans and hospital visits.
Researchers say the algorithm could be applied to other types of cancer in future. The team specifically looked at retroperitoneal sarcomas, which develop at the back of the abdomen and are difficult to diagnose (诊断) and treat due to their location. They used CT scans from 170 patients with the two most common forms of retroperitoneal sarcoma — leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma. Using data from these scans they created an AI algorithm, which was then tested on 89 patients in other countries. In grading how aggressive the tumour was, the technology was accurate in 82% of the cases, while biopsies were 44%.
AI could also recognize leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma in 84% of sarcomas tested, while radiologists were able to identify them in 65% of the cases. Christina Messiou, the study leader, said: “We’re incredibly excited by the potential of this state-of-the-art technology, which could lead to patients having better outcomes through faster diagnosis. As patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma are routinely scanned with CT, we hope this tool will eventually be used globally, ensuring that not just specialist centres can reliably identify and grade the disease.”
Richard Davison, chief executive of Sarcoma UK, said the results looked “very promising”. He added: “People are more likely to survive sarcoma if diagnosed early. One in six people with sarcoma cancer wait more than a year to receive an accurate diagnosis, so any research that helps patients receive better treatment and support is welcome.”
1. According to the passage, AI is capable of .A.grading the risk of sarcomas |
B.measuring the scale of sarcomas |
C.providing cancer treatment for clinicians |
D.classifying cancers with its advanced algorithm |
A.More sarcomas can be detected with the help of AI. |
B.Biopsies will be replaced by AI algorithm in identifying cancers. |
C.More patients suffering from cancers will benefit from AI algorithm. |
D.AI algorithm has been applied in hospitals for detecting most cancers. |
A.AI has a profound market in curing cancers. |
B.New treatments for sarcomas are well underway. |
C.AI helps identify high-risk and low-risk patients. |
D.AI does better in assessing some types of sarcomas. |
4 . Last year, my friend, Kydee Williams, and I started a non-profit project because we wanted to do charity work differently. Thus, The Pop-Up Care Shop was
TPUCS is a traveling shop of
From our experience, we learned smaller shelters, especially those in less-commercialized areas were often
While material things like food, clothes, money, and shelter can help people survive, what
A.found | B.donated | C.born | D.purchased |
A.cheap | B.free | C.value | D.messy |
A.quit | B.chose | C.forbade | D.held |
A.homeless | B.fearless | C.guiltless | D.restless |
A.Ceasing | B.Highlighting | C.Starting | D.Monitoring |
A.hard | B.fun | C.odd | D.core |
A.crucial | B.unnecessary | C.impossible | D.logical |
A.breaking down | B.giving back | C.keeping up | D.pulling through |
A.ignored | B.emphasized | C.mentioned | D.estimated |
A.harmful | B.relevant | C.opposed | D.open |
A.shoppers | B.pioneers | C.officers | D.volunteers |
A.reliable | B.selfless | C.creative | D.courageous |
A.understand | B.satisfy | C.anticipate | D.illustrate |
A.originally | B.slightly | C.truly | D.barely |
A.identify | B.detect | C.reveal | D.make |
5 . Researchers have long known that the brain links kinds of new facts, related or not, when they are learned about the same time. For the first time, scientists have recorded routes in the brain of that kind of contextual memory, the frequent change of thoughts and emotions that surrounds every piece of newly learned information.
The recordings, taken from the brains of people awaiting surgery for epilepsy (癫痫), suggest that new memories of even abstract facts are encoded (编码) in a brain-cell order that also contains information about what else was happening during and just before the memory was formed.
In the new study, doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University took recordings from a small piece of metal implanted in the brains of 69 people with severe epilepsy. The implants allow doctors to pinpoint the location of the flash floods of brain activity that cause epileptic happening. The patients performed a simple memory task. They watched a series of nouns appear on a computer screen, and after a brief disturbance recalled as many of the words as they could, in any order. Repeated trials, with different lists of words, showed a predictable effect: The participants tended to remember the words in groups, beginning with one and recalling those that were just before or after.
This pattern, which scientists call the contiguity effect, is similar to what often happens in the card game concentration, in which players try to identify pairs in a row of cards lying face-down. Pairs overturned close are often remembered together. The way the process works, the researchers say, is something like reconstructing a night’s activities after a hangover: remembering a fact (a broken table) recalls a scene (dancing), which in turn brings to mind more facts, like the other people who were there.
Sure enough, the people in the study whose neural (神经) updating signals were strongest showed the most striking pattern of remembering words in groups. “When you activate one memory, you are reactivating a little bit of what was happening around the time the memory was formed, and this process is what gives you that feeling of time travel,” said Dr Michael J. Kahana.
1. What does “contextual memory” refer to according to the text?A.Memories about the past facts. |
B.Unrelated facts linked together. |
C.Ideas and feelings around new facts. |
D.New facts encoded into brain alone. |
A.To track the brain activity of contextual memory. |
B.To find the brain activity causing epilepsy. |
C.To show the formation of memory. |
D.To test the new cure for epilepsy. |
A.Implication. | B.Similarity. | C.Contrast. | D.Neighborhood. |
A.The feature of the research method. | B.The category of the research subjects. |
C.A brief summary of the research process. | D.A further explanation of the research results. |
6 . Nowadays, the world is slowly becoming a high-tech society and we are now surrounded by technology. Facebook and Twitter are innovative tools; text messaging is still a somewhat existing phenomenon and even e-mail is only a flashing spot on the screen when compared with our long history of snail mail. Now we adopt these tools to the point of essentialness, and only rarely consider how we are more fundamentally affected by them.
Social media, texting and e-mail all make it much easier to communicate, gather and pass information, but they also present some dangers. By removing any real human engagement, they enable us to develop our abnormal self-love without the risk of disapproval or criticism. To use a theatrical metaphor (隐喻), these new forms of communication provide a stage on which we can each create our own characters, hidden behind a fourth wall of tweets, status updates and texts. This unreal state of unconcern can become addictive as we separate ourselves a safe distance from the cruelty of our fleshly lives, where we are imperfect, powerless and insignificant. In essence, we have been provided not only the means to be more free, but also to become new, to create and project a more perfect self to the world. As we become more reliant on these tools, they become more a part of our daily routine, and so we become more restricted in this fantasy.
So it is that we live in a cold era, where names and faces represent two different levels of closeness, where working relationships occur only through the magic of email and where love can start or end by text message. An environment such as this reduces interpersonal relationships to mere digital exchanges.
Would a celebrity have been so daring to do something dishonorable if he had had to do it in person? Doubtful. It seems he might have been lost in a fantasy world that ultimately convinced himself into believing the digital self could obey different rules and regulations, as if he could continually push the limits of what’s acceptable without facing the consequences of “real life.”
1. What can we know about new communication tools?A.Destroying our life totally. | B.Posing more dangers than good. |
C.Helping us to hide our faults. | D.Replacing traditional letters. |
A.Sheltering us from virtual life. | B.Removing face-to-face interaction. |
C.Leading to false mental perception. | D.Making us rely more on hi-tech media. |
A.Technologies have changed our relationships. |
B.The digital world is a recipe for pushing limits. |
C.Love can be better conveyed by text message. |
D.The digital self need not take responsibility. |
A.Addiction to the Virtual World | B.Cost of Falling into Digital Life |
C.Interpersonal Skills on the Net | D.The Future of Social Media |
7 . “The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived,” the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said after scientists confirmed July 2023 was the world’s hottest month on record.
“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on Thursday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is clear that humans are to blame. Climate change is here, it is terrifying, and it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
Guterres urged politicians to take swift action. “The air is unbreathable, the heat is unbearable, and the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable. Leaders must lead. No more hesitancy, no more excuses, and no more waiting for others to move first. There is simply no more time for that.”
“It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5℃and avoid the very worst of climate change but only with dramatic, immediate climate action. We have seen some progress, but none of this is going far enough or fast enough. Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action.”
The WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas, said, “The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is more urgent than ever before. Climate action is not a luxury but a must.”
Other climate scientists confirmed the findings. Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University found the world was 1.5℃ hotter in July 2023 than in the average July before industrialisation.
Marina Romanello, a climate and health researcher at University College London, said, “We have data showing how the very foundations of health are being undermined by climate change. But we still have time today to turn the tide and to ensure a liveable future for us and our children.”
1. What made Guterres feel worried?A.Global economy. | B.Natural disasters. |
C.Serious pollution. | D.Rising temperatures. |
A.To appeal to quick action. | B.To change people’s concept. |
C.To frighten the general public. | D.To make his report vivid. |
A.By analyzing some facts. | B.By quoting some experts. |
C.By offering statistics. | D.By giving explanations. |
A.Global Bailing: It Is Time to Act. |
B.Global Boiling: Who Is to Blame? |
C.Global Boiling: It Isn’t That Serious |
D.Global Boling: What Measure n Should Be Taken? |
8 . American researchers say they have developed a method to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the sea. The researchers say the process can be an additional way to help reduce CO2 from the environment to fight the effects of climate change.
Plants and currents in the ocean absorb large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. The sea is estimated to have drawn in about 30 percent of carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. But carbon emissions also make oceans more acidic (酸性的). It can hurt coral reefs, which are sensitive to ocean acidity. Reef damage then do damage to the growth of many kinds of sea life.
Gaurav Sant, director of UCLA’s Institute for Carbon Management, said the technology is meant to use the ocean’s natural abilities to reduce carbon levels in the sea. The process sends an electrical charge through seawater flowing through tanks on a large boat. That sets off a series of chemical reactions that turn the carbon emissions into a solid mineral that includes calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). The seawater then returned to the ocean and can pull more carbon dioxide out of the air. The calcium carbonate settles to the sea floor.
The process has already been demonstrated in California. Researchers are working on plans to launch another project in Singapore. The two projects are expected to be fully operational by 2025. Researchers say they are expected to remove thousands of tons of CO2 per year. If successful, the plan is to build additional centers to remove millions of tons of carbon each year.
But experts say even if that amount of carbon can be removed, that is still thousands of times less than what will be needed to effectively reduce climate change. Margaret Leinen, director of an ocean research center, said, “While the process will likely be effective, I question how much effect it will have on climate change over a long period.” Sant said the success of such technology will greatly rely on “how fast you can build the centers”.
1. What can we learn about carbon emissions from the text?A.Most of them are taken in by the oceans. |
B.They can harm many kinds of sea life indirectly. |
C.Removal of them poses a serious threat to coral reefs. |
D.They will decrease ocean acidity when absorbed by seawater. |
A.How a series of reactions form. |
B.How an electrical charge is sent. |
C.How the carbon emissions turned into a solid material. |
D.How the ocean reduces carbon levels with its own natural abilities. |
A.Opposed. | B.Concerned. | C.Approving. | D.Disbelieving. |
A.The approaches to protecting coral reefs. |
B.The construction of industrial-sized centers. |
C.The process of reducing CO2 from the environment. |
D.The techniques to remove calcium carbonate from the sea floor. |
9 . Humans can make do with scarves, coats and gloves in cold weather. Some animals can hibernate (冬眠) for the winter. A new study finds that reptiles (爬行动物) and birds do something that is similar to hibernation, but a little different. In very cold weather, their body temperatures greatly drop into an energy-saving state in order to survive. The ability to thermoregulation (体温调节) for reptiles and birds is possible.
In Texas, where the city of Beaumont reached a low of 18 degrees Fahrenheit last month, it looked as if alligators (短吻鳄) had died of cold — yet alive in iced-over water. By ensuring their long noses stayed above the water line, the cold-blooded creatures were able to lower their body temperatures to survive the sudden short period of very cold weather. The process, in the case of cold-blooded animals like reptiles, is called brumation — it’s like a short state of hibernating. While in this state, reptiles become sleepy and they can go for a long time without eating or drinking. For example, alligators can be in brumation from just a few hours to months.
Like reptiles and mammals, birds can go into a state called torpor in order to save energy under very cold conditions. “Torpor is somewhere between a short sleep and hibernation,” said Justin Baldwin, a PhD candidate in biology at Washington University in St. Louis. Baldwin studied 29 species of hummingbirds living in Colombia. Researchers found that hummingbirds can enter into deep or shallow torpor, depending on several factors, including their size and weather conditions. In deep torpor, the birds are much more likely to be affected by disease. And what’s more, they would be easily harmed by their enemies.
Some bird lovers want to help the birds when they are in torpor. For example, the Bird Alliance of Oregon offers a few tips on how to keep the birds from danger.
1. What does the new study show?A.Body temperature is important for animals. |
B.Thermoregulation exists in reptiles and birds. |
C.Reptiles and birds’ thermoregulation is unusual. |
D.Body temperature drops greatly during reptiles and birds’ sleep. |
A.They are active in brumation. | B.They are dead in cold weather. |
C.They face extinction in cold weather. | D.They eat and drink nothing in brumation. |
A.They can get enough sleep. | B.They may harm other birds. |
C.They may waste plenty of energy. | D.They may be under threat. |
A.Risks of animal hibernation. |
B.His opinions of the study about birds. |
C.Some detailed measures to protect the birds in torpor. |
D.Other problems raised by cold weather. |
10 . Do you love fossils and dinosaurs? I’m lucky enough to be a fossil preparator (化石制备师), which means I work with fossils, like removing rocks from fossils and gluing fossils together to make sure they’re not broken. Sometimes, we have dinosaur bones that need to be arranged and put back into place.
I like the job from the bottom of my heart. When we make “jackets” — these are things that store the fossils — we have to accurately and scientifically figure out how to make them for specific bones or fossils, which can be different shapes and artistic expression.
Since I was a kid, it’s been my dream to be a paleontologist (古生物学者). When I was 12, I went to this kind of event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science called Dinosaur Day. I got a chance to meet paleontologists. At the end, I asked, “Hey, can I volunteer?” And somehow, they let me, as long as a parent came with me. At 12 years old, I got to go to a fossil excavation (挖掘), and I got to work with dinosaur bones and fossils in the lab for the first time.
Fossils are very old. We don’t always get all the pieces. We’re working with something that’s incomplete, sometimes. We do our best to fit the pieces we know back together. And as for the pieces we don’t know, we don’t try to make anything up. But sometimes, we have a gap in a specimen (标本) and it needs support. We’ll put some material in there that’s clearly not fossil, so when people go to study it, they know not to study that part.
People would wonder how I find other kids, especially girls, who shared my interests when I was growing up. As a matter of fact, in my friend group, I was the only dinosaur girl. My friends were interested in other things, but they were all super supportive of my love for fossils.
1. Why does the author like her job?A.It is not a demanding job. | B.It combines both art and science. |
C.It is more artistic than scientific. | D.It is about collecting dinosaur bones. |
A.To show her path to follow her dream. | B.To prove her parents supporting her job. |
C.To present the barrier of achieving her dream. | D.To tell her easy access to achieving her dream. |
A.By burying them back in the ground. | B.By breaking and reconstructing them. |
C.By making them up with similar materials. | D.By filling their gaps with distinct materials. |
A.Cautious. | B.Understanding. | C.Independent. | D.Entertaining. |