1 . Barbara McClintock was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. She made important discoveries about genes and chromosomes(染色体).
Barbara McClintock was born in 1902 in Hartford, Connecticut. Her family moved to the Brooklyn area of New York City in 1908. Barbara was an active child with interests in sports and music. She also developed an interest in science.
She studied science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Barbara was among a small number of undergraduate students to receive training in genetics in 1921. Years later, she noted that few college students wanted to study genetics.
Barbara McClintock decided to study botany, the scientific study of plants, at Cornell University. She completed her undergraduate studies in 1923. McClintock decided to continue her education at Cornell. She completed the master’s degree in 1925. Two years later, she finished all her requirements for the doctorate degree.
McClintock stayed at Cornell after she completed her education. She taught students botany. The 1930s was not a good time to be a young scientist in the United States. The country was in the middle of the great economic depression. Millions of Americans were unemployed. Male scientists were offered jobs. But female geneticists were not much in demand.
An old friend from Cornell, Marcus Rhoades, invited McClintock to spend the summer of 1941 working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It is a research center on Long Island, near New York City. McClintock started a temporary job with the genetics department. A short time later, she accepted a perpetual position in the laboratory and got continual incomes. This gave her the freedom to continue her research without repeatedly asking for financial aid.
By the 1970s, her discoveries had had an effect on everything from genetic engineering to cancer research. McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of the ability of genes to change positions on chromosomes. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize.
1. When did McClintock get a doctorate degree?| A．In 1921. | B．In 1923. | C．In 1925. | D．In 1927 |
| A．male scientists were in great demand |
| B．male scientists were out of work |
| C．female geneticists were not in demand at all |
| D．young female scientists might have trouble finding a job |
| A．A permanent position in the laboratory. |
| B．A temporary job in the genetics department. |
| C．A job as a botany teacher. |
| D．A job to research cancer. |
| A．Because she received a degree in genes and chromosomes. |
| B．Because she contributed to genetic engineering and cancer research. |
| C．Because she made important discoveries about genes and chromosomes. |
| D．Because she was the first American woman who studied genes and chromosomes. |
2 . Birthdays at the Canadian Children’s Museum
The perfect place for a memorable birthday party!
Celebrate at the Canadian Children’s Museum with creative and fun-filled activities designed to excite the interest of children aged 3 to 12.
The party includes:
●One hour in a private party room;
●Admission to the museum;
●Unlimited time in the Children’s Museum (until closing);
●One hour animation(动画片)(Only with the “scene-Stealers” and “round the World” themed party. ) Payment is due(到期的)in full upon registration. Registration is required at least two weeks in advance.
Scene-Stealers (Ages 3 to 8)
Step into the spotlight (聚光灯)with a behind-the-scenes trip to the Canadian Children’s Museum Theatre. The Director will help you warm up with some theatre games, and teach you some stage skills to get you ready for the audience!
Cost: $190 for up to 10 kids and 2 adults; $10 for each extra child.
Around the World (Ages 4 to 7)
Take an unforgettable trip around the world to learn a traditional Mexican dance! This unforgettable journey through the International Village is packed with fun and creative activities for young adventurers.
Cost: $190 for up to 10 kids, and 2 adults; $10 for each extra child.
DIY Party (Ages 5 to 12)
DIY Party includes Museum admission, and one hour of free time in one of the Museum’s party rooms. A great choice for parents looking to plan their own activities!
Cost: $100 for up to 10 kids and 2 adults; $8 for each extra child.
1. What should you know about celebrating birthdays at the Canadian Children’s Museum?| A．It is for kids aged 3 to 7. |
| B．It provides animation in all parties. |
| C．It should be booked ahead of time. |
| D．It is required to be within one hour in the museum. |
| A．Make a new movie. | B．Learn some stage skills. |
| C．Visit the International Village. | D．Practice traditional paper-making art. |
| A．$100. | B．$116. | C．$190. | D．$210. |
3 . Wearable sensors (传感器) could one day interpret the gestures in sign language and translate them into English，providing a hightech solution to communication problems between deaf people and those who don't understand sign language.
Engineers at Texas A & M University are developing a wearable device that can sense movement and muscle activity in a person's arms. The device works by figuring out the gestures a person is making by using two sets of sensors：one that responds to the motion of the wrist and the other to the muscular movements in the arm. A program then wirelessly receives this information and changes the data into the English translation. “Most of the technology was based on visionbased or camerabased solutions,” said study lead researcher Roozbeh Jafari，an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Texas A & M University.
These existing designs, Jafari said，are not enough，because often when someone is talking with sign language，he or she is using hand gestures combined with specific finger movements.“I thought maybe we should look into combining motion sensors and muscle activation，”Jafari told Live Science. “And the idea here was to build a wearable device.”
The researchers have built a system that can recognize words that people use most commonly in their daily conversations. Jafari said that once the team starts expanding the program，the engineers will include more words that are less frequently used，in order to build up a more substantial vocabulary.
One drawback of it is that the system has to be “trained ” to respond to each individual that wears the device，Jafari said. This training process involves asking the user to repeat or do each hand gesture a couple of times，which can take up to 30 minutes to complete.
1. How does the new device work?| A．By figuring out gestures from fingers. |
| B．By connecting the wrist and the fingers. |
| C．By linking the arm and the fingers. |
| D．By collecting information from the wrist and the arm. |
| A．make it easier to monitor the gestures when people are talking |
| B．make the translation process faster |
| C．compete with existing designs |
| D．make it userfriendly |
| A．necessary | B．influential |
| C．extensive | D．essential |
| A．The device has greatly increased in sales. |
| B．The device still requires much improvement. |
| C．We should work out of 30 minutes. |
| D．We should be trained to respond quickly. |
4 . In 1845, a deadly disease struck the farms of Ireland, killing all the Lumper potato plants. In another place or time, the death of a single crop species might not have been so important. But in Ireland, in 1845, people depended almost on the potato for food. The death of one species caused a terrible famine. Now, some scientists are worried that such a famine could happen again.
Over the centuries, farmers have discovered thousands of different species of food crops. Some can be grown in very hot or cold climates. Others are not affected by certain diseases. However, you won’t find many of these species in your local supermarket. To feed the seven billion people on Earth, most farmers today are growing only species of plants that are easy to produce in large numbers. Meanwhile, thousands of other species are becoming extinct.
For example, in the Philippines, there were once thousands of varieties of rice; now fewer than 100 are grown there. Experts believe that over the past century, we have allowed more than half of the world’s food varieties to disappear.
One solution to this problem is to collect and store the seeds (种子) of as many different plant varieties as we can before they disappear. The idea was first suggested by Russian scientist Nikolay Vavilov. In the 1920s and 30s, he collected around 400,000 seeds. More recently, others are continuing the work he began.
In the U.S. state of Iowa, Diane Ott Whealy wanted to protect historic plant varieties. She started a place called Heritage Farm, where people can store and trade seeds.
More importantly, the people at Heritage Farm don’t just store the seeds; they plant them. By doing this, they are reintroducing foods into the marketplace that haven’t been grown for years. These food species are not just special in flavor. They also offer farmers food solutions for the future, from the past.
1. What caused many people to die in Ireland in 1845?| A．Food pollution. |
| B．Poisonous potatoes. |
| C．An incurable disease. |
| D．Lack of enough food. |
| A．Species of food crops. | B．Potato plants. | C．Farmers. | D．Seeds. |
| A．To show many food species have disappeared. |
| B．To explain how to increase food production. |
| C．To stress the importance of food diversity. |
| D．To prove the necessity of growing rice. |
| A．It’s dangerous to grow new food species. |
| B．The work started by Nikolay Vavilov was useless. |
| C．Storing seeds and planting them are both important. |
| D．Foods grown from older seeds are cheaper but taste bad. |
5 . Whenever I talk about personality in relation to choosing a career, some people complain (抱怨) like this: Those tests are so stupid. When I was in sixth grade, I took one of them and it said that I should be a farmer. While I don’t think I would be a very good farmer, the results are probably a lot more accurate (精确的) than I’d like to admit. At the time, it seemed unreasonable — I hated the outdoors and physical activities. Now, I think it might have had some points that fit my personality: I like planning (good for planning how to grow crops), working by myself (for those long days on an agricultural machine), and sometimes working on a team (for harvest time).
Watch out for any personality test that claims (声称) to be able to tell you what your dream job is by the type of animal you’d like to be, or from your favorite breakfast food as a child. While there are many personality assessments (评估) that are accurate, I’d like to say that they are a second step. The best choice is self-assessments.
Before finding ways to know your work preferences, it’s important to make a clear difference between liking a topic and liking the work. I once met a third-year marine (海洋的) biology student at a large state school in Ohio. He was placed into the Whale Watch program, where he found out that he became violently seasick on any kind of boat — a big disadvantage for a student who thought he wanted to study whales in the wild.
The best match is a career in which the major tasks of the work are the tasks you most enjoy doing and the topic is one of interest. If that career doesn’t exist, my advice would be to take the job where there is a skill match. In this way, you will succeed at the basic tasks of your job and perhaps become interested in it.
1. What is some people’s opinion on choosing a career through personality tests?| A．It’s possible to lead to career failure. |
| B．It’s helpful only in a limited way. |
| C．It’s unreasonable. |
| D．It’s worth a try. |
| A．She admits it forecasts her present job accurately. |
| B．She thinks it shows some part of her personality. |
| C．She finds it helpless for her. |
| D．She has little interest in it. |
| A．Taking personality tests on your favorite things. |
| B．Doing accurate personality assessments. |
| C．Trying your dream job in practice. |
| D．Finding it out by yourself. |
| A．He disliked the job. |
| B．He felt sick traveling on a boat. |
| C．He was afraid of marine animals. |
| D．He knew little about his preferences. |
6 . It was about five in the morning in Ontario，Canada，when Donna Strickland's phone rang. The Nobel Prize committee was on the line in Stockholm，calling to tell her she had won the prize in physics.
“I wondered if it was a joke，” Strickland said in an interview with a Nobel official after the call. She had been asleep when the call arrived. “Something was wrong because it came so early in the morning. But then I knew it was the right day，and it would have been a cruel joke.”
Strickland，an associate professor at the University of Waterloo，shares the honor with two other scientists for their work in the 1980s in transforming lasers (激光) into tiny tools that today have countless applications. The prize money of $1.4 million will be shared among the three. Half of the prize went to Strickland and her cooperator Gérard Mourou，a professor at the École Poly technique in France. The other half was awarded to Arthur Ashkin，a retired physicist who worked at the famous Bell Labs in the United States.
Strickland's win is historic in more than one way. It's been over 55 years since a woman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics last time. And she is only the third woman to receive the prize in the Nobel's over 117year existence. In 1903，Marie Curie became the firstever woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics.For the next 60 years，no women physicists were awarded. Maria GoeppertMayer became the second woman physicist to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963.
Strickland herself was surprised to learn she was the third woman to receive the honor in physics. “Is that all，really？I thought there might have been more，” she said at a press conference Tuesday. “We need to celebrate women physicists，because we're out there. Hopefully，in time，it will start to move forward at a faster rate.”
1. What was Donna's first reaction when told she won the Nobel Prize?| A．She felt all efforts paid off. |
| B．She was skeptical of the news. |
| C．She was too excited to say a word. |
| D．She was annoyed at being awaken up. |
| A．About $350，000. |
| B．About $700，000. |
| C．About $1.4 million. |
| D．About $2.8 million. |
| A．Strickland's achievements in physics. |
| B．The history of the Nobel Prize in Physics. |
| C．The struggle of women physicists to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. |
| D．Three women scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in history. |
| A．The Nobel Prize in Physics. |
| B．The achievement of women physicists. |
| C．The celebration of the Nobel Prize winners. |
| D．Awarding women physicists the Nobel Prize in Physics. |
7 . I don’t post recognizable pictures of my children on social media. I don’t use their names. I don’t put anything out there that will be really embarrassing for them in later life.
The reason for not posting pictures is that I feel a person’s pictures should be his or her own. It’s not good for me to push my kids out into the wilds of the Web before they’re ready, and understand what it all means.
When the time comes, they’re more than welcome to use social media. But for now, I’m happy to give them a degree of separation until they can make a choice for themselves.
This has meant extra efforts on our part when it comes to making sure that kids don’t get accidentally caught up in the Internet, because the schools where they learn, like so many others up and down the country, post their pictures to social media.
However, my husband thought I was overanxious and asked me a question about its advantages. And having thought about it for while, I’m not 100 percent sure if there are any.
But I could list the disadvantages: the time it takes to manage an account, often by a teacher, meaning extra work; the unavoidable difficulties in safeguarding.
It’s great to see the kids doing their things in schools but my worry is about the use of social media that doesn’t give anything back to the kids, and in many ways, just turns them into another way to gain clicks. I want more than that for them.
1. Why is the author unwilling to post her kids’ picture online?| A．To push her kids into the wilds of the Web. | B．To avoid being recognized |
| C．To make herself embarrassed. | D．To protect her kids’ privacy. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Unfavorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Worried. |
| A．To prove the author is knowledgeable. | B．To show social media has disadvantages. |
| C．To advise the author to list what she thinks. | D．To help the author solve her problem. |
| A．Teachers will take on extra work. | B．Parents will have lots of things to do |
| C．Kids’ safety will be protected effectively. | D．Kids will become famous due to clicks. |
8 . I thought I knew a lot about Hamlet.As an English literature major,I have to!Having seen quite a few productions of Hamlet and read the play many times,I was full of confidence-until Peking Opera came to town!
Peking Opera has over two hundred years of history,so does this mean it's easier than a Shakespeare play to understand?To find out the answer,I just had to go and see The Revenge of Prince Zidan- the Peking Opera version(版本）of Hamlet.
The opera brought a completely new sound to my Western ears.At first,I thought it was a violin.but later I learnt that it was a traditional Chinese instrument called jinghu.Then. seeing the characters in fantastic costumes and masks,I was amazed!They of course sang in Chinese,but the music and exaggerated movements helped get the meanings across to the audience.The voices sounded really unique-some of the female voices were so high that I was sure they could break glass!
Easily my favourite part of the show was how the characters moved on stage.I had never seen Prince Hamlet do a backflip(后空翻）before!It was so dazzling and energetic that I wasn't sure if the characters were performers or athletes!
Before experiencing The Revenge of Prince Zidan,I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it.But, in fact,I was on the edge of my seat!Feeling the strong emotions of love,anger,fear and grief in the performance,I could easily recognize the theme of Hamlet.So,if you want to see a show that combines music,singing,drama,poetry and costume design with explosive effect, The Revenge of Prince Zidan ticks all the right boxes!
1. Why did the author go to see The Revenge of Prince Zidan?| A．To have a full understanding of Hamlet. |
| B．To know about Shakespeare and his works. |
| C．To prove Peking Opera is a better way to perform Hamlet. |
| D．To see if Peking Opera is more understandable than English plays. |
| A．The music effect. |
| B．The costume design. |
| C．The performers'movements. |
| D．The Chinese instrument jinghu. |
| A．I became tired of the show. |
| B．I missed the best of the show. |
| C．I was held spellbound by the show. |
| D．I was to leave halfway through the show. |
| A．It's puzzling. |
| B．It's impressive. |
| C．It's humorous. |
| D．It's disappointing. |
9 . Great Activities for Nature Lovers
Hiking
One of the easiest and most accessible ways to get close to nature is by setting out on a good old fashioned hike. Hiking generally doesn’t require any fancy equipment or special skills, just a piece of map and a thirst for adventure. This activity can be as relaxing as you make it.
Backcountry Camping
Why limit yourself to just a day hike when you can have a full weekend (or longer) adventure? Backcountry camping involves packing your tent, sleeping gear, food, and water on your back to set up camp in a remote location. If you’re an experienced hiker and camper, this is an excellent way to test your survival skills and explore the wilderness.
Mountain and Road Biking
Unlike long hikes through the woods, biking allows you to cover more ground and travel farther in nature. Mountain biking typically involves riding up and down steep slopes, between trees, and over rocks. If this sounds too intense or your tires aren’t suited for rugged terrain, consider taking a road bike on paved trails through forest preserves or along country roads.
Gardening
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to travel beyond your own backyard to experience the beauty of nature every day. If your personality is less adventurous or your mobility restricted, consider planting a garden to grow your own vegetables, fruits, herbs, or flowers. There’s something truly satisfying about mixing up a salad with fresh ingredients you grew yourself. One of the best parts about spending time in nature is that it doesn’t have to break your budget and anyone can do it.
1. What does hiking need for hikers?| A．A world map. | B．A strong desire. |
| C．Practical skills. | D．Necessary equipment. |
| A．To a backyard. | B．To a forest. |
| C．To a mountain. | D．To a distant place. |
| A．Hiking | B．Backcountry Camping |
| C．Gardening. | D．Mountain and Road Biking |
10 . Australians are pretty bold (大胆的) when it comes to humor. Not afraid of saying something insulting (冒犯的) in the name of a good laugh, they generally don’t hold back. This is always done in fun, however.
You get yourself a haircut before going to meet your new Aussie friend. You’re expecting to be praised. but what you hear is, “Did ya have a fight with a lawnmower (割草机)?” You might take this as an insult, but it’s just your friend’s way of saying that you’ve had a haircut.
Your friend comes knocking at your bedroom door one morning to tell you’re late for class. You were up studying late the night before and you look a mess. Your friend thinks you need to put a brush through your hair before leaving, but instead of just saying so he says, “Wow. Your hair looks like a bush pig’s arse.”He’s trying to be nice.
Australia is one of cultures on this planet where making fun of someone is a sign of friendship. If you find yourself being made fun of lots, it could be that you’ve scored yourself a whole lot of new friends. Consider yourself lucky — these insults are all part of building a relationship.
Australians also use a lot of sarcasm (讽刺). You foolishly say something that’s obvious (明显的). For example, “A six pack of beer is named after the number of beers you get in the pack, the number being six.” A normal answer would be, “That is the most obvious statement I’ve ever heard”, but an Australian would say, “Really? You’ re so clever”.
Now let’s say your teacher tells you that there will be a test the following day. Australians might say, “Great. I can’t wait to add preparing for a test to my already long to-do list. Thank you for this gift”.
1. According to Paragraphs 2 and 3, Australians try to be humorous_______.| A．by telling funny jokes | B．by making fun of friends |
| C．by laughing at themselves | D．by showing unfriendliness |
| A．Accept it readily. | B．Fight back bravely. |
| C．Mind your behavior. | D．End the relationship. |
| A．Dislike. | B．Worry . |
| C．Gladness. | D．Thankfulness. |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By providing examples. | D．By examining differences. |
