1 . As the effects of climate change become more disastrous, well-known research institutions and government agencies are focusing new money and attention on an idea: artificially cooling the planet, in the hopes of buying humanity more time to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
That strategy, called solar climate intervention (干预) or solar geoengineering, involves reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space — abruptly reducing global temperatures in a way that imitates the effects of ash clouds flowing out from the volcanic eruptions. The idea has been considered as a dangerous and fancied solution, one that would encourage people to keep burning fossil fuels while exposing the planet to unexpected and potentially threatening side effects, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters.
But. as global warming continues, producing more destructive hurricanes, wildfires floods and other disasters, some researchers and policy experts say that concerns about geoengineering should be outweighed by the imperative to better understand it, in case the consequence of climate change become so terrible that the world can’t wait for better solutions.
One way to cool the earth is by injecting aerosols (气溶胶) into the upper layer of the atmosphere. where those particles reflect sunlight away from the earth. That process works, according to Douglas MacMartin, a researcher at Cornell University.
“We know with 100% certainty that we can cool the planet,” he said in an interview. What’s still unclear, he added, is what happens next. Temperature, MacMartin said, is an indicator for a lot of climate effects. “What does it do to the strength of hurricanes?” he asked, “What does it do to agriculture production? What does it do to the risk of forest fires?”
Another institution funded by the National Science Foundation will analyze hundreds of simulations of aerosol injection, testing the effects on weather extremes around the world. One goal of the research is to look for a sweet spot: the amount of artificial cooling that can reduce extreme weather events without causing broader changes in regional rainfall patterns or similar impacts.
1. Why do researchers and government agencies work on cooling the earth?| A．To prevent natural disasters. | B．To win more time to reduce gas emissions. |
| C．To imitate volcanic eruptions. | D．To encourage more people to bur fossil fuels. |
| A．More volcanoes will throw out. |
| B．More solar energy will go into space. |
| C．More disasters will endanger the future of the world. |
| D．People will keep burning fossil fuels to keep warm. |
| A．He thinks more research remains to be done. |
| B．He is optimistic about the effect of cooling the earth. |
| C．He is concerned about the reduction in agriculture production. |
| D．He disapproves of the practice of solar climate intervention. |
| A．The rainfall pattern of a region. |
| B．The modest drop in temperature. |
| C．The number of extreme weather events. |
| D．The injection amount of aerosol. |
2 . Imagine a world where you move around in front of a personal computer in your own sound space. You listen to your favorite songs, play loud computer games or watch a movie — all without other people hearing the sound and without headphones.
That is the possibility presented by “sound beaming”, a new technology from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. On Friday, the company introduced a desktop device that sends sound directly to a listener without the need for headphones or a special receiver.
Noveto Systems gave The Associated Press (AP) a chance to test its SoundBeamer 1.0 before its introduction. The AP’s Louise Dixon writes that listening to the device is like something from a science fiction movie.The sound seems so close that it feels like it is inside your ears while also in front, above and behind them.
Noveto expects the device will have many uses. Office workers could listen to music or conference calls without others hearing. People could play a game, a movie or music without waking up others in the same room. Because the device does not use headphones, it is possible to hear other sounds in the room clearly.
The device uses a 3-D sensing module that finds and follows the ear position of the listener. It sends ultrasonic waves (超声波) to create sound pockets by the user’s ears. The 3-D method creates sound on all sides of the listener, therefore the listeners feel completely transported into the scene.
By changing a setting, the sound can follow a listener around when he moves his head. It is also possible to move out of the sound beam's path and hear nothing at all.
While the idea of sound beaming is not new, Noveto was the first to launch the technology.
According to the chief executive officer Christophe Ramstein, a “smaller” version of the device will be ready for release to consumers next year.
1. What does the underlined word “possibility” in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The listener may put on music to block out other sounds. |
| B．The listener may hear sound only for him or her without using headphones. |
| C．The listener may enjoy songs or movies without being interrupted by others. |
| D．The listener may have the ability to pick up some special sounds. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Impossible. |
| C．Strange. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．It places the listener on the scene to hear the sound. |
| B．It fixes a sound beam’s path which can not be changed. |
| C．It follows the listeners around to send and receive sounds. |
| D．With 3-D tracking technology, it sends ultrasonic waves to the target listener. |
| A．To promote the SoundBeamer. | B．To introduce a new sound device. |
| C．To recommend new headphones. | D．To explain a technical phenomenon. |
3 . New research suggests that dogs might be able to help save diseased citrus trees.
A group of scientists trained dogs to use their sense of smell to detect a crop disease called citrus-greening. The disease has affected orange, lemon and grapefruit trees in the American states of Florida, California and Texas.
The dogs can detect the disease weeks to years before it appears on tree leaves and roots, the researchers report. A study on their findings was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report says using dogs is also faster, less costly and more exact than having people collect hundreds of leaves for lab analysis.
Timothy Gottwald is a researcher with the U. S. Department of Agriculture and a co-writer of the study. He told The Associated Press, “This technology is thousands of years old-the dog’s nose. We’ve just trained dogs to hunt new prey.”
Citrus-greening is caused by a bacteria (细菌) that is spread by a tiny insect that feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees. Once a tree is infected (感染), there is no cure. The disease has also hurt citrus crops in Central and South America and Asia. In one experiment involving grapefruit trees in Texas, trained dogs were correct 95 percent of the time in telling the difference between newly infected trees and healthy ones. “The earlier you detect a disease, the better chance you have at stopping an epidemic (流行病) by removing infected trees,” Gottwald said.
Matteo Garbelotto studies plants at the University of California, Berkeley. He says the new research shows that dogs can detect an infection well before current methods. Garbelotto has been involved in similar research but had no part in the new study.
Laura Sims is a plant scientist with Louisiana Tech University. She praised the steps taken to find out if the dogs were detecting the bacteria itself or a plant’s reaction to an infection. To do that, the researchers infected different kinds of unrelated plants with the bacteria in a laboratory. The dogs were still able to pick out the infected plants.
Gottwald said, “You’ve seen dogs working in airports, detecting drugs and explosives. Maybe soon you will see them working on more farms. ”
1. According to the research, trained dogs can ________.| A．help infected trees recover from diseases | B．recognize a crop disease in its early stage |
| C．cause fruit trees to grow faster than usual | D．reduce the cost of planting some fruit trees |
| A．Infected plants. | B．Fruit trees. | C．Tiny insects. | D．Favourite foods. |
| A．To further prove the findings. | B．To explore the plant diseases. |
| C．To present different opinions. | D．To discover a plant’s reactions. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Indifferent. | D．Curious. |
4 . As each semester begins, my colleague greets his students wearing a jacket and tie.
“You make only one first impression, " he says. So, while the rest of the semester he teaches class in his usual, more casual clothes, the first week he presents a different image.
His thought is that students will remember their encounter positively and more readily think highly of him as the semester goes on because that favorable first impression has an influence on them. The big influence of first impressions is related to the halo effect, where the perception of the positive qualities in one thing or part gives rise to the perception of similar qualities in related things or in the whole.
Here is an example: You meet a friendly person at a party and later are asked to collect money for a worthy cause. You call that person because you think she will make a contribution. In reality, there is no connection between being pleasant and being generous. Yet the halo effect leads you to think that the two are related.
The halo effect is powerful, but is it questionable whether it matters much in long-term relationships, such as that between teachers and students? While dressing up may make students think the teacher must know his subject matter because he creates a professional first impression, the effect wears thin if the person turns out to be a poor teacher after all.
First impressions matter but they don't have the final word. Facts speak louder. If you had never seen or heard of Einstein, the first time you saw him your impression would most likely be negative. Now his face is connected with genius, not madness because he is the person who has come to define what genius is.
The problem is that few of us are Einstein and we often don't get the chance to change a negative first impression.
1. In the author's eyes, the halo effect_________.| A．is surprisingly powerful | B．may affect our judgment of others |
| C．matters more in the long run | D．makes some teachers irresponsible |
| A．appearance | B．impressions | C．truth | D．fairness |
| A．to mind their first impressions | B．not to judge a book by its cover |
| C．not to follow others’ judgment | D．to pay no attention to the halo effect |
5 . China is determined to land its astronauts on the moon and set up a scientific station there,according to a project leader.
Zhou Yanfei,deputy chief designer of China's manned space program,said on Friday that China wishes to use the manned lunar missions to carry out scientific surveys and technology demonstrations,explore ways to develop lunar resources and strengthen the nation's space capabilities.
＂A new wave of lunar explorations has been emerging in the world,with participants aiming to make sustainable missions to deepen knowledge of the moon and exploit resources there,"he said in a report delivered at the 2020 China Space Conference in Fuzhou,Fujian province."Unlike other nations,China must depend on its own science and technology to realize our goals."
The country is independently able to land its astronauts on the moon because it has the technologies,a group of well-trained,innovative professionals and high-efficiency research and management systems,Zhou said."However,our existing carrier rockets can't perform landing missions to the moon because they are not powerful enough.The Shenzhou- series manned spaceships are not suitable for lunar expeditions.We don't have a lunar landing capsule,"he said."Our ground support system was designed for operations in low-Earth orbit rather than on the lunar surface.
To solve the problem, we set out to produce a powerful launch vehicle. Zhou said researchers thought about two approaches-making a new heavy-lift rocket,or adjusting the next-generation rocket designed to carry astronauts,which is under development.Researchers prefer the latter approach because it would be easier to design and make and would become operational earlier.
The new rocket is being designed at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.Its main body will be 87 meters tall,with a diameter of 5 meters,which would make it almost twice as tall as the Long March 5,currently the biggest of China's rockets.
1. Which is NOT the goal of the manned lunar mission?| A．To explore lunar resources. |
| B．To perform scientific experiments. |
| C．To set up a scientific station. |
| D．To strengthen the national space power. |
| A．China is not capable of pursuing the manned lunar program. |
| B．There are still difficulties in pursuing the manned lunar program. |
| C．There are a series of steps in the Manned Lunar program. |
| D．It is manageable to carry out the Manned Lunar program. |
| A．Nations must depend on themselves to explore the moon. |
| B．The Long March 5 is the biggest of China's rocket. |
| C．The newly-designed rocket will not carry astronauts. |
| D．Producing a powerful launch vehicle is the most difficult part in the program. |
| A．The new rocket is big enough to perform landing missions. |
| B．The new rocket is being made to launch lunar spaceship. |
| C．China's scientific power has improved. |
| D．The new rocket will be put into use soon. |
6 . Though leaders from the International Olympic Committee(IOC)have announced a first-of-its-kind postponement of the Tokyo Summer Olympics because of the corona virus epidemic,people all over the world are still concerned about its preparations.Officials from the Tokyo Olympic Committee say they are sparing no effort and announce the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021 is going green.The 5,000 medals Japan has made are more special than most.
One novel focus of the Tokyo Olympics is to be"sustainable”－to avoid using too many natural resources,so that the games are easy on the environment.As part of this goal,the organizers decided to make all of the Olympic medals out of metal recycled from old electronics.
Almost all electronics are made with small amounts of"precious metals",like gold and silver.But collecting enough of these metals to make 5,000 medals was a huge challenge.That's because the amount of metal in each device is tiny.It would take about 20,000 cell phones to get just l kilogram of gold.
Beginning in April 2017,the organizers placed collection boxes around the country,and asked people to turn in their old electronic devices.Soon people began to respond to the initiative(倡导），turning in smart phones,digital cameras,handheld games,and laptops.At first,collection went slowly,but soon more and more areas began to take part.By the end,1,621 local governments had helped out with the collection process.
Then came the job of breaking those devices down into smaller pieces.After eing taken apart and sorted, the small electronics were smelted(熔炼）to get all the gold,silver,and bronze elements.This is a tricky job, which calls for careful attention and good skill.It's also dangerous,because some of the metals and other things aren't safe for people to touch or breathe.
By the end of March,2019,the organizers had hit their targets of getting enough metal for the medals. They had collected around 32 kilograms of gold,4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,200 kilograms of bronze.And now all the 5,000 medals are available for the would-be winners.
1. What can we know about the Tokyo Olympics medals?| A．They are hugely valuable. |
| B．They are of high quality. |
| C．They are made from e-waste. |
| D．They are designed uniquely. |
| A．The difficulty of making the medals. |
| B．The initiative to recycle used smart phones. |
| C．The classification of the collected devices. |
| D．The process of collecting old electronics. |
| A．creative | B．demanding | C．well-paid | D．time-consuming |
| A．To advocate sustainable use of resources. |
| B．To promote the spirit of Olympic Games. |
| C．To introduce a new technique to make medals. |
| D．To show the gravity of environmental damage. |
7 . People eat more when they are glued to the television, and the more entertaining the program, the more they eat, according to a new research.
It seems that distracted(分心的)brains do not notice what the mouth is doing, said Dr Alan Hirsch, neurological director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. Hirsch explored the effect of smell, taste and eating behaviors while watching TV by measuring the number of potato chip eaten.
Forty-five volunteers ate as many chips as they wanted while they watched programs by late- night talk show hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno. They were also given chips to eat when the television was off. Hirsh found people ate an average of 44 percent more chips while watching Letterman and 42 percent more while viewing Leno, than when they did not watch TV.
“If you can concentrate on how the food tastes you’ll eat less because you’ll feel full faster,” Hirsch said in an interview all the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Toronto. “So if that’s the case, let’s look at the opposite. What if you’re distracted? If you’re distracted, in theory then , eat more.”
Through his research at the foundation, Hirsch has helped people overcome the loss of sense and taste sensation, which typically results in weight gain became the brain does not know when it should stop eating.
The ventromedial nucleus(腹内侧核)in the hypothalamus(丘脑下部)where the so-called satiety (饱足)center is located, tells the body whether it is hungry or full. If it is stopped tricked the result can be changed in eating patterns, he said,“People who cook spaghetti all day don’t feel like eating spaghetti at the end of the day,” said Hirsch. “By being exposed to a smell all day long it’s tricking the hypothalamus.”
Volunteers were asked to concentrate on the sensory characteristics of the food such as taste and smell. Researchers say these sensory taste and smell, in addition to internal body changes, signal satiety. But when distracted, a person does not pay attention to either the body’s sensations of feeling full, or to the sensory characteristics of the food.
Many studies have linked obesity to watching television and that link is likely due to inactivity. But perhaps entertaining shows are also contributing. “If you want to lose weight, turn off the television or watch something boring,” Hirsch said.
1. What does the underlined word “glued to” in Para. l mean?| A．away from | B．performing in | C．close to | D．lost in |
| A．By watching people eat. | B．By interviewing people. |
| C．By counting how many chips people eat. | D．By observing how people watch television. |
| A．They think spaghetti unhealthy. | B．They have smelt spaghetti enough. |
| C．They don’t like eating spaghetti. | D．Spaghetti has affected the hypothalamus. |
| A．Inactivity is likely to make people fat. |
| B．Entertaining shows are the main causes of obesity. |
| C．The more concentration on food taste, the less you’ll eat. |
| D．The ventromedial nucleus can tell whether one is hungry or full. |
| A．People eat more when watching TV. | B．It is not good for our health to eat chips. |
| C．People enjoy eating while watching TV. | D．How people can enjoy the TV programs. |
8 . For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
1. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?| A．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| B．Both can continue for generations. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
| A．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens cause their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
| A．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
9 . According to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research, both the size and consumption habits of our eating companions can influence our food intake. And contrary to existing research that says you should avoid eating with heavier people who order large portions(份), it's the beanpoles with big appetites you really need to avoid.
To test the effect of social influence on eating habits, the researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, 95 undergraduate women were individually invited into a lab to ostensibly(表面上)participate in a study about movie viewership. Before the film began, each woman was asked to help herself to a snack. An actor hired by the researchers grabbed her food first. In her natural state, the actor weighed 105 pounds. But in half the cases she wore a specially designed fat suit which increased her weight to 180 pounds.
Both the fat and thin versions of the actor took a large amount of food. The participants followed suit, taking more food than they normally would have. However, they took significantly more when the actor was thin.
For the second test, in one case the thin actor took two pieces of candy from the snack bowls. In the other case, she took 30 pieces. The results were similar to the first test: the participants followed suit but took significantly more candy when the thin actor took 30 pieces.
The tests show that the social environment is extremely influential when we're making decisions. If this fellow participant is going to eat more, so will I. Call it the “I’ll have what she's having” effect. However, we'll adjust the influence. If an overweight person is having a large portion, I'll hold back a bit because I see the results of his eating habits. But if a thin person eats a lot, I'll follow suit. If he can eat much and keep slim, why can't I?
1. What is the recent study mainly about?| A．Food safety. | B．Movie viewership. |
| C．Consumer demand. | D．Eating behavior. |
| A．Big eaters. | B．Overweight persons. |
| C．Picky eaters. | D．Tall thin persons. |
| A．To see how she would affect the participants. |
| B．To test if the participants could recognize her. |
| C．To find out what she would do in the two tests. |
| D．To study why she could keep her weight down. |
| A．How hungry we are. | B．How slim we want to be. |
| C．How we perceive others. | D．How we feel about the food. |
10 . Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?| A．They must run long distances. |
| B．They are qualified for the marathon. |
| C．They have to follow special rules. |
| D．They are good at swinging their legs. |
| A．It’s more popular at the Olympics. |
| B．It’s less challenging physically. |
| C．It’s more effective in body building. |
| D．It’s less likely to cause knee injuries. |
| A．Getting experts’ opinions. |
| B．Having a medical checkup. |
| C．Hiring an experienced coach. |
| D．Doing regular exercises. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Tolerant. | D．Conservative. |
