1 . Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.
“I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),” said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate(保守的估计).”
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what was possible in the past. “There is a great effort so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who specialize in aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”
1. By saying“we are knocking at the door of immortality”,Michael Zey means_________.| A．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| B．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| C．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
| D．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| A．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| B．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| C．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| D．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| A．a great effort |
| B．the conservative estimate |
| C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 years |
| D．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| A．No Limit for Human Life |
| B．Living Longer or not |
| C．Science,Technology and Long Living |
| D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living |
2 . POETRY CHALLENGE
Write a poem about how courage, determination, and strength have helped you face challenges in your life.
Prizes
3 Grand Prizes:Trip to Washington, D.C. for each of three winners, a parent and one other person of the winner’s choice. Trip includes round-trip air tickets, hotel stay for two nights, and tours of the National Air and Space Museum and the office of National Geographic World.
6 First Prizes:The book Sky Pioneer:A Photobiography of Amelia Earhart signed by author Corinne Szabo and pilot Linda Finch.
50 Honorable Mentions:Judges will choose up to 50 honorable mention winners, who will each receive a T-shirt in memory of Earhart’s final flight.
Rules
Follow all rules carefully to prevent disqualification.
■Write a poem using 100 words or fewer. Your poem can be any format, any number of lines.
■Write by hand or type on a single sheet of paper. You may use both the front and back of the paper.
■On the same sheet of paper, write or type your name, address, telephone number, and birth date.
■Mail your entry to us by October 31 this year.
1. How many people can each grand prize winner take on the free trip?| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Six. |
| A．A plane ticket. | B．A book by Corinne Szabo. |
| C．A special T-shirt. | D．A photo of Amelia Earhart. |
| A．Typing your poem out. | B．Writing a poem of 120 words. |
| C．Using both sides of the paper. | D．Mailing your entry on October 30. |
3 . New Scientist Discovery
Tour Amazing science-inspired tours across the globe with experts on board and in the company of fellow travelers who enjoy the discovery of science
Space: Past and Future: USA
14 days for £4.799
Departing 6th May and 14th September 2020
Follow the USA's footsteps in exploring space with this comprehensive tour of NASA's space centers and other key sites, including the Very Large Array in attractive New Mexico. Plus, visit the world's first commercial spaceport with leading researchers.
The Science of the Renaissance（文艺复兴）: Italy
7days for £1,825
Departing 3rd March and 3rd November 2020
Embark on a cultural adventure to the great science cities of Florence and Bologna, as architecture expert Andrew Spira and science historian Professor David Wootton guide you through the great discoveries and minds of the Renaissance.
Land of Fire and Ice: Iceland
8 days for £2,249
Departing 31st October and 7th November2020
Marvel at erupting geysers（喷泉）, glaciers and waterfalls on a trip of volcanic and geological（地质的）adventure. Joined by volcanologist Tamsin Mather, discover the best of Iceland with a chance to see the Aurora Borealis.
Tiger Conservation Safari: India
9 days for £3,850
Departing 10th April 2021
Involve yourself in jungle life in the search for the Bengal tiger. Learn how to protect the rich wildlife you encounter at India's reserves, complete with a masterclass in tracking and stay in a cozy lodge（小屋）.
1. Which tour is scheduled in May?| A．Space: Past and Future: USA |
| B．The Science of the Renaissance: Italy |
| C．Land of Fire and Ice: Iceland |
| D．Tiger Conservation Safari: India |
| A．£4,799. | B．£1,825. |
| C．£2,249. | D．£3,850. |
| A．Explore space with researchers. |
| B．See geysers，glaciers and waterfalls. |
| C．Discover the culture of the Renaissance. |
| D．Learn about protecting wildlife while travelling. |
4 . Four Inspiring Movies
Forrest Gump（1992）
Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low IQ but good intentions. This movie follows the fictional story in which the simple man makes his way through some of the more turbulent（动荡的）times from the 1960s through 1980s. This film took home six Oscars, inspired a “Weird Al” song, and proves that a big heart is the most important thing.
It's a Wonderful Life（1946）
No movie list would be complete without a nod to the past. Let's go with this Christmas classic, about a man with serious financial troubles who intends to commit suicide（自杀）by jumping off a bridge. His guardian angel Clarence Odbody stops him and tells him what life would have been like for those close to him had he never been born. Realizing how much he means to others, he rushes back home and all sorts of happy, inspirational, Christmassy things happen.
Dead Poet's Society（1990）
John Keating（Robin Williams）is a high school English literature teacher at a famous all-male boarding school who gets into trouble with the school administration after encouraging his students to challenge authority and think for themselves. It is certainly inspirational, if not also frustratingly sad.
A Beautiful Mind（2001）
This movie tells the story of John Nash（Russell Crowe）, a professor at Princeton, a US university, who revolutionized the field of game theory and fell into madness as a result of paranoid schizophrenia（精神分裂症）. With the love and support of his family as well as the help of medical professionals, he managed to overcome his mental illness and continued to make contributions to the field of mathematics.
1. What can we know about It's a Wonderful Life?| A．It proves a big heart important. |
| B．It has a happy ending. |
| C．It tells a story of friendship. |
| D．It is famous for the leading role. |
| A．Forrest Gump. | B．I's a Wonderful Life. |
| C．Dead Poet's Society. | D．A Beautiful Mind. |
| A．became a famous expert in psychology |
| B．got his family's support for studying game theory |
| C．gained lots of experience in treating schizophrenia |
| D．defeated the disease and went on to pursue maths |
5 . School had just started in August when Conner began throwing up for no reason. It wasn’t long before the boy also began suffering terrible headaches. In February a 1.7-inch tumor was found in his brain and Conner was set to begin to receive radiation (放射疗法) treatments. Before treatments start, technicians make a white plastic mask (面罩) to keep patients immovable and protect unaffected parts of the brain while radiation is directed at the tumor.
It’s an unpleasant experience and a frightening time. The doctor Cook decided that the masks could at least be made to look like something fun — maybe Batman or Mickey Mouse. “I started thinking these masks are white and not fun at all for kids,” she told The Greenville News. “I felt like if we could make it a little more fun for them, they might be a little more excited about coming in for the treatment. Because the kids are afraid. While the treatment itself isn’t physically painful, it can cause a lot of anxiety (焦虑). And the treatment is required daily for up to six weeks. “
And the masks really make a difference. “The kids really like them,” Cook said. “It makes what is, let’s face it, a terrible experience, a nice experience because they get to choose something themselves.”
When new children come in for the treatment, Cook finds out what their favorite movies or cartoon characters are. Then she sets about creating the mask by drawing the image she wants onto paper, sticking it with glue, and once it’s dry, she applies the colors using paints. Each child can take the mask home once the treatment ends.
“Coming to the doctor always means fear and pain. I wanted to make it fun,” she said. “The kids really love it. It’s something they enjoy and can relate to. And it fills an interest I have. I get great pleasure from it.”
1. Why was the plastic mask used according to Paragraph 1?| A．To check the patient’s brain. |
| B．To reduce the patient’s headache. |
| C．To prevent the patient from throwing up. |
| D．To protect the patient’s brain during the treatment. |
| A．It can be received at home. |
| B．It has to be finished in a month. |
| C．It may make the patients feel worried. |
| D．It will cause huge physical pain for patients. |
| A．Offer them some free masks as gifts. |
| B．Show them their favorite movies or TV shows. |
| C．Dress them up as cartoon characters. |
| D．Make the masks more interesting to kids. |
| A．Love can treat the terrible sickness. |
| B．Kindness can bring warmth and joy. |
| C．Health matters to everyone. |
| D．Creativity leads to success. |
6 . Although we live in an era where everything seems to be available immediately, our study suggests that today’s kids can delay gratification(满足感) longer than children in the 1960s and 1980s,“ said University of Minnesota psychologist Stephanie M. Carlson.” This finding stands in great contrast with the assumption by adults that today’s children have less self-control than previous generations.
The original marshmallow(棉花糖) test conducted by researchers at Stanford University involved a series of experiments in which children aged between 3 and 5 years were offered one treat that they could eat immediately or a larger treat if they waited. Researchers then left the room to see how long the children would wait and watched from behind a one-way mirror.
Interestingly, today's adults thought that children nowadays would be more impulsive and less able to wait, Carlson found. "Our findings serve as an example of how our beliefs can be wrong and how it's important to do research,” said co-author Yuichi Shoda, PhD at the University of Washington.
The researchers offered several possible explanations for why children in the 2000s waited longer than those in prior decades. They noted a statistically significant increase in IQ scores in the last several decades. Another explanation may be society's increased focus on the importance of early education, according to Carlson. The primary objective of preschool changed from largely custodial care (监护) to school readiness in the 1980s. Parenting also has changed in ways that help promote the development of executive function, such as being more supportive of children's self-control, the researchers noted.
Walter Mischel of Columbia University, who co-authored this paper, noted that “while the results indicate that the children’s ability to delay is not weakened on the marshmallow test, the findings do not speak to their willingness to delay gratification when faced with the many temptations now available in everyday life.”
1. According to the passage, what is the adults' assumption about today's children?| A．They are not easy to please. |
| B．They are less able to control themselves. |
| C．They don't like things that are easy to get. |
| D．They have different personalities from previous generations. |
| A．productive | B．considerate |
| C．clear-minded | D．hot-headed |
| A．They are more prepared to go to school. |
| B．They are not as clever as previous generations. |
| C．They are taught self-control only by their teachers. |
| D．They don’t need any custodial care in their early childhood. |
| A．Most children nowadays can't resist the temptations of everyday life. |
| B．Children chose to delay gratification willingly in the marshmallow test. |
| C．The test can’t accurately measure children's willingness to delay gratification. |
| D．Children’s ability to delay gratification is weakened because there are many temptations. |
7 . At Englands University of Plymouth, Professor Eduardo Miranda has been programming pairs of robots to compose music. Miranda's robots have simple “ vocal cords”(声带)and are programmed to sing and to listen to each other. The robots' unique warbling sounds (颤音) do not perfectly match the human voice, but each machine is exactly sharing music with the other in a new and unique way.
Each robot is equipped with speakers, software that mimics the human voice, a mouth that opens as it “sings,” a microphone for ears, and a camera for eyes. The robots also move. Miranda hopes that by studying his robot vocalists, he can discover something about how and why humans create, perform, and listen to music.
When the robots sing, first one robot makes six random sounds. Its partner responds with more sounds. The first robot analyzes the sounds to see if their sequences (序列)) are similar. If they are, it nods its head and commits the sounds to memory, and the second robot notices and “memorizes” the musical sequence, too. If the first robot thinks the sounds are too different, it shakes its head and both robots ignore the sounds. Then the process continues.
Miranda set up an experiment in which he left the two robots alone in his study for two weeks. When he returned, his little warblers had, by imitating each other, not only shared notes but combined them. The product of their cooperation was far from symphonic, but the robots had begun to combine the notes into their own self-developed “songs”.
With the help of his warbling robots, one of Miranda's goals is to create music that no human would ever compose. Miranda believes the robots are ideal for this purpose because they would not be influenced by any existing musical styles or rules.
1. Which is closest in meaning to the underlined word “mimics” in Paragraph 2?| A．Substitutes. | B．Interrupts. |
| C．Controls. | D．Copies. |
| A．They interacted with each other. |
| B．They ignored the unique sound. |
| C．They learned to sing better than humans. |
| D．They committed random sounds to memory. |
| A．Sing as well as humans do. | B．Create new styles of music. |
| C．Memorize a variety of music. | D．Promote traditional musical forms. |
| A．Future robots. | B．Special songs. |
| C．Music by robots. | D．Experiments by Miranda. |
8 . Our mother didn’t trust us, my sister and me, to manage our own appearance when we were young. As a result, there were rules, and trends were largely ignored.
A few years ago, I was home for a visit when my mom, now in her early70s, called me into her bedroom. We were about ready to leave for dinner. “I don’t know what to wear,” she complained from her seat. “You girls always look so good.”
I paused in the doorway and looked at her, wondering if I’d misheard. “What do you mean?” I asked her. “You know what to wear.”
“No,” she answered. “I don’t. Can you pick something?”
I was so surprised.
This was the same woman who, in 1989, told my younger sister she wasn’t allowed to leave the house wearing a pair of ripped (有破洞的) jeans; the same woman who, in high school, called me while I was out at a party to ask if my hair was up. “You look better with it down.” she told me before I could answer.
I realized, suddenly, that my mother—always so strong—not only wanted my opinion, but needed my care.
I pulled a pair of blue jeans from the closet and a light blue sweater from her drawer. “Wear this with your black shoes.” I told her. She did.
My mother certainly doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. In fact, she still cares for my grandmother who lives with her. But with that one question, my mother and I started the role reversal (改变) that happens with all parents and all children, from caregiver to receiver.
Now, if I’m visiting or we’re together, it’s rare for her to wear anything without checking with me first.
I’m still always a bit surprised by her admission of the uncertainty.
But every so often, it seems like she asks me just to be able to disagree with my answer and pick out something on her own. And when she does, I just tell her what I think of the way she looks. Sometimes it’s “great” and sometimes it’s “awful”.
1. When the author was young, she ________.| A．could never know what to wear |
| B．always wore trendy clothes and hairstyles |
| C．was not allowed to go to parties at night |
| D．had to pick her clothes according to her mother’s rules |
| A．came to realize that her mother needed her care |
| B．was happy to do something for her mother |
| C．was worried that her mother was too old to live alone |
| D．had no idea what was suitable for her mother |
| A．always accepts her suggestions happily |
| B．sometimes chooses to follow her own ideas |
| C．is often surprised by what the author says |
| D．still shows uncertainty about what to wear |
| A．show what it is like to have a strict mother |
| B．remind readers to visit their parents often |
| C．show how the role of parents and their children can change |
| D．stress her mother’s great influence on her clothes and hairstyles. |
9 . The University of Tokyo has several museums covering various fields such as medicine, agriculture and art. Here are brief introductions about their histories and exhibits.
◆The University Museum
Having collected over three million academic materials for its collection since the University of Tokyo was founded in 1877, the University Museum is the largest museums of its kind in Japan. From the time its reorganization into an independent entirely in May 1996, the University Museum has held planned exhibitions over 60 times.
◆The Museum of Health and Medicine
The Museum of Health and Medicine seeks to provide information about health and medicine to the general public and advance education for students studying medicine. The museum features both a permanent exhibition space and a temporary exhibition space, with the latter focusing on topics related to medical care and the study of medicine.
◆The Agricultural Museum
The Agricultural Museum displays materials from the collection of the University’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Notable items on display include the documents and pictures of scientists attached to the university, inner organs of Japan’s famous dog Hachiko, and drawings showing German agriculture and the varieties of Japanese cows.
◆The Farm Museum
The Farm Museum opened in 2007 within a dairy barn. The barn was built in 1934 as part of the moving of the University of Tokyo’s farm from Komaba to Tanashi, an area in western Tokyo. The museum features both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Permanent exhibitions include European farming tools used on the Komaba Farm, tools for agricultural experiments, agricultural machinery, American tractors and drawings showing German agriculture.
1. What can we know about the University Museum?| A．It was founded in 1877. | B．It has held over 60 exhibitions. |
| C．It has the most items collected. | D．It is the largest museum in Japan. |
| A．The Farm Museum. | B．The University Museum. |
| C．The Agricultural Museum. | D．The Museum of Health and Medicine. |
| A．To introduce museums. | B．To give the university some advice. |
| C．To make the university famous. | D．To attract visitors to museums. |
Hours: Part time
Salary : ￡11.12p/h
A teaching assistant is needed to start on 3rd August 2013. He or she will provide the students and teachers with appropriate support in the classroom. Secondary school experience preferred.
For further details please telephone Mrs. Caryl Lewis, Headteacher on 736524 or email her at cl@ recruitment.com.
Lunchtime assistant
Hours: Part time
Salary: ￡9.28p/h
We’re looking for someone to assist with the lunchtime routine, take care of pre-school children at mealtimes, and get the room ready for afternoon activities.
Anybody interested in this position please call Joanne Walton on 734229 or email her at stmarks@lapetiteecole.com.
Days per week: 5(Monday-Friday)
Working hours: 10:30am-2pm
Food section manager
Hours: Full time
Salary: Negotiable
Marks and Spencer needs a food section manager to start immediately. The ideal candidate must have experience within the food business, excellent communication and organisational skills coupled with the ability to manage the staff. Duties will include responsibilities for opening and closing the store, and providing the customers with up-to-date knowledge of products and services, Benefits include staff discount card.
You can contact Linda Hodgson by sending an email to lindahodgson@sandpiperci.com.
Shop assistant
Hours: Part time
Salary: Negotiable
The ideal candidate must have excellent customer service skills, be friendly and outgoing and have an eye for details.
Previous experience is an advantage, however, full training will be provided. Able to work as a member of a team. Must be able to speak and understand English.
You can apply for this position by emailing Sue Milroy at paris@jacksclothing.com.
Days per week: 5(Monday to Saturday with one day off during the week)
1. If you want to work in a nursery school, you should contact ______.| A．Linda Hodgson | B．Caryl Lewis |
| C．Joanne Walton | D．Sue Milroy |
| A．can take great care of kids | B．has an eye for details |
| C．has secondary school experience | D．can manage the staff members |
| A．One can get in contact by e-mail. | B．One has to work five days a week. |
| C．They require fluent English. | D．They are paid by the hour. |
