1 . Family-Friendly Events in January
ZooLights: Glow Wild Jan. 1-19
The Phoenix Zoo’s yearly holiday light show is on until Jan. 19, allowing families one or more opportunities to enjoy the city’s zoo, with millions of lights giving an added dimension to the festivities.
Glow Wild, 455 N. Galvin Pkwy. , Phoenix, phoenixzoo.org, $11. 95 members, $13. 95 general admission.
Downtown Mesa Festival of the Arts Jan. 4-18
The Downtown Mesa Festival of the Arts features the work of established and emerging artists, including those who create woodwork, metal crafts, food items, art, photography and gifts.
On Macdonald, off of Main Street in Downtown Mesa, dtmesafest.com, free admission.
Family Fun Winterfest Jan. 4
OdySea Aquarium in the Desert is hosting the third annual Family Fun Winterfest in its Desert Courtyard, featuring real snow for the kids to play in. This free event features everything from bounce houses to rides, games, snowflake crafts and face painting to go with various stands set up by local sellers, with food and other offerings for sale at the event.
9500 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale, odyseainthedesert.com, free.Youth Fine Arts Course Jan. 18-Mar. 7
Mesa Arts Center is hosting an eight-week youth arts course on Saturdays to teach artistic skills and knowledge through fun and challenging art classes in a wide variety of art materials, including painting, drawing, mixed media and sculpture, ensuring mentally stimulating sessions for all.
Mesa Art Center, 1 E. Main St, Mesa, mesaartscenter.com, $93.Which event lasts the longest?
| A．ZooLights: Glow Wild. |
| B．Downtown Mesa Festival of the Arts. |
| C．Youth Fine Arts Courses. |
| D．Family Fun Winterfest. |
2 . Filming in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest
The Kamas Ranger District handles film permits for the Kamas district of the Wasatch- Cache National Forest.
To ensure that permits are issued in time for filming, the Forest Service requests that application form be handed in three to four weeks prior to filming.
The fee structure for filming in the National Forest is as follows:
Filming Special Use Fee1 to 10 people-$150 per day
11 to 30 people-$200 per day
31 to 60 people-$500 per day
Over 61 people-$600 per day
Film Monitoring Fee
1 day filming-FREE
Extra days-$200 per day
Additional FeesAdditional fees will be charged in the following situations:
Large production (greater than 100 people), multiple site filming that may require additional film monitoring to protect natural resources and a performance agreement in the form of a deposited check.
Upon approval, a Special Use Permit will be issued with a bill for collection. Checks should be made payable to “USDA Forest Service, ” and payment must be received before filming.
NoteSome areas of the forest are especially sensitive to impacts from vehicles, domestic animals, and people. These areas include wetlands, streams, lake shorelines, and most meadow areas. Filming requests in these sensitive areas will require special surveys to determine possible environmental impacts. The request may be denied.
How much will a week’s film monitoring be charged?| A．$1200. |
| B．$200. |
| C．$1400. |
| D．$600. |
3 . The California sea otter (海獭), once hunted to the edge of extinction, has staged a thrilling comeback in the last century. Now, scientists have discovered that the otters’ success story has led to something just as remarkable: the restoration of their declining coastal marsh (沼泽) habitat.
Elkhorn Slough, a coastal marsh within Monterey Bay, had been experiencing severe damage. The root cause was a growing population of shore crabs, which fed heavily on the marsh plants, weakening the structural integrity of the habitat. Coastal marshes like these are not only natural defenses against storm waves but also serve as important carbon storage areas and water-cleaning systems.
The conservation-driven comeback of the sea otter has been crucial. California’s coastlines were once alive with sea otters. Sadly, they were nearly wiped out at the hands of fur traders. In the 1980s, conservation efforts aided these otters in re-occupying large areas of their former range. Now, Elkhorn Slough has the highest concentration of sea otters in California, with a population of about 100. By naturally feasting on crabs, the otters have helped a significant regrowth of plant life. Brent Hughes, a scientist working alongside Angelini, led a three-year study. Their findings were clear: in areas with sea otters, crab numbers fell markedly. This led to a resurgence in plant growth, which in turn stabilized the soil and lowered the rate of soil washing away.
As the sea otter population continues to restore, their positive impact on coastal ecosystems is likely to increase. It not only showcases the sea otter as a central species—a species that has a significant effect on its natural environment—but also highlights the essential nature of top predators (捕食者) in preserving ecological harmony. “My honest reaction was—this could become a classic in the literature,” says scientist Lekelia Jenkins. She reveals marsh restoration also helps people by reducing flooding. “Suddenly, sea otters go from just cute things we like to something that can protect our livelihoods and our properties.”
What change did the disappearance of sea otters bring about?| A．Fewer predatory crabs. |
| B．More coastal plant life. |
| C．Better water-cleaning effect. |
| D．Worse coastal ecological balance. |
4 . Humans have long gained pleasure from the smells of the natural world. For the most part, though, human beings are not their target market. For plants, fragrances are a way to interact with insects and other animals. Their attraction for people happens simply by chance.
In chemical terms, most natural fragrances are made up of volatiles — so called because of their tendency to change states suddenly. Volatiles evaporate easily, drifting into noses. In plants’ reproductive processes, smelly volatiles attract pollinators (授粉昆虫). But their natural applications are much more varied. If an insect chews through the leaves of some Bursera plants, out shoots a sticky, smelly liquid to trap it. Coyote tobacco plants are even more crafty: upon sensing the smell of hungry caterpillars, they produce volatiles that attract predators to kill the pests.
What is truly amazing is just how wily plants can be in using their scents for reproduction. White flowers often emit their scent at night to attract nocturnal pollinators such as moths. They produce a dilute nectar (稀释的花蜜) that encourages moths to keep moving, rather than linger at a single bloom—all the better to increase pollination. Other flowers change their fragrance after being successfully pollinated, as a signal for insects to go elsewhere.
But though “Scent” is a story of plants’ cleverness, it is also a tale of the human kind. People have long used fragrances for their own purposes, particularly for use in religious ceremonies: perfume recipes on the walls of an Egyptian temple in Edfu demonstrate just how long ingredients have been mixed in pursuit of the best blend. So highly prized were some scents that, to scare off competitors, Arab traders spread a legend about giant eagles that guarded cinnamon.
Eventually scientists no longer needed natural sources for fragrances. In 1866 a fragrance molecule was produced for the first time. Sixteen years later, Houbigant Parfum released Fougère Royale, the first “modern fantasy perfume” that creates an imaginary scent rather than copying a natural one. Nowadays fragrance–making is dominated by man–made compounds, which can be reliably and affordably produced in large quantities.
That has led to the mass production of smelly products, from toilet paper to toothpaste. Scent is accordingly big business. It is said that a world–famous fragrance and flavour manufacturer that claims people interact with its products up to 30 times a day, had sales of €3.8bn last year.
What can we learn from the passage?| A．Humans do not use fragrances as purposefully as plants do. |
| B．Natural sources for fragrances will be out of date in the future. |
| C．Plants use fragrances to both attract and send away pollinators. |
| D．Man–made fragrances have to be produced by copying natural ones. |
5 . Media multitasking, such as scrolling through social media while watching a movie, may be linked to more brief failures in attention and difficulty remembering things.
“Our data support the idea that we should be aware of how we engage with media,” says Kevin Paul Madore at Stanford University in California. He and his team compared people’s self-reported levels of media multitasking with their performances in a memory task, as part of a study including 80 participants aged 18 to 26.
The researchers specifically tested episodic memory, which helps us recall events, by presenting the participants with images of objects on a computer and then later asking them to recall whether they had seen the objects earlier or not. At the same time, the team used EEG and eye tracking to monitor people’s attentiveness.
Madore and his colleagues also asked participants to complete a questionnaire to determine how often they engage in various forms of media multitasking, such as texting while watching TV or reading while listening to music. They found that people who reported more frequent media multitasking had more brief failures in attention during the memory task, which was associated with increased difficulties with remembering.
“I think conscious awareness of attentiveness and limiting potential distractions can go a long way in memory preparedness and reducing mind wandering or mind blanking,” says Madore. “Resisting media multitasking during school lectures or work zones, or limiting media multitasking to set times, could be valuable.”
“Media multitasking is becoming more prominent. We don’t actually know anything about the effects yet,” says Amy Orben at the University of Cambridge. It will be important to investigate whether media multitasking causes brief attentional failure and memory failure or whether there is another factor, such as how generally distractible a person is, that could explain the association. “This could be investigated through studies that monitor people over time and this is a really interesting area that we should explore,” she says.
1. What were the research subjects asked to do?| A．Monitor their attentiveness. |
| B．Recall the content of the images. |
| C．Describe their frequency of media multitasking. |
| D．Answer some questions on potential distractions. |
| A．Avoiding mind wandering. |
| B．Restricting media multitasking. |
| C．Engaging less with social media. |
| D．Being aware of potential distractions. |
6 . I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for shopping?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises—and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student — in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed in something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
What did the author think is the source of true joy?| A．Reading by the fire. |
| B．Travelling in Spain. |
| C．Freeing herself from the roles. |
| D．Being lost in one’s passion. |
7 . Growing Green Thumbs Callie’s Kids by Calloway Nursery
Denton, 940/591-8865; Flower Mound, 972/691-2650; Lewisville, 972/315-3133. www.mytexasgarden.com
LEARN: Kids aged 5-12 can explore and plant in the Calloway gardens with a caregiver’s supervision at 9:30 am on the first or third Wednesdays from June to August. A garden expert will share tips and advice for the best gardening practices during the 45-minute session (beginning on June 2). Preregistration online is required.
COST: Free
Denton Children’s Community Garden
2200 Bowling Green Ave, Denton, 940/349-2883. www.dcmga.com
LEARN: Join the weekend work at the community garden, where caregivers, parents and master gardeners help children of all ages plant new vegetables, water the plants, harvest from the gardens and more. The instructors also lead games about nutrition, good and bad insects and more. 10 am-5 pm on Saturdays.
COST: Free
Coppell Community Gardens
255 Parkway Blvd, Coppell. www.copp11communitygarden.org
LEARN: Kids of all ages (with a parent/caregiver) can volunteer at either the Helping Hands Garden (255 Parkway Blvd) or Ground Delivery Garden (450 S. Denton Tap Road). Children will have the opportunity to till the ground, plant vegetables, harvest from the garden and more. Master gardeners are available on site; all harvested foods are either sold at the community’s farmers’ market or donated to the area food bank. Work begins every Saturday at about 9 am.
COST: Free
This piece of writing is most probably issued by_______.| A．a food industry in bad need of funding |
| B．a website promoting gardening facilities |
| C．an institution offering learning programs |
| D．an association publicizing botanical gardens |
8 . It is an uncomfortable fact that civilized society is almost completely dependent upon fossil fuels in nearly every aspect. Whether you believe there are hundreds of years or just a few decades left of this resource, the fact remains that it is a limited resource. At some point, fossil fuels are going to either be gone or become too expensive to realistically use. That is, when fossil fuels become too expensive to use, people will just start using something else. Though this may work well in theory, actually shifting from fossil fuels is not the same as shifting from one brand of shampoo to another.
This is entirely due to the fact that humans rely so much on the infrastructure (基础设施) they have developed, which is entirely dependent upon this resource, accounting for 85% of the United State's energy use. If the world were entirely dependent upon solar energy, that would be fine because sunlight is a continuing resource. However, at the current state of things, humans are in a dangerous position owing to its complete dependence upon one single limited input.
Fossil fuels are also responsible for a significant amount of land, water, and air pollution beyond their carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) production. For example, coal mining brings solid wastes to the surface that would normally remain underground and the areas around a mine can remain barren (贫瘠的) for generations due to the lack of proper topsoil. The burning of coal for energy also produces many different types of particulate (微粒的) matter that pollutes the air. Compared with fossil fuels, renewable energy is far more environmentally friendly.
There exists an argument that renewable energy options are not as efficient as fossil fuels because the deployment (部署) of renewable energy equipment like the wind turbine (风力涡轮机) costs a lot of money. However, when factors such as pollution and climate change are considered, renewable energy is actually far more efficient than fossil fuels. And fossil fuels will be surely replaced by renewable energy whether it is your generation or your grandchildren's.
According to paragraph 1, we know fossil fuels_______.| A．are heavily depended on by humans |
| B．are a symbol of civilized society |
| C．are becoming more and more expensive |
| D．can be replaced by other resources soon |
9 . I was 16 years old the day I skipped school for the first time. It was easily done: Both my parents left for work before my school bus arrived, so when it showed up at my house on that cold winter morning, I simply did not get on. The perfect crime!
And what did I do with myself on that glorious stolen day, with no adult in charge and no limits on my activities? Did I get high? Hit the mall for shopping?
Nope. I built a warm fire in the wood stove, prepared a bowl of popcorn, grabbed a blanket, and read. I was thrilled and transported by a book — it was Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises—and I just needed to be alone with it for a little while. I ached to know what would happen to Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. I couldn’t bear the thought of sitting in a classroom taking another biology exam when I could be traveling through Spain in the 1920s with a bunch of expatriates (异乡客).
I spent that day lost in words. Time fell away, as the room around me turned to mist, and my role — as a daughter, sister, teenager, and student — in the world no longer had any meaning. I had accidentally come across the key to perfect happiness: I had become completely absorbed in something I loved.
Looking back on it now, I can see that some subtle things were happening to my mind and to my life while I was in that state of absorption. Hemingway’s language was quietly braiding itself into my imagination. I was downloading information about how to create simple and elegant sentences, a good and solid plot. In other words, I was learning how to write. Without realizing it, I was on the trail of my own fate. Writing now absorbs me the way reading once did and happiness is their generous side effect.
Why did the author skip school on that day?| A．Because her parents left home early. |
| B．Because she was attracted by a novel. |
| C．Because she planned to go shopping. |
| D．Because she missed the school bus. |
10 . Growing Green Thumbs Callie’s Kids by Calloway Nursery
Denton, 940/591-8865; Flower Mound, 972/691-2650; Lewisville, 972/315-3133. www.mytexasgarden.com
LEARN: Kids aged 5-12 can explore and plant in the Calloway gardens with a caregiver’s supervision at 9:30 am on the first or third Wednesdays from June to August. A garden expert will share tips and advice for the best gardening practices during the 45-minute session (beginning on June 2). Preregistration online is required.
COST: Free
Denton Children’s Community Garden
2200 Bowling Green Ave, Denton, 940/349-2883. www.dcmga.com
LEARN: Join the weekend work at the community garden, where caregivers, parents and master gardeners help children of all ages plant new vegetables, water the plants, harvest from the gardens and more. The instructors also lead games about nutrition, good and bad insects and more. 10 am-5 pm on Saturdays.
COST: Free
Coppell Community Gardens
255 Parkway Blvd, Coppell. www.copp11communitygarden.org
LEARN: Kids of all ages (with a parent/caregiver) can volunteer at either the Helping Hands Garden (255 Parkway Blvd) or Ground Delivery Garden (450 S. Denton Tap Road). Children will have the opportunity to till the ground, plant vegetables, harvest from the garden and more. Master gardeners are available on site; all harvested foods are either sold at the community’s farmers’ market or donated to the area food bank. Work begins every Saturday at about 9 am.
COST: Free
To plant in the Calloway gardens, what do kids need to do?| A．To register online before hand. |
| B．To be present every Wednesday. |
| C．To be under supervision throughout the year. |
| D．To visit www.dcmga.com for more information. |
