1 . The Art of Healing
If no further evidence available of the sophistication of China in the Tang Dynasty, then a look at Chinese medicine would be sufficient. At the western end of the Eurasian continent, the Roman empire disappeared, and there was nowhere new to claim the important position of the cultural and political centre of the world. In fact, for a few centuries, the centre happened to be the capital of the Tang Empire, which boasted its national health service, and Chinese medicine under the Tang was far ahead of European medicine. The organizational context of health and healing was structured to a degree that had never happened in China before and found a similar one nowhere else.
An Imperial Medical Office had been inherited from previous dynasties: it was immediately restructured and staffed with directors, chief and assistant medical directors, pharmacists and managers of medicinal herb gardens. Within the first two decades after enforcing its rule, the Tang administration set up one central and several provincial medical colleges to train students in one or all of the departments of medicine, acupuncture (针灸) and physical therapy. Physicians were given positions in governmental medical service only after passing qualifying exams. They were paid according to the number of cures they had effected during the past year.
In 723, Emperor Xuanzong personally composed a formulary of prescriptions（方剂集）recommended to him by an imperial pharmacist and sent it to all the provincial medical schools. An Arabic traveller, who visited China in 851, noted with surprise that prescriptions from the emperor’s formulary were posted on notice boards at crossroads to enhance the welfare of the population.
The government protected people from potentially harmful medical practice. The Tang legal code was the first in China to include laws concerned with harmful medical practice. For example, to treat patients for money without following standard procedures was defined as deceiving combined with theft and had to be tried as theft. If such therapies resulted in death of a patient, the healer was to be sent to a remote place for years. In case a physician purposely failed to practice according to the standards, he was to be tried as murdering. Even if no harm resulted, he was to be punished.
1. In the 1st paragraph, the writer draws particular attention to ________.| A．the lack of medical knowledge in China prior to the Tang Dynasty |
| B．the Western interest in Chinese medicine during the Tang Dynasty |
| C．the systematic approach taken to medical issues during the Tang Dynasty |
| D．the differences between Chinese and Western cultures during the Tang Dynasty |
| A．the effectiveness of his treatment | B．the wealth of his medical experience |
| C．the number of physicians he had trained | D．the width of his medical knowledge |
| A．A qualified doctor’s refusal to practise. |
| B．The use of unapproved medical practice. |
| C．The death of a patient under medical treatment. |
| D．The receipt of money for medical treatment. |
| A．The differences existed between ancient Chinese and European medicine. |
| B．The government of the Tang Dynasty set up medical colleges to train students. |
| C．Emperor Xuanzong published a formulary of prescriptions. |
| D．The national medical system in Tang Dynasty put Europe’s in the shade. |
2 . Which is safer-staying at home, traveling to work on public transport, or working in the office? Surprisingly, each of these carries the same risk, which is very low. However, what about flying compared to working in the chemical industry? Unfortunately, the former is 65 times riskier than the latter! In fact, the accident rate of workers in the chemical industry is less than that of almost any of human activity, and almost as safe as staying at home.
The trouble with the chemical industry is that when things go wrong they often cause death to those living nearby. It is this that makes chemical accidents so newsworthy. Fortunately they are extremely rare. The most famous ones happened at Texas City (1947), Flixborough( 1974), Seveso (1976), Pemex (1984) and Bhopal (1984).
Some of these are always in the minds of the people even though the loss of life was small. No one died at Seveso, and only 28 workers at Flixborough. The worst accident of all was Bhopal, where up to 3,000 were killed. The Texas City explosion of fertilizer killed 552. The Pemex fire at a storage plant for natural gas in the suburbs of Mexico City took 542 lives, just a month before the unfortunate event at Bhopal.
Some experts have discussed these accidents and used each accident to illustrate a particular danger. Thus the Texas City explosion was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate (硝酸氨), which is safe unless stored in great quantity. The Flixborough fireball was the fault of management, which took risks to keep production going during essential repairs. The Seveso accident shows what happens if the local authorities lack knowledge of the danger on their doorstep. When the poisonous gas drifted over the town, local leaders were incapable of taking effective action. The Pemex fire was made worse by an overloaded site in an overcrowded suburb. The fire set off a chain reaction of exploding storage tanks. Yet, by a miracle, the two Largest tanks did not explode. Had these caught fire, then 3,000 strong rescue team and fire fighters would all have died.
1. Which of the following statements is true?| A．Working at the office is safer than staying at home. |
| B．Travelling to work on public transport is safer than working at the office. |
| C．Staying at home is safer than working in the chemical industry. |
| D．Working in the chemical industry is safer than traveling by air. |
| A．they are very rare |
| B．they often cause loss of life |
| C．they always occur in big cities |
| D．they arouse the interest of all the readers |
| A．natural gas, which can easily catch fire |
| B．fertilizer, which can’t be stored in a great quantity |
| C．poisonous substance, which can’t be used in overcrowded areas |
| D．fuel, which is stored in large tanks |
| A．natural gas stored in very large tanks is always safe |
| B．to avoid any accidents we should not repair the facilities in chemical industry |
| C．all these accidents could have been avoided or controlled if effective measures had been taken |
| D．the local authorities should not be concerned with the production of the chemical industry |
3 . The classic nightmare of suddenly realizing you are naked in public could soon get a futuristic twist: it might involve the horror of losing not just your modesty but also your pass codes. Scientists recently created magnetic garments that they say can store data, automatically unlock doors or control a nearby smartphone with gesture.
The concept of interactive “smart clothing” has drawn attention in the past couple of years. For example, Google and Levi’s created a touch-sensitive jacket that can operate a smartphone. This and other smart garments are made with conductive thread and usually require an attached electronic device.
To eliminate the need for such peripheral gear, researchers at the University of Washington recently took advantage of what is a previously untapped property of conductive thread: its ability to be magnetized. “Using magnetic instead of electric properties of the thread may seem like a small difference, but it is what makes this work interesting and exciting,” says Chris Harrison, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, who was not part of the research. The new technique allowed the researchers to do something they say is unique among wearables: turn them into storage devices.
The Washington team magnetized a patch of fabric embroidered with conductive thread, giving different parts of the cloth a north or south orientation that correspond to binary 1’s or 0’. This step allowed the researchers to store up to 33 million different combinations—such as pass codes for doors—on a shirt sleeve. They also created magnetic gloves that could control a nearby smartphone with gestures. The team described its findings last October at a meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery.
The garments still stored data after washing, drying and ironing, but they could not escape time’s eraser; after about a week, the threads’ magnetic fields had weakened by around 30 percent. The researchers suggest that using custom-made thread designed to hold stronger magnetic fields might work longer. But for now the clothes may be best suited for storing temporary codes, such as those found on hotel key cards or clothing tags in stores. Harrison says that it is “very unlikely you are ever going to achieve a comparable density to magnetic hard drives” with data-storing fabric, however.
1. What does the underlined sentence (1st paragraph) imply?| A．People would soon change their views on being naked in public. |
| B．There is no way to stop the decline of privacy right now. |
| C．People would lose privacy to a considerable degree. |
| D．The classic nightmare of losing pass codes could never come true. |
| A．it will gradually eliminate the need for attached devices |
| B．it will turn any common wearables into storage devices |
| C．it is such an abstract idea that giant companies have made attempts at it |
| D．it brings scientists new challenges and makes their work out of the ordinary |
| A．It is portable and can interact with electronic devices wirelessly. |
| B．it is sustainable and doesn’t need further maintenance. |
| C．It is washable and can endure high temperature. |
| D．It can store huge amounts of information. |
| A．Magnetic hard drivers will never lose their position to fabrics in storage. |
| B．Cloth and fabric as a storage medium have replaced magnetic hard drives. |
| C．Data-storing fabric can be as efficient as a traditional storage medium now. |
| D．In the short term, fabric used to store data cannot overcome its weakness. |
4 . Maeve Higgins once set herself a task. The Irish-born comedian wanted to see what life would be like if she stopped laughing at things that weren’t funny. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought. “It was so hard,” she says. “ Laughter is a lubricant (润滑油) and is expected, and it’s really hard not to do it.”
Higgins suggests there’s something particularly special about being part of the shared experience that is live comedy — that curious magic that occurs when people come together specifically to laugh.
Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. They’re interwoven into our everyday existence. Whether you’re sharing an amusing story at a party or telling a dark joke at a funeral, humour is everywhere. But what is it for? And can humour, as comedy, change how we feel, what we think or even what we do?
As an essential part of human interaction, humour has been on the minds of thinkers for centuries. One of the most enduring theories of humour was put forward by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It asserts that humour appears to make fun of the weak and exert superiority. While this is clearly the function of some comedy, it’s far from a complete explanation for the overall purpose of humour.
For some comedians, it’s not just about getting laughs — it’s about changing what we think and maybe even what we do. If there’s one comic who is really typical of this, it’s Josie Long. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic humour and storytelling.
As her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day.
British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out. Amos firmly believes that when comics consciously deal with pressing or controversial （有争议的）social issues like racism, they can reach people on a much more meaningful level than that achieved by briefly lifting someone’s mood. And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy deserves much greater recognition.
The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, Sharon Lockyer, a sociologist who studies humour, has identified a number of possible other functions. These include challenging stereotypes (刻板印象).
Amos’s work frequently settles the issues of race by challenging stereotypes.”I don’t do things for shock value,” he says. “ I do stuff that matters to me. In the old days it was just about doing jokes. We’ve moved on — people are talking about things that matter. ”
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?| A．The benefits of laughing. |
| B．What a comedian’s daily work is about. |
| C．Why Maeve Higgins chose to be a comedian. |
| D．Maeve Higgins’ understanding of the appeal of comedy. |
| A．Protect the weak from the evil. |
| B．Encourage people to be stronger. |
| C．Be determined to improve oneself. |
| D．Show you are better than other people. |
| A．By gradually influencing people’s attitudes. |
| B．By urging politicians to try and solve the issues. |
| C．By quickly yet thoroughly changing people’s thinking. |
| D．By calling on the whole society to pay attention to the issues. |
| A．getting people to laugh |
| B．promoting social progress |
| C．influencing people’s ideas |
| D．making people more productive |
5 . “Uncle Chuchu, look!” Uncle Chuchu turns to where Preet is pointing. She quickly eats up the chips on his plate. He always falls for this trick！
Chuchu is the pet name Preet has given him. Uncle Chuchu is the kindest person in Preet’s world. He is also her best friend. One day, Preet sees Uncle Chuchu scoop (抓起) handfuls of candies from a jar and drop them from his bedroom window. She watches in amazement as he ducks under the windowsill, trying hard not to laugh.
Cries of delight float up from the street!
At the end of the lane is a school. When the lunch bell rings, Uncle Chuchu secretly drops candies down to the school children as they pass under his window.
After lunch, Uncle Chuchu walks back to his office with his briefcase. When he passes the children playing, he doesn’t look at them. So, the children never guess that the hand that sends them candies every day belongs to this thin, solemn man!
But one day, Uncle Chuchu has a terrible pain in his stomach. As he’s taken to the hospital, he presses Preet’s hand one last time...
Now, Preet sits in Uncle Chuchu’s empty room. His yoga mat is on the floor. She remembers that long ago one day when she had walked in and found a pair of long legs poking into the air.
“Help!” Preet had yelled. “Uncle Chuchu is hurt!” Mom and Grandma had rushed into the room and burst out laughing! “He’s not hurt.” Mom said. “He’s doing yoga!” Grandma said. “Yoga,” repeated Preet. She had watched with wondering eyes as Uncle Chuchu lifted his body on the palms of his hands, like a bird about to fly away!
Preet’s eyes are wet. Nobody can fill the Uncle Chuchu-shaped hole in her heart.
…
1. The scene described in the first paragraph is intended to show readers ________.| A．that Uncle Chuchu is easily fooled by others |
| B．what fun Preet used to have with Uncle Chuchu |
| C．how Preet enjoyed eating snacks such as chips |
| D．that Uncle Chuchu always treated Preet equally |
| A．hide | B．hang | C．drag | D．mark |
| A．He didn’t want to eat up all the candies. |
| B．He was too shy to greet the children directly. |
| C．He wanted to bring delight to the children. |
| D．He took pity on the homeless children in the street. |
| A．Uncle Chuchu’s Yoga Mat | B．Preet’s Farewell to Uncle Chuchu |
| C．Preet’s Innocent Childhood | D．Uncle Chuchu’s Jar of Candies |
6 . A MAGICAL PLACE
Theme parks? I just love them. In a month or so, the UK’s finest will throw their gates open for the new season to thrill us with their engineered delights. As usual, I will be the first person inside. Yes, I may be a digital enthusiast, but to me there is nothing as irresistible or as thrilling as the full-on experience of spending a day in someone else’s imagination.
Dr. Carissa Baker, assistant professor in theme parks and storytelling at the University of Central Florida, argued in 2018 that theme parks are gatherers and tellers of stories. Their distinct narratives start before you enter the park, are played out in what you experience there, and continue after you’ve left. How do they do it? Some believe it’s down to creative direction and narrative system design. But I call it like I see it: they use all the psychological tricks in my social psychology textbooks to get us to feel and act in the way that the people behind the scenes foretell.
Everything in theme parks is manipulated(操纵). Everything is accounted for. Whereas in the digital world, designers infer what we feel, these theme parks digest these emotions. A famous example is Disneyland’s Main Street USA, which you walk down on first entering the park: the sets have been designed with forced perspective so the buildings appear taller and grander than they really are. Techniques like this are everywhere to be seen in the squares of Renaissance Italy and Georgian England to make the buildings seem bigger than they were. The mythical Main Street is made to feel larger and more impressive, which gets visitors excited when they enter the park—we are the hero of Disneyland’s narrative. Now that’s a powerful trick.
The digital world is nowhere near as magical as these places are. Yes, digital designers can create something out of nothing with mathematics and electricity, but their best attempts are only shortcuts in two-dimensional space. All they have in their toolboxes are sight and sound. But in theme parks, digital is out of place. Yes, behind the scenes there are data machines that are trying to track us to make our experiences better and more personal. Except for one or two notable examples, digital tech isn’t being used to enhance our time at the park in any practical way. It just gets in the way. And perhaps that is why I love theme parks. Because when I’m there, I want to be propelled(推动) by someone else’s vision, and give over to the feeling.
The next killer app isn’t on your device. It’s in the places that thrill us and compel us to keep our phones in our pockets so we can truly experience them.
1. From the first paragraph we can conclude that ________.| A．engineers in the UK are full of imagination |
| B．the writer is enthusiastic about digital devices |
| C．the writer finds theme parks charming and exciting |
| D．it takes much imagination to guess visitors’ preferences |
| A．the experience in theme parks helps him to let out emotions |
| B．they provide a designed setting in which he is easily absorbed |
| C．the digital effect makes theme parks a wonderland full of magic |
| D．the psychological tricks they use make him feel manipulated |
| A．It is advisable to put down your phone and get a taste of what theme parks bring you. |
| B．Nowhere else can you find a place as magical as the digital world. |
| C．The huge constructions in theme parks are designed to appeal to more visitors. |
| D．Digital tech plays an irreplaceable role in keeping theme parks running smoothly. |
| A．The distinct properties that theme parks and digital devices have. |
| B．The thrilling and irresistible experiences the writer has in theme parks. |
| C．Digital devices meant to create a magic world with simple techniques. |
| D．Clever techniques used by theme parks to make your visit memorable. |
1. On which day of the tour, do travalers get to experience the rainforest in the day and stay in Pacific Coast for the night?
| A．Day 3. | B．Day 4. | C．Day 5. | D．Day 6. |
| A．It is priced at $1295 including tax. | B．It is only available to domestic travelers. |
| C．It was first launched to the public in 1952. | D．The tour package includes airport transfers. |
| A．remind travelers of key information | B．promote the Panama& Canal Tour |
| C．advertise a series of Caravan Tours | D．describe the appeal of Panama City |
8 . In 2018 biologist Jann Vendetti published a paper that described the discovery of five species of non-native snails and slugs（蜗牛和鼻涕虫）in Southern California. The research would not have been possible without some 1,200 volunteers who uploaded nearly 10,000 photos to the SLIME project (Snails and Slugs Living in Metropolitan Environments) on an app called iNaturalist.
“So the entire existence of that paper is dependent upon these citizen scientists. How do you credit those people?” said Greg Pauly from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. “There are some very specific requirements that a lot of journals and a lot of academic societies use. And those requirements largely would exclude nonprofessional scientists. And to me, that’s absurd.” That’s why Pauly, together with Vendetti, and several Australian biologists are arguing that criteria must change to recognize citizen scientists as authors on scientific journal articles.
They propose what they’re calling “group co-authorship.” The author list on Vendetti’s snail-and-slug paper includes the phrase “citizen science participants in SLIME.” But the phrase is absent when you look up the paper on Google Scholar. The publication software simply isn’t equipped to handle that kind of authorship, and so it erases the group’s vital contribution.
In another case, several years ago in Australia, a team of researchers tried to condition native lizards not to eat the poisonous cane toads. The only reason it was successful was because they partnered with the traditional landowners in northwestern Australia, and this group was called the Balanggarra Rangers.
Several journals flat-out refused to allow for the inclusion of the Rangers as group co-authors. Eventually, the researchers did convince the editors of some journals to allow it, but the group’s title was shortened, as if it was a first and last name, in online indexing software: “B. Rangers.”
The researchers argue that these errors and omissions don’t only make the critical contributions of a native community as invisible, they could also be seen as showing prejudice.
“If the person who had made that contribution was a graduate student who was trying to pursue a career in the sciences, we would all say, ‘Oh, of course that person should be a co-author’. But we don’t necessarily extend that same line of reasoning to citizen scientists.”
Allowing for group co-authorship is not a new idea. In 2004 the journal Nature published a paper titled “Initial Sequencing and Analysis of the Human Genome.” It listed as the sole author the “International Human Genome Sequencing Association.” “So let’s just choose this group-authorship model and turn it into group co-authorships. This really shouldn’t be that hard.”
1. What can be learned about Vendetti’s snail-and-slug paper?| A．It is the first paper to credit citizen scientists on the title page. |
| B．It describes snails and slugs living in metropolitan environments. |
| C．It is available on the publication software Google Scholar. |
| D．It includes 10,000 photos of snails and slugs in Southern California. |
| A．They are familiar with native animals and plants. |
| B．They make a living by hunting native lizards. |
| C．They are good business people. |
| D．They are world famous as B. Rangers. |
| A．To point out the omissions in the line of reasoning. |
| B．To highlight the contribution of a native community. |
| C．To argue against showing favor for a particular group. |
| D．To prove that not crediting citizen scientists is unfair. |
| A．expose the unfair practice in the scientific community |
| B．call for the wide recognition of group co-authorship |
| C．call on more people to become citizen scientists |
| D．explain the origin of the term group co-authorship |
1. What’s the cost for each MDHearingAid if you buy a pair according to the advertisement?
| A．$99.99. | B．$199.99. | C．$399.98. | D．$2,400. |
| A．It doesn’t include batteries. |
| B．It involves a simpler assembly job. |
| C．It gives customers the benefit of lowered cost. |
| D．It uses a superior digital hearing aid technology. |
| A．You will not develop Alzheimer’s disease if you keep using the hearing aid. |
| B．You may get remote support from a hearing expert free of charge after the purchase. |
| C．You will have appointments with the clinic to adjust the hearing aid for personal use. |
| D．You can return the hearing aid if not satisfied but only with part of the money paid back. |
10 . Patients often come into my office and ask, “How can I look younger?” While I always suggest healthy living — a balanced diet and regular exercise — in order to look and feel younger, I have never thought of facial exercises as part of that plan. That is, until a recent study, published in JAMA Dermatology (皮肤学), showed promising results that routine facial exercise may slow the merciless tide of time.
The theory behind the study originates from the fact that a major part of facial aging is due to the loss of fat and soft tissue, which leads to the growth and spread of wrinkles. If we can lift weights at the gym and enlarge muscles in arms, why couldn’t the same be done for muscles in our faces, therefore to create a more youthful face?
The concept of facial exercise is not a new one. A simple Internet search will produce a lot of blog posts and books on the subject, as well as various programmes that promise to be the next fountain of youth. What the JAMA Dermatology researchers did in their study, which was the first of its kind, was to examine this question from a more strict scientific aspect. They enrolled 27 women between the ages of 40 and 65 to perform daily, 30-minute exercises for eight weeks, and then continue every other day for a total of 20 weeks.
Dermatologists who did not know the participants were asked to rate their photographs before and after the exercise. The dermatologists found an improvement in cheek fullness and estimated the age of the participants at 51 years of age at the start of the programme and 48 at the end of the 20-week study. Furthermore, all the participants felt improvement in their own facial appearance at the end of the study.
While these results seem exalting, the study has some obvious limitations. Of the 27 patients involved, 11 gave up before completing the study. One reason may be that the programme was to time-consuming, clocking in at 30 minutes a day. The overall small size of the study also limits its generalizability to the larger population. In addition, there was also no control group, which would have helped reduce the possibility that this improvement happened by chance.
It’s also hard to draw conclusions about the longevity of these results. Probably the exercises must be continued to keep their effects. But for how long? And how frequently? Which exercises are most effective? Most studies are need to answer these questions.
1. According to the passage, which statement is true?| A．Though the concept of facial exercise is new, much information about it can be found on the Internet. |
| B．Some participants did not feel improvement in their facial appearance at the end of the study. |
| C．If there is a control group, the possibility that the improvement in the facial appearance happened by chance will be increased. |
| D．The reason why some participants quit the study before it was completely may be that they had not enough time. |
| A．Calming. | B．Challenging. | C．Frustrating. | D．Exciting. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent (中立的). |
| A．The study published in JAMA Dermatology is not reliable. |
| B．Healthy living is the only way to make someone look and feel young. |
| C．More studies are needed to further the present study on facial exercises. |
| D．As a dermatologist, the author was involved in the research project on facial exercises. |
