1 . Chimps use loud calls and gestures to make their feelings known but until now, the exact meaning for individual movements has remained a mystery. Now researchers believe they have translated the key gestures used in the chimp community and identified their intentions for the first time.
From 4,351 gestures, experts were able to identify 66 that are used for 19 specific message meanings, including showing a foot to tell a child they can climb on their back. The researchers were able to narrow down these 66 gestures to 36 that are used intentionally to achieve 15 purposes. The translations were made by Dr Catherine Hobaiter and her colleagues at St Andrews University in Scotland.
Dr Hobaiter used behavior sampling and filmed all recorded cases of gestural communication. Other gestures include stomping their feet to ask another chimp to stop what they are doing, and slapping objects together to ask another to follow them. Of the 19 meanings,17 encouraged interactions to start, or to develop, such as “move closer,” and “change play”. Some of the gestures were found to have more than one meaning. and only 10 of the 66 gestures were used for only a single meaning.
Researchers collected a total of 471 video clips from two social groups of chimps at a shelter near Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. As well as identifying what the gesture means, they also discovered the technique needed to increase the chances of success.
“Human children use gestures to communicate before they produce their first words, and their earliest gestures typically appear around 10 months of age,” explained the researchers. “In great apes, there is good evidence that language-trained individuals are capable of acquiring and understanding signals, but this is far less clear in their natural communication. ”
1. Chimps slap the objects to____________.| A．tell others to stop what they are doing | B．ask others chimps to join them |
| C．gather other chimps to move closer | D．encourage interactions to start |
| A．Chimps trained in language are good at understanding signals. |
| B．Two social groups of chimps live at a shelter near Kinshasa. |
| C．Language-trained individuals do well in natural communication. |
| D．Chimps’earliest gestures appear around 10 months of age. |
| A．By analyzing causes. | B．By examining differences. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By following time order. |
| A．A New Research on Chimps | B．Human Children and Chimps |
| C．Getting the Chimps Trained for Language | D．Translating the Sign Language of Chimps |
2 . In the world of Chinese archaeology (考古学), a sign of a dig's importance is the sight of Zhou Mingsheng at work. A field technician who has worked at archaeological sites all around China. Master Zhou is credited with the gentlest touch in his profession. Born into a farming family, he is a “national-level craftsman” with a talent for using simple tools to get relics (遗物) that would crumble in other hands, says his current boss, Wang Xu, director of an archaeological site at Shuanghuaishu, a Neolithic (新石器时代的) settlement near the Yellow River in the central province of Henan.
It is not beauty that attracts visitors to Shuanghuaishu. At 5, 300 years old, the settlement is the work of a culture too simple to have left behind many buried treasures. The single most precious find, to date, is a finger-length sculpture of a silkworm. Nor is the setting lovely: an area surrounded by deafening insects, between a highway and two power stations. Rather, the site's importance is historical. For since the birth of Chinese archaeology in the 1920s, it has been inseparable from claims that China has the oldest unbroken civilisation on Earth.
Leading archaeologists say that the site has the right combination of location, age and distinctive cultural elements to be the capital of an early Chinese kingdom. That would make it a bridge between China's written history and the era of the Yellow Emperor, who is said to rule over these central plains almost 5,000 years ago, though many foreign scholars doubt his existence. Chinese media call the site proof of China's 5,000 years of history.
Foreigners complain about a lack of written records, Mr Wang notes. Perhaps they are missing symbols that will one day be understood, for instance in patterned pottery. Outsiders "can't keep using Western standards to apply to Chinese ruins," he argues.
1. What does the underlined word “crumble” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Result. | B．Break. | C．Wait. | D．Shine. |
| A．It is of great historical significance. | B．It has various precious treasures. |
| C．It has appealing scenery. | D．It is easily accessible. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Tolerant. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．Chinese history amazes the world | B．Chinese archaeology catches on |
| C．China follows its tradition | D．China digs its past |
3 . Men hunted.Women gathered. But the discovery of a woman buried 9,000 years ago in the Andes Mountains with weapons and hunting tools challenges this widely accepted view. The woman, thought to be between 17 and 19 years old when she died, was buried with items that suggested she hunted big-game animals by spear (矛) throwing.
The objects accompanying people in death tend to be those that accompanied them in life. Although some scholars have suggested a role for women in ancient hunting, others have dismissed this idea even when hunting tools were uncovered in female burials.
To examine whether this woman found at this site was an exception, the researchers examined 429 skeletons at 107 burial sites from around 8,000 to 14,000 years ago. Of those, 27 individuals were buried with hunting tools—11 were female and 15 were male. The sample was sufficient to “justify the conclusion that female participation in early big-game hunting was likely nontrivial,” said lead study author Haas.
The findings add to doubts about “man-the-hunter” assumption about early humans since the mid-20th century. That theory assumes that it was men who went out and hunted, bringing home meat to feed women and children, who were responsible for gathering berries, plants and nuts to enrich the dict.
But recent research suggests hunting was very much a community-based activity, needing the participation of all able-bodied individuals to drive large animals, the study said. Meanwhile, the spears used at that time had low accuracy, encouraging participation, and using it was a skill learned from childhood. Women may also have been freed from child care demands by “allo-parenting”—raising children was a job shared by many.
“Our findings have made me rethink the most basic organizational structure of ancient hunter-gatherer groups, and human groups more generally,” Haas said.
1. The discovery of the buried woman shows ________.| A．she was killed by a big-game animal | B．she might use hunting tools when alive |
| C．women were good at throwing spears | D．women were buried alone after death |
| A．limited | B．direct | C．significant | D．passive |
①allo-parenting ②big-game hunting ③tasks of gathering ④less accurate tools
| A．①②③ | B．②③④ | C．①③④ | D．①②④ |
| A．most of our ancestors were buried with hunting tools |
| B．we should reconsider previous views on human groups |
| C．division of labor in hunter-gatherer society remains unchanged |
| D．the tomb found in the Andes justifies “man-the-hunter” assumption |
4 . Remote work, especially in a world affected by COVID-19, naturally leads to "flex time". Employees with small children might be getting the majority of their work done at night after the kids are in bed. Working early, you quit early. Starting late, work late.
With your teammates working during different hours, you may be getting messages at all hours of the day, night, or weekend, making you always available. That might be necessary in some industries during these challenging times, but certainly not in every industry and not for everyone in any industry. Once this takes root in your company culture, it becomes difficult to "reset" later. Besides, “always-on” isn't sustainable (可持续的), which increases pressure and quickly turns your company into an unpleasant place to work.
If your company adapts "flex time", how can you accommodate your employees’ needs while still protecting your culture and your team's work-life balance? The key is to encourage flex time while also setting clear "communication hours" (for example, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.）. Outside of those hours, employees should be encouraged to change their settings to "Do Not Disturb" and to use the “schedule send” feature of their email client so that messages only get delivered during communication hours.
If messages must happen outside of the set communication hours, such as for urgent or time-sensitive issues, make employees phone or text only. This way people can comfortably close down all other communication channels like email, WeChat, WeCom, etc. The act of having to call or text someone is usually enough to give the sender a pause to think, "Do I really need this person now, or can the communication wait?" This allows everyone on your team to work whenever is appropriate for them, but not feel like they have to work all the time to accommodate everyone else's schedule. A word of “Thanks for being so responsive” to someone answering an email outside of the defined communication hours definitely brings empathy (同理心) which smooths the urgency while also cultivating the trust and culture.
1. What may result in the phenomenon of "always-on"?| A．COVID-19. | B．Some industries. |
| C．Increasing pressure. | D．Flexible working time. |
| A．The phenomenon of "flex time". | B．The disadvantages of “flex time”. |
| C．The necessity of “flex time”. | D．The company culture of “flex time”, |
| A．It helps to make up for the shortcomings of “flex time". |
| B．It should be set from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| C．Employees mustn't be disturbed within the hours. |
| D．Employees are still responsive outside of the hours. |
| A．Neutral. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Opposed. | D．Indifferent. |
5 . It appears to fit with most people's experience: how Christmas seems to come around quicker every year? Questionnaires by psychologists have shown almost everyone feels time is passing faster now compared to when they were half or a quarter as old. Most strikingly, lots of experiment have shown that, when older people are asked to guess how long the time is, or to ‘reproduce’ the length of periods of time, they guess a shorter amount than younger people.
In 1877, Paul Janet suggested the proportional theory, where a child of 10 feels a year as I 10 of his whole life while a man of 50 as 1/50, so the subjective sense of the 50-year-old man is that: these are insignificant periods of time which gallop.
There are also biological theories. The speeding up of time is linked to how our metabolism (新陈代谢)gradually slows down as we grow olden Children's hearts beat faster than They breathe more quickly. With their blood flowing more quickly, their body clocks “cover” more time within the space of 24 hours than ours do as adults. On the other hand, older people are like clocks that run slower than normal, so that they lag behind, and cover less than 24 hours.
In the 1930s, the psychologist Hudson Hoagland found body temperature causes different perceptions of time. Once, when he looked after his ill wife, he noticed she complained he'd been away for a long time even if only away for a few moments. Therefore, Hoagland tested her perception of time at different temperatures, finding the higher her temperature, the more time seemed to slow down for her, and that raising a person's body temperature can slow down his sense of time passing by up to 20%.
Time doesn't necessarily have to speed up as we get older though. It depends on how live our lives, and how we relate to our experiences.
1. What do the questionnaires and experiments find?| A．Time now is shorter than before. |
| B．Aging makes people think slowly. |
| C．The old feel time flies faster than the young. |
| D．The old value time more than before. |
| A．Fly swiftly. | B．Pause briefly. |
| C．Move slowly. | D．Pass stably. |
| A．A kid with slower metabolism. | B．A child with low body temperature. |
| C．A grown-up feeling freezing. | D．An adult with a high fevel. |
| A．How time flies! | B．To live a full life! |
| C．Why time passes at different speeds? | D．How to save more time? |
6 . A boat floated peacefully on the crystal-blue water. “How fascinating! ” Antonio told to his friends, who shared a passion for diving. In the following diving, unfortunately, he was trapped with his friend, who shared the oxygen with Antonio but died afterwards. Antonio breathed hard on his mouthpiece, but there was nothing left.He started to scream and kept screaming until he had no voice. As hours passed and Antonio failed to surface, his other friends rushed for help.
Shortly the local divers came to rescue, but in vain. Years of experience told them, lost in the cave, one must be dead. They considered going back in but decided against it because of the incoming dark, the muddy water and the lack of help. Too risky.
Asked for help, Peter, a chief frogman, began to plan the next morning’s operations, knowing hurried preparation was deadly. He had narrow escapes from death. Each time, though, training and a cool head saved him. Suddenly, a thought struck him. "Who said he died? That guy may be alive!” The next morning, Peter was suited up. Before a dive, he prayed.
Antonio "dreamed” he was drowning. He forced himself awake but couldn't feel his body. He was too tired to feel scared. Entering the cave, Peter found Antonio. On touching him, a hand closed around his left wrist Peter knew the young man must be kept from panicking. Gently he passed his mouthpiece to Antonio. He heard Antonio take a couple of breaths before handing the mouthpiece back. Antonio was trying to share oxygen with him, Peter realized. How unbelievable was that, after 17 hours in this hole, his mind still stayed cool!
Antonio was treated in the nearest hospital. Doctors said he wouldn’t have survived more than another hour in the cave. When Peter finally climbed back into his car, he doubled up, sobbing. He felt he took part in a miracle. Somehow an unseen hand that had guided Antonio to a tiny air pocket in the cave guided him there too. Where he should have found death, he had met life.
1. How did Antonio feel in the cave?| A．Delighted. | B．Cautious. | C．Thrilled. | D．Scared. |
| A．Because Antonio was believed to be dead. |
| B．Because the conditions were risky. |
| C．Because the hurried help couldn't help. |
| D．Because the local divers achieved nothing. |
| A．Antonio didn't give in to the desperate situation. | B．Antonio had a dream of drowning. |
| C．Antonio longed to sleep tight. | D．Antonio pulled Peter down with him. |
| A．Antonio’s injury. | B．Humans' desire to survive. |
| C．Peter's own kindness. | D．Antonio's friend's death. |
7 . The quiz tries to test non-native English speaker's vocabulary size. New results show the largest proportion of participants know 4,500 words （in the range from 4,250 to 4,749）, with the median vocabulary size of 7,826* under the influence of the following factors.
Factors
Academic performance: In class, how about your homework, study, exam, logic, etc.?
Classroom participation: In class, how much did you participate, talking and asking questions? Natural ability: In class, how much do you feel about learning English? Is it easy or difficult? Outside of class: How much do you use English in real life, learning things outside of class? Being abroad: Did you travel to English-speaking countries? How much time did you spend?
Findings
Academic performance helps, up to doubling your vocabulary size. Classroom participation matters too, giving you up to a 50% increase in vocabulary. Outside of class is the biggest difference. Students who do lots of things in English outside of class have more than twice the vocabulary of those who don't. Being abroad brings the average student from around 7,000 to 10,000 words.
Be aware that the results above are suggestive only. More research will tell.
1. What is the vocabulary size of most participants in the quiz?
| A．4,500. | B．4,250. | C．4,749 | D．7,826 |
| A．Academic performance. | B．Being abroad. |
| C．Outside class activities. | D．Classroom participation. |
| A．An English poster. | B．An English dictionary. |
| C．A notice about a quiz. | D．A survey of English learning. |
8 . Tourists to the North Antrim Coast come for its breathtaking beauty On this stretch of coast, myth and history live side by side, and running out of things to do is near impossible. Giant’s Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede, the Iron Isles’ filming locations ...
However, when I make my way to the north of the-country in October, none of them are on my mind. What brings me to the coastal town of Portrush are the waves.
Located, on a peninsula, Portrush is home to three brilliant beaches and all the usual points of interest of a coastal town. But what makes the North Antrim Coast so special is the promise of the consistent waves hitting its shores. Although still relatively unknown, it’s a surfer’s dream destination. This is the home of six-time Irish national surfing champion, Andrew Hill, after all.
I meet Andrew at his surf shop, the most popular in Portrush. After hiring a surf board and jumping in the water at West Strand, I quickly realise that my trusted wetsuit is not enough. Within just 30 minutes, I’ve lost all feeling in my feet and hands, and my ears are burning. I retreat to a nearby café and gulp down steaming tea before popping by Andrew’s shop again. Surf boots are what I need, we decide. I leave with a new determination to master the icy Atlantic waves. I’m invited to surf a different spot with Andrew and his friend that afternoon. but I decline his generous offer. My head is set on one thing only: taking revenge on the same waves that almost turned me into an ice block that very morning.
Even with boots, surfing the cold waters of Portrush leaves my feet purple. I become covered in bruises that don’t register until I thaw out each night, and it takes a couple of days to fully regain feeling in my hands. But it’s worth it, and I would gladly do it all over again.
1. What does the underlined word “them” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The popular attractions. | B．Coastal towns. |
| C．The filming locations. | D．Passionate tourists. |
| A．It has internationally famous beaches. |
| B．It’s home to the usual seaside interests. |
| C．It produces excellent waves for surfing. |
| D．It’s the hometown of a surfing champion. |
| A．better equip himself for the challenge |
| B．consult with some experienced surfers |
| C．accompany the owner on a later surf trip |
| D．quickly warm himself up with some hot tea |
| A．Narrative and serious. | B．Persuasive and critical. |
| C．Descriptive and positive. | D．Informative and objective. |
9 . When you hear the beginning of your favorite song from the radio, suddenly your neck is covered in goose bumps.
It's such a thing that a group of scientists call “skin excitement”—a feeling of cold caused not by a drop in temperature or sudden scare, but by the sense of beauty. “Skin excitement” can come from a song, a painting, a moving movie scene, or even a beloved memory-pretty much anything that causes the giving out of pleasure-soaked dopamine in your brain. But it does not come for all of us.
Your favorite music uncovers a lot about your personality，and so does how you respond to that music. Studies suppose that as few as 55 percent of people experience “skin excitement” when listening to music. And if you count yourself among this group, the goose bumps on your skin aren't the only giveaway—scientists can read it in your brain, too. In a new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Harvard researchers performed brain scans on 10 students who said they reliably got cold when listening to music, and 10 students who didn't. They found that the cold-prone brains may really be excited by stronger emotions.
Cold-prone brains are generally more likely to show stronger emotional intelligence than no-cold brains. Cold-prone minds tend to have unusual active imagination, reflect more deeply on their emotions, and appreciate nature and the beauty of music and art to a stronger degree than no-cold brains.
So, what type of music causes the chills? It seems that the type is not so important; participants in the new study reported getting cold from songs of every kind. And any song connected with a strong emotional memory of the listener can produce the most reliable results. For me, that's the song Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler, which I listened to as a kid in the car with my dad, on the way to the summer camp.
1. What can we learn about “skin excitement” in the text?| A．It helps to produce doparmine. | B．It is caused by the pain in the skin. |
| C．It can be experienced by every music listener. | D．It is the human body's reaction to something nice. |
| A．The percentage of music lovers in students. |
| B．The solutions to the goose bumps on one's skin. |
| C．The differences between cold-prone and no-cold brains. |
| D．The relationship between one's music preference and personality. |
| A．Beautiful and intelligent. | B．Emotional and dishonest. |
| C．Imaginative and sensitive. | D．Brave and strong-minded. |
| A．Responses to Music Vary among People | B．A Feeling of Cold Is Caused by Horrible Music |
| C．Your Favorite Music Reveals Your Personality | D．Favorite Music May Bring Forth Goose Bumps |
10 . A shocking news report has revealed that more than one in five species of maple trees faces extinction, warning that 75% of the threatened species are “geographically restricted” in their native regions.
The trees are experiencing a vast decline in habitat, due to urban development, wood harvesting and agricultural expansion. Time is running out for the world's biodiversity. Every recent survey of plants and animals in the wild points to this. This is happening nearly everywhere rarer maples exist. And because of climate change, the narrow habitats that support species at the edges of dry places and at the tops of mountains are quickly disappearing.
The trees can be found in subtropical and tropical regions, as far south as Indonesia. The only species found in the UK, the field maple is not under threat. Not only are the trees a popular attractive feature in parks and public spaces, but they are a key part of the natural ecosystem in woodlands, as well as being an important wood crop in several countries. Although the sugar maple in North America, which produces maple juice, is not endangered, two of the closest relatives to the species are endangered.
The report notes that conserving at-risk species in their natural habitat is the best conservation tactic. But collections in botanical gardens and seed banks-called "ex situ collections" can act as insurance policies against extinction. There are currently 14 species of maple, including four that are critically endangered, which are absent from these types of collections.
One species in Mexico, the Acer binzayedii, is in “desperate need of conservation"”despite only being discovered in 2017. “It is at risk from climate change in its cloud forest habitat and threatened by logging and forest fires while it is also absent from 'ex situ collections',” the report adds. The report recommends developing conservation plans, monitoring species currently not at risk to ensure populations are maintained, and adding those missing maple species to seed banks.
1. What is paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．Action to protect maple trees. | B．The dangerous situation of maple trees. |
| C．Various maple trees' habitats in the world. | D．The conditions for diversity in maple trees. |
| A．They cannot produce juice. | B．They are found in America. |
| C．They are not at risk of extinction. | D．They have two endangered relatives. |
| A．Topic. | B．Approach. | C．Result. | D．Conclusion. |
| A．To offer a proposal. | B．To recommend a product. |
| C．To introduce maple species. | D．To warn people of disasters. |
