1 . Lack of sleep among children and teenagers in China has worsened in the past decade, with more than 80 percent getting insufficient sleep on school days, a new report has found.
Chinese youngsters snooze 7. 8 hours a night on average on school days, down 0. 3 hours from 2009, according to the report released on Monday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Psychology.
Researchers surveyed more than 15,800 students from Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces from April to July, asking what time they go to bed and wake up on days they take offline classes on campus.
Only 46. 4 percent of them sleep for at least 8 hours, compared with 47. 4 percent in 2009.
According to an action plan laying out measures to be taken from 2019 to 2030 to promote the health of citizens, primary school students are recommended to get a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night. For junior high school and senior high school students, the recommended sleep durations per night are 9 and 8 hours respectively.
By this set of standards, more than 95 percent of students from primary schools, nearly 91 percent at junior high and 84 percent at senior high, did not get enough sleep on school days, heightening the risk of them developing cognitive, mental and physical health problems, the report said.
Hou Jinqin, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences who co-authored the study, suggested local authorities implement measures instructed by the Ministry of Education, such as lessening academic burdens, postponing start times at school and encouraging children to be enrolled at institutions closer to home, in order to prolong sleeping hours.
In terms of the COVID - 19 outbreak's impact on sleep, she said available research overseas shows school closures forced by the COVID - 19 epidemic have added two hours of sleep to young students studying-gat home.
In China, some studies have revealed no marked differences in sleeping patterns of students before and after school reopened, she added.
1. What does the underlined word "insufficient" in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Unconditional. | B．Inadequate. | C．Untypical. | D．Incalculable. |
| A．7 -8. | B．8 -9. | C．≥ 9. | D．≥ 10. |
| A．Reducing their course load. | B．Starting school a bit earlier. |
| C．Attending extra — curricular courses. | D．Promoting a new sleeping pattern. |
| A．To introduce a new study on sleep habits. |
| B．To advise people to lengthen their sleeping hours. |
| C．To analyse the reasons why youngsters lack sleep. |
| D．To propose measures to handle student sleep shortfall. |
2 . How do you kill your time on your way to work? Most of us stare at our cell phones, and refuse to make eye contact with others. We just read, chat with others online or play games online. Or maybe we' re using the time between stops to do our makeup, catch up on emails, or read a few chapters of a book. However, Dina Alfasi takes a very different approach.
Each day she has to travel hours on buses and trains to get to her engineering job at a hospital in Israel . Rather than look at her cell phone in silence, she uses one very special way to have connection with strangers. It is portraits of the people she meets on public transport every day that she is taking. The paintings catch those quiet and personal moments of people readying themselves for the day ahead. Some people lean their head against the window and go to sleep, some stare into space and have a daydream, and others sit quietly to read their documents or books. Each picture catches one tiny moment in people's lives, ripe with potential for your imagination. It is wonderful for her to look at someone's commute （上下班）and make up an entire story about the rest of their daily existence, from the father travelling with a baby to the woman welcoming a change.
“ What inspires me very much are the little moments that happen every day," Dina told My Modern Met. "My work is to tell stories through a single portrait, and it proves that all you need is just to look around and find those magic moments.”
1. As for people's behaviour on the way to work, what does Paragraph 1 imply?| A．Most of us like to catch early buses. |
| B．Most of us need to go to work punctually. |
| C．Most of us tend to concentrate on our mobile phones. |
| D．Most of us feel frightened to make eye contact with others. |
| A．Sitting quietly to read her books. |
| B．Keeping chatting with others all the way. |
| C．Using phones to take photos of every scene attracting her. |
| D．Drawing people while travelling on buses and trains to work. |
| A．Sceptical. | B．Enjoyable. | C．Cautious. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．Little moments make Dina special. |
| B．Cell phone is used to take special portraits. |
| C．Dina takes portraits of others when commuting. |
| D．People go to work with different ways to kill time. |
3 . Imagine reading a story titled "Pursuing Success." That would be an inspiring story, wouldn't it? Maybe—but maybe not. It might well be the story of someone whose never-ending chase for more and more success leaves them unsatisfied and incapable of happiness.
Though it isn't a conventional medical addiction, for many people success has addictive properties. Obviously, success goes with praise. To a certain extent, praise stimulates the neurotransmitter dopamine (神经递质多巴胺)，which contributes to all addictive behaviors.
The desire for success may be born to human nature, but specialness doesn't come cheap. Success is tough work, and it requires bearing the cost of losing. In the 1980s, the physician Robert Goldman famously found that more than half of ambitious athletes would be willing to take a drug that would kill them in five years in exchange for winning every competition they entered.
Unfortunately, success is endless. The goal can't be satisfied; most people never feel “successful” enough. The high only lasts a day or two, and then it's on to the next goal. Psychologists call this the hedonic treadmill (快乐跑步机现象)，in which satisfaction wears off almost immediately and we must run on to the next reward to avoid the feeling of falling behind.
People should get off the treadmill. But quitting isn't easy for addicts. For people hooked on substances, withdrawal can be a painful experience, both physically and psychologically, research finds that depression and anxiety are common among outstanding athletes after their careers end. Olympic athletes, in particular, suffer from the “ post-Olympic blues.”
Just like wine, success in and of itself is not a bad thing. Both can bring fun and sweetness to life. But both become bossy when they are a substitute for — instead of a complement (补充物)to — the relationships and love that should be at the center of our lives.
1. What does praise function as when going with success?| A．It has nothing to do with success addiction. |
| B．It may indirectly cause success addiction. |
| C．It always brings positive results of success. |
| D．It results in all addictive behaviors except success. |
| A．To show success is a tough and cruel job. |
| B．To stress the key to success lies in efforts. |
| C．To argue that athletes deserve more rewards. |
| D．To describe the routine training of an ordinary athlete. |
| A．Satisfaction and a sense of pride. |
| B．Anxiety and short-lived happiness. |
| C．Relaxation and endless motivation. |
| D．Confidence and permanent happiness. |
| A．Stop chasing success. |
| B．Chase success at any cost. |
| C．Reflect on what matters in life. |
| D．Give up love and relationships. |
4 . Scientist at University College London have discovered sets of regulatory genes, which are responsible for maintaining healthy hearing. The finding, made in fruit flies, could lead to treatments for age-related hearing loss (ARHL) in humans.
Globally, one-third of people aged over 65 experience hearing impairment, and while there are thought to be more than 150 genes that may affect hearing loss, there is no unified (统一的) view on how to use these to develop hearing loss treatments.
In the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers are at the UCL Ear Institute assessed the hearing ability of the common fruit fly across its life span (around 70 days) to see if their hearing declines with age.
A fruit fly’s ears share many molecular (分子的) similarities with the ears of humans, making it an ideal tool for the study of human hearing loss.
Researchers found that the antennal ears of fruit flies also display ARHL with nearly all sensitive hearing measures starting to decline after 50 days of age. This made the researchers want to know if there were any “age-variable” genes in the flies’ inner ears which have kept the ears healthy for 50 days of their lives.
After closer examination, researchers identified a new set of regulatory genes-homeostasis genes. These genes are often responsible for picking up sound and the overall sensitivity of the ear. Using this information, scientists were then able to genetically modify (修改) the genes and prevent the flies from getting ARHL.
Professor Joerg Albert, lead author of the study, said: “While many studies have been conducted into the hearing function of fruit flies, ours is the first to look at the mechanistic and molecular detail of their auditory life course.”
“The fact that these genes are conserved in humans will also help to focus future clinical research in humans and thereby accelerate the discovery of new pharmacological or gene-therapeutic strategies.”
1. What did scientists at UCL discover?| A．One-third of people aged over 65 have hearing problems. |
| B．Homeostasis genes maintain one’s ability to hear. |
| C．There are regulatory genes that are related to aging. |
| D．Humans have over 150 genes that can affect hearing loss. |
| A．Their hearing system is similar to that of humans’. |
| B．Their hearing ability also declines with age. |
| C．They display ARHL during their lifespan. |
| D．They share many genes with humans. |
| A．The discovery of new treatments. | B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The result of the study. | D．The future commercial prospects. |
| A．Age-related hearing loss: fruit flies and humans |
| B．Hearing loss: a common problem for older adults. |
| C．Gene discovery could lead to hearing loss treatments. |
| D．The body’s ability can be unlocked to treat lost hearing. |
5 . It’s true that quite a few most respected scientific authorities have confirmed that the world is becoming hotter and hotter. There’s also strong evidence that humans are contributing to the warming. Countless recent reports have proved the same thing. For instance, a 2010 summary about the climate science by the Royal Society noted that: “The global warming over the last half-century has been caused mainly by human activity.”
You may not believe that humans could change the planet’s climate, but the basic science is well understood. Each year, billions of tons of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere because of human activity. As has been known for years, these gases hold heat that would otherwise escape to space, wrapping the planet in an invisible blanket.
Of course, the earth’s climate has always been changing due to “natural” factors such as volcanic eruption or changes in solar, or cycles concerning the Earth’s going around the sun. According to the scientific research, however, the warming observed by now matches the pattern of warming we would expect from a build-up of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere—not the warming we would expect from other possible causes.
Even if scientists did discover another reasonable explanation for the warming recorded so far, that would give birth to a difficult question. As Robert Henson puts it: “If some newly discovered factor is to blame for the climate change, then why aren’t carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases producing the warming that basic physics tells us they should be?”
The only way to prove with 100% certainty that humans are responsible for global warming would be to run an experiment with two identical Earths — one with human influence and one without. That obviously isn’t possible, and so most scientists are careful not to state human influence as an absolute certainty.
1. The text is developed by ________.| A．giving typical examples |
| B．following the order of space |
| C．comparing and finding differences |
| D．analyzing a theory and arguing it |
| A．Few scientific authorities have confirmed the existence of global warming. |
| B．Greenhouse gases prevent heat in the atmosphere from escaping to space. |
| C．Some new factors for the climate change have been discovered by scientists. |
| D．Scientists are absolutely sure about the human influence on the earth’s climate. |
| A．exactly the same | B．totally different |
| C．extremely important | D．partly independent |
| A．Are Humans Definitely Causing Global Warming? |
| B．Are All the Scientists Really Scientific? |
| C．Where Is Global Warming Leading Us to? |
| D．What’s the Relation of Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases? |
6 . Americans recognize that there is a past on which the present rests. But they have not developed their sense of the depth of time as much as this has been done in the Middle East and South Asia. The Arab looks back two to six thousand years for his own origins. History is used as the basis for almost any modern action. The chances are that an Arab won’t start a talk or a speech or analyze a problem without first developing the historical aspects of his subject. The American assumes that time has depths but seldom stresses the importance of it.
The American never questions the fact that time should be planned and future events should be fitted into a schedule. He thinks that people should look forward to the future and not talk too much on the past. His future is not very far ahead of him. Results must be obtained in the foreseeable future—one or two years or, at the most, five or ten. Promises to meet deadlines and appointments are taken very seriously. There is real punishment for being late and for not keeping commitments in time. The American thinks it is natural to calculate the value of time. To fail to do so is unthinkable. The American calculates how much time is required to do everything. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.” “It will take six months to finish that job.” “I was in the Army for four and a half years.”
The Americans, like so many other people, also use time as a link that chains events together. If one event occurs on the heels (紧接着) of another, they will certainly try to find a causal relationship between them. If A is seen around the area of B’s murder shortly after the crime has been committed, they automatically form a connection between A and B. However, events which are separated by too much time are difficult for them to connect in their minds. This makes it almost impossible for them as a nation to engage (从事) in long-range planning.
1. How do Americans see past time according to the first paragraph?| A．It’s worthless. | B．It’s limited. |
| C．It reflects today. | D．It helps start a talk. |
| A．To calculate the value of the past. |
| B．To figure out the importance of time. |
| C．To plan a schedule for future events. |
| D．To meet deadlines and appointments. |
| A．When common evidence is found. |
| B．When A is found near the scene of B’s crime. |
| C．When the two events happen one by one. |
| D．When one event happens long after another. |
| A．See time further. | B．Be punctual. |
| C．Study the past time. | D．Make a long-range plan. |
7 . ARCTIC CIRCLE & NORTHERN LIGHTS TOUR
HIGHLIGHTS
Experience the Arctic Circle and amazing northern lights with us.
Cover a total of 400 miles in this 14-hour expedition.
Cross the broad Yukon River.
En-route, enjoy breathtaking views of Alaska, USA.
You may see moose, lynxes and foxes in their natural habitat.
ATTENTION: The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is a natural phenomenon and can not be guaranteed. There is no refund (退款) if the Aurora Borealis does not appear.
PICKUP TIME
12:15 pm - 1:00 pm.
MEETING POINT
Your hotel in Fairbanks.
WHAT TO EXPECT
▲1: 00 pm—Departure from Fairbanks.
Trans-Alaska-Pipeline—Get a close-up view of the famous pipeline and learn interesting facts about the engineering and building period.
Arctic Circle—Have your picture taken at the Arctic Circle and receive your Arctic Circle Certificate.
Yukon River—Walk right to the edge of Alaska’s most famous river.
▲3: 00 pm—Arrival at your hotel in Fairbanks.
On the return journey to Fairbanks we pass many sites, which are perfect for possible northern lights viewing.
We provide ham (or veggie) sandwich, chips, sweets, two bottles of water and hot drinks. Please feel free to bring extra food.
CANCELLATION POLICY
Cancellations 30 days ahead of tour date are subject to 5% banking charge.
Cancellations within 30 days are non-refundable.
IMPORTANT
A minimum of 2 people is required for online booking. Single travelers and short notice reservations (within 7 days of tour date) always have to contact us for availability at info@1stAlaskaTours.com or 907-590-5900.
1. What can guests surely do on the tour?| A．Enjoy amazing northern lights. | B．See some wild animals in their habitat. |
| C．Go through the Trans-Alaska-Pipeline. | D．Get an Arctic Circle Certificate. |
| A．Cancelling a month before tour date. | B．Not crossing the Yukon River. |
| C．Booking within 7 days of tour date. | D．Not seeing northern lights. |
| A．In a geography textbook. | B．On a science website. |
| C．On a tour homepage. | D．In a photography journal. |
