1 . When it comes to figuring out the link between well-being and access to nature, there are big confusing factors. To begin with, what is psychological(心理的)well-being? The World Health Organization defines(下定义)mental health as “a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can deal with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. That is hard to quantify.
Then there is the question of what “access to nature” means. Some studies measure passive access, or how much green space is available in someone’s local area. Others look at active access, which is the actual exposure a person gets to green space. That makes it difficult to compare results and build a coherent(协调的)picture.
A few researchers have tried to assess what the proper dose(剂量)of nature might be. A 2019 study involving almost 20,000 participants in England concluded that at least 120 minutes a week of recreational(消遣的)nature contact was connected with good health or well-being. The team, led by Mathew White, found that the effect peaks at between 200 and 300 minutes a week, with people reporting no further gain after that.
What exactly this means for you—or any individual—is unclear. As other studies indicate, the mental health benefits a person gets from access to nature are likely to be influenced by many factors, including age, gender, personality features, personal preferences and socio-economic status. Your culture matters too—and, so far, most research into the well-being effects of nature has been done in Western societies.
1. Which of the following might mean mental health according to WHO?| A．Ignoring ones’ own abilities. | B．Complaining about stresses. |
| C．Communicating effectively. | D．Having high productivity. |
| A．50 minutes. | B．150 minutes. | C．250 minutes. | D．350 minutes. |
| A．Studies haven’t provided any results so far. |
| B．Studies haven’t considered all the factors. |
| C．Studies were only done in Western societies. |
| D．Studies have misled the public over the results. |
| A．Why does nature affect health? | B．Who does nature influence? |
| C．How much nature do I need? | D．How does nature benefit people? |
2 . If you've been dreaming of having an electric car, but can't yet afford to buy one, you can start at a low price, really low. Changli, the world's cheapest electric car, can be ordered online and sent to your door for just $ 930.
Designed and produced by Chinese maker Changzhou Xili Car Industry, Changli, and Changli Nemeca is a small electric car that has got lots of attention online after being advertised as the world's most affordable electric car. Calling this thing a car is kind of stretching it a bit, as its electric motor can only produce 1.16 horsepower, and it has a top speed of only 30. km/h. Still, it does come with some interesting features, like air-conditioning, independent suspension, heater, radio and even reverse-view camera. But the most impressive thing about Changli in my opinion, is that you can have it sent to your doorstep.
Anyone who can just order Changli Nemeca online can have it mailed to them without having to pay extra money to the dealership. Changli measures 2.5 meters long, 1.5 meter wide, and 1.8 meters high, weighs 323 kilograms and can carry up to 30 kilograms.
The two-seat version starts at $ 930($ 1,200 with larger batteries), but you can choose a three-seat version as well, which will cost you $ 1,50. The battery of the small electric car is between 40 and 10 kilometers per charge and the batteries take between 7 and 10 hours to charge.
While Changli Nemeca won't be going head to head with other electric cars anytime soon it's still an amazing piece of machinery for the price. Where else are you going to find full functional electric cars that you can have mailed to your door.
1. Why does the author think Changli electric car is the most impressive?| A．Because of its design. | B．Because it's convenient. |
| C．Because it's light and cheap. | D．Because of its appearance. |
| A．Its producer. | B．Its users. | C．Its production. | D．Its features. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By listing numbers. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By reasoning. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Pessimistic. | C．Uncertain. | D．Hopeless. |
3 . The Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins of Shark Bay in Western Australia have an unusual way of obtaining food.
They drive fish into a large, empty marine gastropod shell. Then they carry the shell and captured(捕捉)fish up to the surface, and shake it upside down. Then, the fish go straight down into the dolphins' stomachs. It's called shelling, only the second tool use recorded among dolphins, and the first that dolphins have been seen learning from their friends, just like great apes.
The dolphins were first observed using tools over 20 years ago, slipping sea sponges over their beaks(喙)to protect them as they searched for food. This behaviour is called sponging, and it allows the dolphins to access food in deeper water channels than non-sponging dolphins.
Sponging is a skill passed down from mothers to daughters-a type of learning called vertical transmission. But there is another kind of learning, horizontal social transition, in which individuals pick up skills from their social peers-their friends.
There are similarities between dolphin and great ape societies that have led scientists to believe that dolphins should be capable of horizontal leaning.
Now a team of researchers led by behavioural ecologist Sonja Wild of the University of Konstanz in Germany has finally identified it.
Their data comes from over a decade's worth of observations. Between 2007 and 2018, the researchers documented over 1.000 individual dolphins across nearly 5,300 encounters with the animals.
They used genetic, behavioural and environment data to model the likely transmission pathways, and found that shelling was likely spread among friends, rather than passed down from parents.
This opens the door to a new understanding of how dolphins may be able to behaviourally adapt to changing environments.
In 2011, a large marine heatwave destroyed the seagrass habitat of Shark Bay, in which the dolphins search for food. This resulted in a die-off of both fish and the invertebrates that live in the giant shells that the dolphins use for their fishing, and, afterwards there was an immediate increase in the dolphin's shelling behaviour. It's possible that both the decrease in fish and the increase in shells could have played a role in this uptick.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The process of shelling. | B．The importance of tool use. |
| C．The eating habits of dolphins. | D．The similarity between dolphins and apes. |
| A．It is used by most dolphins. | B．It is a skill newer than shelling. |
| C．It is passed down from mothers. | D．It is helpful in searching for food. |
| A．It is easier than sponging. | B．It is a tradition among them. |
| C．Their food has become less. | D．Their fishing tools are fewer. |
| A．Shelling or Sponging, Dolphins Have the Final Say |
| B．Dolphins Are Learning Tool Use from Their Friends |
| C．Changing Environments Are Affecting Dolphins' Life |
| D．The Second Tool Use Among Sea Animals Was Recorded |
4 . Happiness is not a warm phone, according to a new study exploring the link between young life satisfaction and screen time. The study was led by professor of psychology Jean M. Twenge at San Diego State University (SDSU).
To research this link, Twenge, along with colleagues Gabrielle Martin at SDSU and W. Keith Campbell at the University of Georgia, dealt with data from the Monitoring the Future (MtF) study, a nationally representative survey of more than a million U. S. 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. The survey asked students questions about how often they spent time on their Phones, tablets and computers, as well as questions about their face-to-face social interactions and their overall happiness.
On average found that teens who spent more time in front of screen devices — playing computer games, using social media, texting and video chatting — were less happy than those who invested more time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interactions.
"The key to digital media use and happiness is limited use," Twenge said. "Aim to spend no more than two hours a day on digital media, and try to increase the amount of time you spend seeing friends face-to-face and exercising — two activities reliably linked to greater happiness."
Looking at historical trends from the same age groups since the 1990s, it's easy to find that the increase of screen devices over time happened at the same time as a general drop-off in reported happiness in U. S. teens. Specifically, young peopled life satisfaction and happiness declined sharply after 2012. That's the year when the percentage of Americans who owned a smartphone rose above 50 percent. By far the largest change in teens' lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the following decline in in-person social activities and sleep.
1. Which method did Twenge's team use for the study?| A．Calculating students' happiness. |
| B．Asking students certain questions. |
| C．Analyzing data from a survey. |
| D．Doing experiments on screen time. |
| A．By making a comparison. |
| B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making an argument. |
| D．By introducing a concept. |
| A．To draw a conclusion from the study. |
| B．To offer some advice to the readers. |
| C．To prove social activities' importance. |
| D．To support the researchers' finding. |
| A．Quitting Phones Equals Happiness |
| B．Screen Time Should Be Banned |
| C．Teens' Lives Have Changed Sharply |
| D．Screen-addicted Teens Are Unhappier |
5 . Traffic jams are the horrible dreams of motorists’ lives. If you think your journey is bad, spare a thought for drivers in Sao Paolo, Brazil — one evening in May last year, the traffic jams during the rush hour added up to a 344km queue, according to the city's traffic management agency.
This isn't a new problem, of course. During the car boom of the 1960s, city planners had one seemingly obvious solution: build more and wider roads. But the more roads created, the more cars they attracted. So what's the solution? Some cities have adopted easy methods, like banning cars from driving on certain days.
However, ending this horrible dream may need more of a complete rethink. A company, Urban Engines, has a slightly fresher method. "We're providing an online game that offers trip suggestions and prizes to encourage commuter behaviour changes, including changing travel from peak to off-peak times,“ says Shiva Shivakumar, Urban Engines' co-founder and GEO. For the past two-and-a-half years, the company has conducted pilot studies in major cities, including Bangalore and Singapore. In Bangalore, one-in-six people who took part in the trial started travelling off-peak, and in Singapore one-in-eight.
But others think this solution doesn't go far enough—and that we should provide more reasons for putting fewer cars on the road. “The only effective long-term solution is to improve alternative methods—walking, cycling and particularly high-quality public transport,” says Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute in Canada. Road pricing that charges motorists extra if they drive during the rush hour could also be an option. Cities like Singapore, London and Stockholm have successfully used road pricing to control the steel river.
The solution to beating traffic jams in cities, if it comes, will probably take a long time to gain prizes. But if at least some of these new ideas are a success, the days of Sao Paolo's heavy traffic jams may finally become history.
1. What can we learn about the method of building wider roads?| A．It results in the car boom. | B．It is far from satisfactory. |
| C．It needs to be further tested. | D．It is unlikely to be widely used. |
| A．It charges commuters for travelling at peak times. |
| B．It changes its working time to avoid peak times. |
| C．It bans commuters from driving on certain days. |
| D．It offers prizes to those travelling at off-peak times. |
| A．The traffic flow. | B．The traffic light. |
| C．The public transport. | D．The crowd of people. |
| A．How Do Traffic Jams Form | B．Can We Ever End Traffic Jams |
| C．Do Traffic Jams Affect Our Life | D．Where Is the Most Jammed City |
6 . More than half the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 the UN expects that proportion to reach 68%. This means more homes, roads and other infrastructure. In India alone, a city the size of Chicago will have to be developed every year to meet demand for housing. Such a construction increase is a bad sign for dealing with climate change, because making steel and concrete, two of the most common building materials, generates around 8% of the world’s CO2 emissions (排放). If cities are to expand and become greener at the same time, they will have to be made from something else.
Wood is one of the most promising sustainable (可持续的) alternatives to steel and concrete. It is not, however, everyday wood that is attracting the interest of architects.
Rather, it is a material called engineered timber. This is a combination of different layers, each designed to meet the requirements of specific parts such as floors, panels and beams (横梁). Designers can use it to provide levels of strength like steel, in a product that is up to 80% lighter. In addition, engineered timber is usually made into large sections in a factory for future use, which reduces the number of deliveries to a construction site.
According to Michael Ramage of the University of Cambridge, a wooden building produces 75% less CO2 than a steel and concrete one of the same size. However, if building with wood takes off, it does raise concern about there being enough trees to go round. But with sustainably managed forests that should not be a problem, says Dr Ramage. A family-sized apartment requires about 30 cubic metres of timber, and he estimates Europe’s sustainable forests alone grow that amount every seven seconds. Nor is fire a risk, for engineered timber does not burn easily. Besides, fireproofing layers can be added to the timber. All in all, then, it looks as if wood as a building material may get a new lease of life.
1. Why is India mentioned in paragraph 1?| A．To point out the severe pollution. |
| B．To predict the population increase. |
| C．To indicate the high degree of urbanization. |
| D．To show the great need for building materials. |
| A．It is produced at a low cost. |
| B．It hardly appeals to architects. |
| C．It helps save energy in transportation. |
| D．It possesses greater strength than steel. |
| A．Becomes cheaper. | B．Gains popularity. |
| C．Requires less work. | D．Proves sustainable. |
| A．Making Future Cities More Attractive |
| B．Living in a World with Less Emission |
| C．Building Sustainable Cities with Woods |
| D．Growing More Trees for Future Building |
7 . The planets Jupiter (木星) and Saturn (土星) have been moving closer and closer to each other in the night sky. In fact, on December 21 , they appeared closer together than they have been in hundreds of years.
When two astronomical bodies appear close in the sky, as seen from Earth, it is called 4 conjunction (合相). Conjunctions can happen with any two bodies, such as planets, moons, stars and asteroids (小行星). When Jupiter and Saturn come together, it is called a "Great Conjunction".
Astronomers say these events between the two largest planets in our solar system are not rare. Jupiter passes its neighbor Saturn once every 20 years as they circle around the sun. But this conjunction is especially close: From Earth, the two planets will look to be just one-tenth of a degree apart. That is about the distance of one-fifth of a full moon.
If weather permits, they should be easy to see just after sundown. This just-in-time-for-Christmas sight promises to be one of the greatest of Great Conjunctions. What makes this modern Great Conjunction different is that it is happening at nighttime. The last time that happened was almost 800 years ago.
Saturn and Jupiter have been getting closer in the sough-southwest sky for weeks. Jupiter, which is bigger and closer to Earth, is much brighter. The two planets might look like one body if viewed with eyes alone. If sky watchers use telescopes they should be able to see the planets as separate. Saturn will be the smaller, less-bright body at Jupiter's upper right.
Even though they appear close, more than 730 million kilometers of space lies between them. Observers using telescopes will not only see Jupiter and Saturn in the same field of view, but also some of their brightest moons. Their next close pairing will happen on March 15, 2080.
1. What do astronomers think of planets getting close to each other?| A．Controllable. | B．Unimaginable. |
| C．Common. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．The time when it takes place. |
| B．The part of sky where it happens. |
| C．The distance between the two planets. |
| D．The brightness of the two planets. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Two Planets Reach Especially near Earth |
| B．Jupiter and Saturn Come Together in the Night Sky |
| C．Conjunctions of Planets Excite Astronomers |
| D．Good Chances to Observe Jupiter and Saturn Appear |
