1 . It is the stock response to a parent struggling with a crying baby or a bad-tempered teenager: “Treasure every moment because they grow up so fast.” Now researchers have found there may be something in the old saying. Watching children grow up really does seem to make time fly. Scientists have found that parents feel time passing more quickly than non-parents.
The findings could be due to the fact that children change fast. “Over ten years, children go through dramatic changes not only in their physical appearance, but also in their understanding abilities and their status, ” the researchers said. The results could also be a consequence of parents spending a large amount of their time on their children, they said, even though they found no difference in the time pressures recorded by parents compared with non-parents in the study.
For the study, published in the journal Timing & Time Perception (感知), the researchers asked 431 people aged from 20 to 59 to fill in a subjective time questionnaire, a tool used by psychologists to measure time perception. They were asked: “How fast did the last ten years pass for you?” An answer of very slowly gave a score of-2; slowly was-I; neither fast nor slow was 0; fast was I and very fast scored 2. So the higher the score, the faster they felt time had passed. The parents had an average score of I. 22, compared with 0. 76 for the non-parents.
Participants were also asked how quickly the last year, month and week had passed, but there were no differences between the groups for these shorter intervals (间隔). Previous studies have suggested that time also seems to speed up when we get older. Research published in 2019 by Duke University in North Carolina suggests this could be due to physical changes in our bodies, with a slowdown in image processing speeding up our perception of time passing.
Days that seemed to last forever in our youth were “not due to experiences being much deeper or meaningful”, the researcher Adrian Bejan said, “but due to the fact that they were being processed rapidly.”
1. What probably makes parents feel time passing more quickly than non-parents?| A．The pressure of raising children. | B．Devoting much time to children. |
| C．The slowdown in image processing. | D．Noticing children’s daily physical growth. |
| A．Time seems to speed up for the young. |
| B．Parents responded differently to the old saying. |
| C．Non-parents have deeper experiences. |
| D．The older people are, the higher scores they may get. |
| A．Experiences. | B．Researchers. | C．Days. | D．Youths. |
| A．The perception of time passing. |
| B．Teenagers experience dramatic changes. |
| C．Time really flies when you are having children. |
| D．Comparison between parents and non-parents. |
2 . Regardless of whether or not you are young, there are particular habits that give away your true age. Like falling asleep on the very thought of a second glass of wine, some issues simply sign to the world that you are just over 40. Now, a brand-new study reveals that there is one factor you do along with your smartphone that reveals your age: turning to a PIN(personal identification number) to unlock your telephone rather than a fingerprint or facial recognition means you are of an older technology.
The study, carried out by researchers on the University of British Columbia, explored the links between age and smartphone use by remotely monitoring smartphone customers' habits. “As researchers working to protect smartphones from illegal access, we need to first understand how users use their devices,” defined Konstantin Beznosov, a professor involved in the research.
To get more information, the researchers selected 134 volunteers, ranging in age from 19 to 63, and had them set up a tailored app to their Android telephones for two months. The app recorded all of their lock and unlock occasions, together with whether or not they choose auto or guide lock, and the actions of the telephone on the time of unlocking. This is how they found the generational variations in unlocking habits.
The researchers additionally collected information on the size of consumer periods. The staff discovered that along with an individual's most popular technique for unlocking their telephones, the period of time spent on the telephone additionally related with age.
As one report on the study explains “Study showed that older users used their phone less frequently than younger users. For every10-year- interval in age, accordingly there was a 25 per cent decrease in the number of user sessions. In other words, a 25-year-old might use their phone 20 times a day, but a 35-year-old might use it only 15 times.”
So, in case you unlock your smartphone by hand, you may chalk it as much as a generational desire.
1. What will a man in his sixties probably use to unlock his phone?| A．Passwords. | B．Fingerprint. | C．Facial recognition. | D．Voice control. |
| A．Gaining illegal access. | B．Checking their phones. |
| C．Using special app. | D．Recording with cameras. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．four. |
| A．Unlocking says your age | B．Secrets to smartphones safe |
| C．Smartphones change our lives | D．Ways to unlock your smartphones |
3 . Queen Bey is now the most-winning female artist, and the most-winning singer, in the 63-year history of the Grammy Awards. She earned 28 trophies including this Sunday's wins for best music video for "Brown Skin Girl" and best rap performance for her "Savage" cooperation with Megan Thee Stallion. She walked into the show with nine nominations, more than anyone else this year.
“As an artist, I believe it's my job, and all of our jobs, to picture the era. It's been such a difficult time,” she said in her acceptance speech “So I wanted to sing high praise for all the beautiful Black queens and kings that continue to inspire me and inspire the whole world. This is so overwhelming.” she continued.
Beyonce's Grammy-grabbing music career has continued more than 20 years. Her new title puts her among the ranks of artists such as classical music conductor Sir Georg Solti, who has won 31 Grammy trophies and producer Quincy Jones, who also has 28 trophies. She behaved better than previous female record-holder bluegrass singer Alison Krauss, who holds 27 awards. While Beyonce doesn't even need two names to be recognized, she has many names and identities taking her to Grammy glory. As a young superstar with girl group Destiny's Child, she scored awards for "Say My Name" and "Survivor." She played the legendary Etta James in the film "Cadillac Records," landing her best traditional R&B performance for "At Last".
She is the activist and historian telling the stories of Black people through her award-winning "Formation" music video and visual album "Lemonade". She, with her husband Mr. Carter, put their love story on display with the album "Everything is Love," and she is the director, producer, star of "Homecoming." The combination of all these things makes her today's Grammy legend.
1. How many trophies did Beyonce win in this year's Grammy Awards?| A．Two. | B．Nine. | C．Twenty-eight. | D．Sixty-three. |
| A．Support for her work. | B．One of her work goals. |
| C．Reasons for her winning. | D．Comments on her music. |
| A．Her influence on others. | B．Her roles in making music. |
| C．The achievements in her career. | D．The comparison with other artists. |
| A．Great and generous. | B．Successful and responsible. |
| C．Energetic and romantic. | D．Humorous and professional. |
4 . The COVID -19 pandemic has changed life as we knew it just a few weeks ago. Millions of people worldwide are now under required or voluntary lockdowns. All public attractions, including museums and aquariums, are closed, and the usually crowded streets of popular tourist destinations are empty. An unexpected silver lining during these challenging times for humans is that many animals are finally getting a chance to leave their normal habitats and move about freely.
The first animals to take advantage of human absence were Annie and Edward, two penguins who live at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. A video released on March 15, 2020, showed the couple eagerly duckwalking around, exploring the aquarium's various exhibits. The video, which instantly became popular, inspired other institutions to share short videos of their four-legged creatures playing as well.
The Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio joined the fun trend on March 16, 2020，with a “Home Safari” live-stream series-the first staring its adorable baby panda，Fiona. “Let us help make your children's hiatus from school fun and educational,” zoo officials announced. “Join us for a Home Safari Online Live each weekday at 3 pm，where we will highlight one of our amazing animals and include an activity you can do from home.
Meanwhile，the San Diego Safari Park has kept their webcams（网络摄像头）rolling，allowing fans to enjoy lovable animals without leaving home. Animals in the wild are also lively as humans stay indoors. The absence of cruise ships is bringing large numbers of dolphins to a port in Cagliari，while groups of wild turkeys are happily walking on the streets of Oakland.
Though the animals indeed appear to be having a good time，the heartwarming videos and images shared on social media, are also bringing much -needed cheer to millions of humans worldwide. Stay strong and healthy! We are all in this together!
1. What changes has the COVID-19 pandemic caused to the zoo animals?| A．They are now under required or voluntary lockdowns. |
| B．They can enjoy a free life without tourists' disturbance. |
| C．They will be faced with unexpected existing challenges. |
| D．They get a chance to wander about freely in the wild. |
| A．Courses. | B．Sightseeing. | C．Activities. | D．Interruption. |
| A．To enable people to admire animals at home. |
| B．To film the animals wandering about in the zoo. |
| C．To compete for more viewers online. |
| D．To record people's life in the COVID-19 crisis. |
| A．The Pandemic Affects the World |
| B．Lovely Animals Bring fun to People |
| C．Animals Play in the Absence of Humans |
| D．Stay Strong and Healthy in the Pandemic |
5 . In 1998, people in Na Doi, a quiet village in northwest Thailand, noticed that their fish catches in the nearby Ngao River were declining. The fish they did manage to net were also getting smaller. Together, Na Doi’s 75 households decided to try a new solution: they would set aside a small stretch of river to be strictly off-limits to fishing.
The rules are usually simple: no fishing of any kind in an agreed-upon area marked by flags or signs. While freshwater reserves won’t solve everything, in places where fish populations are under pressure, they can give species much-needed breathing room to rebuild their numbers, ultimately making them better able to weather other environmental problems.
Na Doi was the second village in the Ngao River valley to adopt this pioneering approach to freshwater fisheries management. Since the late 1990s, at least 50 other villages there have done the same. As a whole, the entirely grassroots-led reserves have been surprisingly successful, according to findings recently published in Nature. Most importantly, the Thailand case provides probably the best real-world proof that fisheries reserves can benefit not just oceans, but freshwater, too
In 2012. Aaron Koning, then a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, began investigating the Ngao River valley reserves to see how widespread and successful they truly were. Koning found, not surprisingly, that older and bigger reserves were more successful, because they offered more time and space—including more kinds of habitat—in which to rebuild fish populations and re-establish rare species. But even reserves established in the last couple of years showed clear benefits from being spared intense fishing pressure. “Reserves that were located closer to a village tended to have an advantage,” Koning says, “probably because villagers were better able to enforce the rules.”
By comparing different systems and approaches around the world, Koning and his colleagues hope to identify common factors for success that could be tailored to diverse rivers and lakes.
1. What drove Na Doi to create freshwater reserves?| A．The declining of the freshwater. |
| B．The success of the nearby villages. |
| C．The increasing fish populations. |
| D．The worsening of the fishing conditions. |
| A．Fisheries reserves are helpful in freshwater. |
| B．Thailand is a pioneer in fisheries management. |
| C．The Thailand approach has been applied worldwide. |
| D．Many fish species need to rebuild their numbers, |
| A．had better rules | B．were bigger and older |
| C．had more fish populations | D．were created more recently |
| A．Grassroots-led Reserves Inspire the Worlds |
| B．Fisheries Reserves Benefit Thailand Rivers |
| C．Investigate the Ngao River Valley Reserves |
| D．Na Doi Is Leading Thailand to a Better Future |
6 . The urgency and importance of Covid-19 over (he past year have driven almost everything else from most leaders5 minds. But since the vaccine is kicking in, Britain's government is once again beginning to think about the things that will matter later. Next week, it is expected to publish a 'plan for growth“ to boost productivity, with innovation at its centre.
The world may be on the point of a technological boom with life sciences, at which Britain excels. Innovation is crucial to productivity, but on this front Britain's performance has lagged behind its competitors' in recent years. Its low spending on Research and Development (R&D) argues for a boost. Those who attributed the financial failure in the 1970s to the insufficiency of research funds may regard this as a threat to economic growth. Promoting innovation can quickly (um into an exercise in picking winners - or, as is more often the case, losers.
A second danger is that policy agendas get mixed up. The government has promised to "level up” poorer areas of the country, so deprived towns are campaigning for more money for their universities. But trying to boost innovation by sending money to weak institutions is likely to make our leading universities lose their advantages, thus producing average ideas that could have been remarkable. Britain's research-funding system has always been elitist(精英主义的). It should stay that way.
The government's first move in boosting innovation was the announcement of a plan for an Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). ARlA's purpose is to fund high-risk, high-reward research. But money is not all that mailers. The successful translation of life science research into treatments during the pandemic suggests some inexpensive measures that can also make a difference.
One is to speed up governmental processes. The rapidity with which Britain's medical regulator moved during the pandemic is one reason why the vaccine rollout is racing through the population. Urgency is not unique lo pandemics. Getting things done quickly can make an investment worthwhile and determine where a businessman chooses as a base.
Another useful measure the government should use is its unique ability to overcome barriers. At the beginning of the pandemic. Covid-19 researchers were unable to gain access to different strands of health service data. The government eased restrictions on existing data and allowed researchers to ask people who had tested positive tor Covid-19 to join trials. Both were crucial to the effort.
A last principle is the value of connections between the government and the private sector. Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist who led the vaccine-purchase effort, understood how to deal with drug companies. Many of the civil servants working with her had commercial experience. The governments closeness to business during the pandemic has been criticized. But without it, the vaccine effort would not have succeeded.
Innovation took human beings from caves to computers. Good education, a welcoming immigration policy and a friendly business environment will do most to tend it. But a new sensible principles can help keep the flame burning.
1. What does the underlined word "this" in Paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Investing insufficient money in innovation. | B．Promoting innovation in technology. |
| C．Applying science results to practical uses. | D．Distributing funds to weak institutions. |
| A．Britain's research-funding system will remain elitist. |
| B．Weak institutions are more likely to produce remarkable results. |
| C．The outstanding universities will be unable to exhibit remarkable ideas. |
| D．Both poor and rich areas in the country will develop in a balanced way. |
| A．A businessman is more willing to set up business where governments show high efficiency. |
| B．The administrative abilities are so unique to the government that they actually yield little fruit. |
| C．The government ceased the cooperation with private sectors for the criticism they had received. |
| D．The rollout of the vaccine was made possible mainly because the public responded quickly. |
| A．How Governments Fuel the Sparks of Innovation |
| B．Why the Brits Struggle in the Tech Race |
| C．How Governments Benefit from Innovation |
| D．What People Gain with the Light of Technology |
7 . For most people, graduation is an exciting day the celebration of years of hard work. My graduation day... was not.
I remember that weekend two years ago. Family and friends had flown in from across the country to watch our class walk across that stage. But like everyone else in my graduating class, I had watched the economy turn from bad to worse. What I thought would take a week dragged into two. and then four, and 100 job applications later, I found myself in the exact same spot as 1 was before. And the due date to begin paying back my student loans was creeping ever closer.
You know that feeling when you wake up and you are just consumed with fear? Fear about something you can't control—that sense of approaching failure that remains over you as you hope that everything that happened to you thus far was just a bad dream? That feeling became a constant in my life. And the most frustrating part was no matter how much 1 tried, 1 just couldn't seem to make any progress.
So what did I do to maintain my sanity（理智）？ I wrote. Something about putting words on a page made everything seem a little clearer—a little brighter. Something about writing gave me hope. And if you want something badly enough... sometimes a little hope is all you need! So I channeled my frustration into a children's book. And then one day, without any sort of writing degree or contacts in the writing world — just a lol of hard work and perseverance—I was offered a publishing contract for my first book! After that, things slowly began to fall into place. 1 was offered a second book deal. Then, a few months later, I got an interview with The Walt Disney Company and was hired shortly after.
The moral of this story is... don't give up. Even if things look bleak now, don't give up. Things change If you work hard, give it time, and don't give up, things will always get better Oftentimes all we need is the courage to push beyond the river.
1. From Paragraph 2, we can learn that the author probably.| A．was having an exciting graduation |
| B．was getting into financial difficulties |
| C．missed the life in the university |
| D．had just applied for the student loans |
| A．By sending applications. | B．By offering contracts. |
| C．By keeping writing. | D．By publishing books. |
| A．unattractive | B．hopeless |
| C．thrilling | D．promising |
| A．Success belongs to the persevering. |
| B．A contented mind is a perpetual（长久的）feast. |
| C．A smooth sea never makes a skillful mariner. |
| D．Misfortunes tell us what fortune is. |
8 . Crocodiles today look very similar to ones from 200 million years ago. There are also very few species alive today---just 25. Other animals such as lizards（蜥蜴）and birds have achieved a diversity of many thousands of species in the same amount of time or less.
Prehistory also saw types of crocodile we don't see today, including giants as big as dinosaurs, plant-eaters, fast runners and snake-like forms that lived in the sea. The rate of their evolution is generally slow, but occasionally they evolve more quickly because the environment has changed. In particular, their evolution speeds up when the climate is warmer, and their body size increases.
The body size of crocodiles is important because it interacts with how fast animals grow, how much food they need, how big their populations are and how likely they are to become extinct. The limited diversity of crocodiles and their apparent lack of evolution is a result of a slow evolutionary rate. It seems the crocodiles arrived at a body plan that was very efficient and perfect enough that they didn't need to change it in order to survive. This perfection could be one explanation why crocodiles survived Cretaceous period（白垩纪）, in which the dinosaurs died out.
Crocodiles generally develop better in warm conditions because they cannot control their body temperature and require warmth from the environment. The climate during the age of dinosaurs was warmer than it is today, and that may explain why there were many more varieties of crocodiles than we see now. Being able to draw energy from the sun means they do not need to eat as much as a warm-blooded animal like a bird or a mammal（哺乳动物）.
1. What influenced the evolution of crocodiles most?| A．Their number. | B．The climate. | C．Their habits. | D．Food resources. |
| A．As a result of their good appetite. |
| B．Because of their perfect body type. |
| C．Owing to so many dinosaurs around. |
| D．Due to their limited ability to reproduce. |
| A．are warm-blooded animals | B．like cold living conditions |
| C．eat less than mammals | D．are fiercer than dinosaurs |
| A．The history of crocodiles, |
| B．Ancient animals' evolution. |
| C．Residents of the Cretaceous period. |
| D．The "stop-start" pattern of crocodiles' evolution. |
9 . For hundreds of years, Africans have preserved their history through storytelling. But some Africans worry that oral traditions will be lost to the Internet connections and social media.
This has led a Nigerian woman named Elizabeth Kperrun to create a mobile phone application as a way to preserve African folk stories. She calls her mobile app AfroTalez, which tells children’s stories that teach moral lessons.
“We can’t teach kids something by telling them, ‘Don’t do this’. I think kids need context to understand. In a story somebody stole something and then something bad happened to them. Alternatively, somebody else did something good and they ended up happy or rich.”
“Hello children. My name is Liz and I’d like to tell you a story about tortoises, elephants, and ...” The voice of “Aunt Liz” narrates the story, while a full-screen animation appears. An arrow signals when it’s time to move on. There are also quizzes on object recognition and counting throughout.
Kperrun asks her older relatives to help her collect stories for the application. The stories come from an ethnic group living in southeast Nigeria and northwest Cameroon. “I want to keep it centered on folk stories, not the ones that Walt Disney has made really popular... It’s fair and respectful to keep certain cultures alive because folk stories are part of the tapestry that keeps cultures together.” Kperrun once said.
Kperrun writes and reads the stories. Her business partner and husband Idamiebi Ilamina-Eremie does the animation (动画).
AfroTalez is available for Android users and can be downloaded for free. So far, AfroTalez has more than 50,000 users. Funding for the app has been a major challenge. Kperrun hopes to use a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the next version of AfroTalez to be released soon.
Kperrun believes technology doesn’t have to destroy or replace traditions. Her goal is to combine them to keep African culture alive. She says “Africa is our home, but we are so eager to become Western that we are forgetting things that are really important and should be passed on of who we are, and I don’t think that’s right.”
1. What caused Elizabeth Kperrun to create the mobile app AfroTalez?| A．Desiring to make money through the Internet. |
| B．Planning to keep technology replacing traditions. |
| C．Dreaming of launching a crowdfunding campaign. |
| D．Worrying about the disappearance of African oral traditions. |
| A．are narrated by Kperrun’s husband |
| B．are familiar to today’s African children |
| C．are as popular as those of Walt Disney’s |
| D．are means to teach children moral lessons |
| A．will destroy African traditions |
| B．is free for Android users |
| C．has released two versions |
| D．faces no financial problems |
| A．Mobile App seeks to preserve African folktales |
| B．African people pass on traditions by storytelling |
| C．It is unwise for a nation to learn from western countries blindly |
| D．Social media lead to the disappearance of African Oral traditions |
10 . Delivering medical supplies to hard-to-reach places has been an issue for years. Worldwide, more than two billion people lack access to essential life-saving supplies, such as blood and vaccines（疫苗）. In the African nation of Rwanda, for example, several remote health clinics do not have sufficient quantities of blood and other healthcare products. A company called Zipline is trying to address this problem. It uses drones（无人机）to transport medical supplies around Rwanda. A drone can now deliver medicine in 30 minutes.
Drones are also assisting emergency organizations after natural disasters. In 2015, for example, a powerful hurricane destroyed thousands of buildings in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Around 75,000 people lost their homes, and at least 15 died. After the storm, drones photographed the damage. These surveys helped emergency workers assess the situation quickly and answer important questions: Which areas were hardest hit? Were crops damaged? What roads were affected?
Drones are also helping to protect wildlife populations in parts of Africa and Asia. Every year, poachers（偷猎者） kill thousands of elephants, rhinos, and other endangered animals. To stop them; the environmental organization World Wildlife Fund is using drones to find where poachers are hiding and if they are carrying weapons. Equipped with infrared video cameras, drones can easily identify people and animals at night. These drones are not only helpful, they are affordable.
As well as finding poachers, drones can be used to track animals. Scientists at Liverpool John Moores University （LJMU）plan to employ drones for an ambitious conservation project: documenting the world's wildlife. The long-term project will start with scientific surveys of animal populations. And animal species can then be identified using special software.
Ironically（讽刺地）, a tool originally created for military use is increasingly being used to save lives instead of taking then. Drones have the potential to provide solutions that will benefit both humans and animals.
1. What does the text focus on?| A．Importance of saving lives. |
| B．Development of drones. |
| C．Applications of drones. |
| D．Ways to protect animals. |
| A．Helping predict disasters. |
| B．Providing data for evaluation. |
| C．Organizing emergency workers. |
| D．Reporting local weather. |
| A．Track poachers. |
| B．Design new practical drones. |
| C．Record wild animals in detail. |
| D．Develop an assessing software. |
| A．They need to be fitted with video cameras. |
| B．They are unavailable to ordinary people. |
| C．They should be limited to military use. |
| D．They have a promising prospect. |
