1 . As COVID-19 hit and the world went into varying levels of lockdown (封锁), it became difficult for researchers to know what was happening in the ocean. But now, you can join the eOceans platform to help researchers gather data on oceans and ocean ecosystems in real-time.
Downloading the eOceans app on your smartphone and logging what you see when you are on the coast or in the ocean, including any animals, people, pollution or even an empty beach, you can help researchers monitor the world’s oceans. The app lets you note your observations as well as upload photos. This information is then linked to your geographical location and is made accessible to scientists studying that region. Using eOceans data, researchers can remotely monitor how oceans and coastal communities worldwide are happening, including in the context of the pandemic (疫情).
In reality, observations recorded through eOceans are already providing valuable insights. During Australia’s lockdown, for example, the largest group of turtles in the country’s history was spotted by researchers using eOceans data. And in Hawaii, data from the app suggests that clearer waters are associated with a reduction in tourists during the pandemic.
Negative impacts of the pandemic on the ocean have also been picked up through the app, including an increase in pollution from personal protective equipment, as well as pandemic-related interruptions to marine (海洋的) recovery following a 2019 oil leak in Brazilian waters. In future, data from eOceans could help enable early detection of hazards (危害), such as oil leaks, so that they can be dealt with sooner, says Christine Ward-Paige, founder and chief scientist at eOceans.
“Till now, more than 1,000 people have already joined the eOceans platform,” says Ward-Paige. “But more data on wild life spotted along coastlines, as well as information on how people are using these spaces, are still needed.”
1. How can people help researchers monitor the ocean through the eOceans platform?| A．By downloading and observing some data of hazards. |
| B．By spotting and marking the previous marine recovery. |
| C．By collecting and uploading timely oceanic information. |
| D．By detecting and reporting your present geographical location. |
| A．An oil leak occurring in Australian waters. |
| B．The largest turtle found in Australia’s history. |
| C．A factor contributing to clearer waters in Hawaii. |
| D．A boom of tourism appearing during the pandemic. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Anxious. |
| A．Keeping an eye on the ocean. | B．Caring about the ocean pollution. |
| C．Showing love to coastal creatures. | D．Monitoring the quality of seawater. |
2 . Israeli researchers say they have created the world's first three-dimensional, or 3D-printed heart using a patient's own cells. They described the experiment as "a major medical breakthrough." Tal Dvir, the lead researcher on the project, said in a statement that it was the first time that human cells had been used with 3D printing technology to successfully create a whole heart. Dvir added that the "printed" heart contains blood vessels which are needed to pump blood. The development marks a step forward for 3D printing in the medical field.
The researchers took samples of fatty tissue from patients. This material was then used to develop “ink” for the 3D printing process. First, the researchers created patches of tissue from the patient’s own cells. Later, they used that same process to create a small version of a whole heart. Using the patient’s own cells is important to reduce the risk that the body’s system to fight infection will reject a transplanted organ.
The goal, the researchers said, is to treat heart disease. The World Health Organization reports that heart disease is by far the leading cause of death worldwide. For patients with severe heart disease, a heart transplant is currently the main treatment available. The researchers hope their invention can help ease the demand for heart transplant donors.
Dvir says that the newly-created heart represents great progress. However, more research and development is needed to produce a fully operating, transplantable organ. One of the biggest challenges for the engineering team will be finding a way to create a human-sized heart.
Dvir said his team planned to transplant heart models designed for animals, possibly within the next year. He added that, for human use, “simpler organs” will likely be produced before hearts. “Maybe, in ten years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world,” Dvir said. He hopes such methods will be used “routinely” to produce organs in the future.
1. Why should patients’ own cells be used to create a 3D heart?| A．To avoid being rejected. | B．To make it suitable to print. |
| C．To fight infection. | D．To build up immune system. |
| A．To adopt printing technology. | B．To create human organs. |
| C．To treat heart disease. | D．To develop organ printers. |
| A．They will be developed to create organs routinely. |
| B．They will be widely used to treat different diseases. |
| C．They will be used to transplant organs for animals. |
| D．They will be applied to various fields in the world. |
| A．An artificial heart. | B．A major medical breakthrough |
| C．A scientific project | D．A great research team. |
3 . 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 |
4 . Humans are not the only ones who underwent self-domestication. So did our close relatives, the bonobos, and the species we call our best friend. A tiny proportion of the genome differentiates dogs from wolves, and yet millions of dogs are comfortably curled up in our homes, while wolves move around at the edge of extinction.
When our research group began its work almost 20 years ago, we discovered that dogs also have extraordinary intelligence: they can read our gestures better than any other species. Wolves, in contrast, are mysterious and unpredictable. Their home is the wilderness, and that wilderness is shrinking.
But not so long ago the evolutionary race between dogs and wolves was so close, it was unclear who would win. Dogs, in fact, did not descend from wolves. Instead, dogs and wolves shared a wolflike ancestor.
Folklore supposes that humans brought wolf puppies into camp and domesticated them. Or as wolf expert David Mech wrote in 1974, “Evidently early humans tamed wolves and domesticated them, eventually selectively breeding them and finally developing the domestic dog from them.” But this story has not held up. Taming an animal occurs during its lifetime. Domestication happens over generations and involves changes to the genome.
So how did wolves turn into dogs? Back in the Ice Age, as our human populations grew more sedentary, we probably created more rubbish, which we then dumped outside our camps. These leavings would have included tempting pieces of food for hungry wolves. Not every wolf would have been able to scavenge, however. These animals would have had to be unafraid of humans, and if they displayed any aggression toward us, they would have been killed. After generations of selection for friendliness without intentional selection by humans, this special population of wolves would have begun to take on a different appearance. Coat color, ears, tails: all probably started to change.
Animals that could respond to our gestures and voices would be extremely useful as hunting partners and guards. They would have been valuable as well for their warmth and companionship, and slowly we would have allowed them to move from outside our camps to our firesides. We did not domesticate dogs. The friendliest wolves domesticated themselves.
1. What can be summarized about wolves and dogs from the first three paragraphs?| A．Wolves are smarter than dogs. |
| B．They are very much racially divided. |
| C．They are close relatives but dogs seem to be on the winning side. |
| D．Dogs have made their ways to indoor life while wolves to the wild. |
| A．diverse | B．limited |
| C．living in the same place | D．involving regular migration |
| A．Dogs evolved from wolves. |
| B．Selective breeding developed domestic dogs. |
| C．Taming and domesticating an animal are the same thing. |
| D．Friendliness as a quality translates into an evolutionary strategy. |
| A．From Wolf to Dog | B．Dog: Our Favorite Pet |
| C．An Intentional Domestication | D．A Competition Story between Wolf and Dog |
