1 . One of Britain' s most outstanding scientists says the growth in the use of electronic tablets and smart phones is causing people to spend so much time indoors that they need to take regular vitamin D supplements to make up for the lack of sunlight they receive naturally.
Geneticist Steve Jones said he himself was a follower to the cause and urged others to follow. “I never thought I would be a person who would take vitamin supplements；I always thought it was absolute nonsense. But now I take vitamin D every day. Today, because I knew the sun wasn't going to shine, I took an extra one,” he said.
Exposure to the sun is the major source of vitamin D. However, people are spending less and less time outdoors in many areas. The problem is particularly serious in Scotland. "The Scots are the whitest people in the world because their entire body systems are crying out for vitamin D," he said, adding that life expectancy in Scotland is two years shorter than in England or Wales. Multiple sclerosis (多发性硬化症), a medical condition which is often seen in northern Europe, is also higher in Scotland than in England.
Vitamin D helps with the absorption of Ca, which helps keep bones strong. And Jones said the fact that rickets (佝偻病) was making a comeback in Britain after nearly 50 years was another sign of how changing behavior patterns were bringing physical harm.
Jones admitted that concerns over the damaging effects on skin of long-time exposure to the sun were reasonable, but said sunlight was healthy and necessary for the human body, and could help in lowering blood pressure. "If you lie on the beach for an hour, you will drop your blood pressure by about 10 points, because it relaxes your blood vessels (血管). So, get out in the sun while we still can," he said.
1. How are people affected by the rise of technology according to the text?| A．They are more sensitive to sunlight |
| B．They take more vitamin D supplements. |
| C．They get less vitamin D than before. |
| D．They become addicted to electronic games. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Cautious. |
| C．Worried. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Because they are in great need of sunlight. |
| B．Because their blood pressure is very low. |
| C．Because they enjoy a short period of sunshine. |
| D．Because they are easy to get multiple sclerosis. |
| A．Get out and gain more Vitamin D |
| B．Keep away from tablets and phones |
| C．Pay attention to the importance of sunlight |
| D．Take vitamin D supplements to keep healthy |
2 . A few degrees can make a big difference when it comes to food storage. Foods can go bad if they get too warm. But for many of the world’s poor, finding a good way to keep food cool is difficult. Refrigerators are costly and they need electricity.
Yet spoiled food not only creates health risks but also economic losses. Farmers lose money when they have to throw away products that they cannot sell quickly.
But in nineteen ninety-five a teacher in northern Nigeria named Mohammed Bah Abba found a solution. He developed the “Pot-in-Pot Preservation/Cooling System.” It uses two round containers made of clay. A smaller pot is placed inside a larger one. The space between the two pots is filled with wet sand. The inner pot can be filled with fruit, vegetables or drinks. A wet cloth covers the whole cooling system.
Food stored in the smaller pot is kept from spoiling through a simple evaporation(蒸发) process. Water in the sand between the two pots evaporates through the surface of the larger pot, where drier outside air is moving.
The evaporation process creates a drop in temperature of several degrees. This cools the inner pot and helps keep food safe from harmful bacteria. Some foods can be kept fresh this way for several weeks.
People throughout Nigeria began using the invention. And it became popular with farmers in other African countries. Mohammed Bah Abba personally financed the first five thousand pot-in-pot systems for his own community and five villages nearby.
In two thousand, the Rolex Watch Company of Switzerland honored him with the Rolex Award for Enterprise. This award recognizes people trying to develop projects aimed at improving human knowledge and well-being. A committee considers projects in science and medicine, technology, exploration and discovery, the environment and cultural history. Winners receive financial assistance to help develop and extend their projects.
1. What keeps the food fresh in the container from spoiling?| A．The wet cloth covering the cooling system. |
| B．The moving drier air outside the container. |
| C．A drop in temperature by evaporation. |
| D．The wet sand between the containers. |
| A．Rich and advanced families. |
| B．Poor and underdeveloped areas. |
| C．Scientific experiment laboratories. |
| D．Supermarkets needing to store goods |
| A．financed the systems in all communities |
| B．invented the controversial cooling system |
| C．received financial assistance for his invention |
| D．invented a more complex cooling system later |
| A．Spoiled Food Creates Health Risks and Economic Losses |
| B．The Evaporation Process Creates a Drop in Temperature |
| C．A Few Degrees Can Make a Big Difference for Storage |
| D．A Cooling Way to Keep Food from Spoiling |
3 . Chances of Stone County
Chances of Stone County promotes opportunities for children with developmental disabilities living in Stone County to live more satisfying lives by building friendships, leadership development, and increasing disability awareness. For more information, visitwww.chancesofstonecounty.org or call 9092892913.
Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield
Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield are serving the youth to help them realize their potential for growth and development. Offering individual and group services, programs are based on principles of behavioral guidance, which will achieve the social, educational, professional and leadership development. For more information, visit www.bcl.org or call 4178629249.
Di Ventures
Di Ventures offers safe and fun swim lessons for children of all ages and skill levels. Learning to swim is a life-saving skill and an activity that children can continue to enjoy throughout adulthood. Swimming is great for heart and lung health, improves strength and increases stamina(耐力). Happy Swim Times are perfect for practicing strokes(划水) and enjoying the water together for parents and their children. For more information, visit www.diventures.comor call 4178835151.
Care to Learn
Care to Learn serves children in rural area schools with immediate money to meet basic needs for health, hunger and cleanliness so every child can be successful in school. There are currently 24 Care to Learn chapters in Missouri helping students every day. For more information, visit www.caretolearnfund.org or call 4178627771.
1. Whom is Chances of Stone County designed for?| A．The poor children. | B．The clever children. |
| C．The disabled children. | D．The injured children. |
| A．Chances of Stone County. | B．Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield. |
| C．Care to Learn. | D．Di Ventures. |
| A．Teachers may be interested in the information. |
| B．The information might be got by phone or from Internet. |
| C．Boys and Girls Clubs help to shape kids’ personalities. |
| D．Kids in urban area can turn to Care to Learn for help. |
4 . Along Utah's Highway 68 in the small community of Elberta, Utah stands an industrial dome(圆屋顶)． Inside is a futuristic collection of shelves, towering 25 feet tall. The dome is home to a vertical farm, which doesn't grow food for humans but for cows.
Three years ago, Lance Bateman and his three brothers agreed to be part of a pilot project that would use vertical farming to grow and feed the cows for their dairy and beef farm, Bateman Mosida Farms. Grov Technologies, an agriculture tech company in Vineyard, Utah, partnered with Batemans on the project and developed all the equipment for the vertical farm.
The brothers are now using six towers to pump out fresh wheatgrass for their herd of 20,000 cows 365 days a year. The vertical farm takes up about 857 square feet of space, but it does the work that would be required on 35 to 50 acres of land, according to Grov Technologies. Supporters claim vertical farms use 95% less water than in conventional field farming. A full harvest cycle in the Bateman's farm takes anywhere from five to seven days, starting with a tray of seeds that is carried to the top of the tower and rotated on wheels through the entire structure.
Bateman says each tower provides about 2,800 pounds of feed each day, which is only about two percent of what his cows eat in a day. His farm grows feed conventionally when it can and buys the rest. The farm is also planning to install four more towers within the next six weeks.
According to Bateman,studies conducted by Grov Technologies in 2019 found that, when the cows were fed 12-15% of the vertical farm's feed in their diets, they produced more milk or at the same pace while eating less feed overall, ultimately improving the farm's bottom line.
“A farm is an expensive venture, but I know with this facility, we can compete, especially with different climate scenarios(说明）across the world,”he says. “I believe this will make farming available in areas where it hasn't been able to happen. ”
1. What's the purpose of the writer by writing the second paragraph?| A．To describe how the vertical farm works. |
| B．To value the history of the vertical farm. |
| C．To show the structure of the vertical farm. |
| D．To explain how the vertical farm came into being. |
| A．It has replaced conventional farming. |
| B．It needs more acres of land to work. |
| C．It is water-conserving and efficient. |
| D．It is relatively easy to maintain. |
| A．70,000 pounds. | B．72,800 pounds. | C．140,000 pounds. | D．142,800 pounds. |
| A．Vertical farming has a promising future. |
| B．Vertical farming remains to be improved. |
| C．Competition is usually an expensive venture. |
| D．Farming won't happen with climate scenarios. |
5 . In a world first, scientists have cloned a rare, endangered Przewalski's horse named Kurt at San Diego zoo in the US. Little Kurt looks like any other baby horse as he plays happily in his pen(围栏).
He isn't afraid to kick or head butt anyone who gets in his way and when he's hungry, dashes over to his mother for milk.
Scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals. The first was Dolly the sheep in the UK in 1996. Other species include dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo ponies and, in China in 2018, a monkey.
The zoo sees Kurt's birth as a milestone in efforts to restore the population of the horse also known as the Asiatic Wild Horse or Mongolian Wild Horse. The small animals ( they stand only about 1.2m to 1.5m tall) are believed extinct in the wild and number only about 2,000 in zoos and wildlife habitats. Their limited gene pool puts them at a reproductive disadvantage.
“This horse is expected to be one of the most genetically important individuals of his species,” Bob Wiese, chief life sciences officer at San Diego Zoo Global, which operates the zoo, said in a statement. “We are hopeful that he will bring back genetic variation important for the future of the Przewalski's horse population. ”
Although only 2 months old Kurt's birth was made possible in 1980 when cells were taken from a 5-year-old male horse and put in deep freeze at San Diego's Frozen Zoo facility. His father died in 1998.
Kurt was named for Kurt Benirschke, who played a key role in founding the Frozen Zoo.
“A central belief of the Frozen Zoo, when it was established by Dr Benirschke, was that it would be used for purposes not possible at the time. ” said Oliver Ryder, director of genetics at San Diego Zoo Global.
Kurt was born at a veterinary(兽医的) facility in Texas,US,where he'll continue to live with his mother for most likely another year. Eventually he'll become part of the zoo's Przewalski's horse population, where it's hoped someday he'll become a father himself.
1. According to the passage, many mammals have been cloned except______.| A．Przewalski's horses |
| B．polar bears |
| C．monkeys |
| D．sheep |
| A．Because it will be the first one to live in the wild. |
| B．Because it is the only cloned one close to extinction. |
| C．Because it's expected to become the lead horse. |
| D．Because it may help recover the genetic variation. |
| A．He behaved differently from others when he was young. |
| B．He doesn't have a father as a cloned one in the laboratory. |
| C．The cells for cloning have been preserved for over 40 years. |
| D．Its name comes from the discoverer of the Przewalski's horse. |
| A．Protecting endangered animals that may be hard to save for the moment. |
| B．Providing necessary facilities to help people clone endangered animals. |
| C．Encouraging people to insist on their purposes that may hard to achieve. |
| D．Forming a central belief that it would be useful someday in the near future. |
6 . Free school meals are back in the news. Footballer Marcus Rashford’s petition(请愿书) to extend free school meals provision(供给) into the school holidays has collected 1.1 million signatures, causing the government to reverse policy. It has restarted the debate over free school meals, fuelled, most recently, by figures forecasting that if the government ends as planned the current £20 top-up(附加款), another 200,000 children will slip into poverty. This is in addition to the 550,000 children already living in poverty previous to Covid-19.
The roots of the current school meals system lie in the mid-19th century. In Manchester, independent charities as well as official bodies started to provide free meals for undernourished children in the 1870s. When education became compulsory in the following decades, the extent of the issue became apparent. Proponents of feeding starving children pointed out that it was due to government order that children were in school, not working and contributing to the family food budget, so the government should pay.
Reception was mixed. Then, as now, children rejected foods they weren’t used to. Diaries of the time talk of “little bags of mystery” (sausages). Some children were put off brassicas(芥菜类) for life. Finding the balance between cheap and good proved hard. The chief medical officer talked about the lack in calorie value and elements of a well-balanced diet which a needy child does not get at home, such as milk, cheese, eggs, green vegetables, fruit and meat”. In 1980, the Tory government, desperate to cut costs, made provision largely optional and abolished nutritional standards. Over the next 15 years convenience and cost became the most important.
Today, school meals provision is linked to benefits: in England around 17 per cent of children are entitled to free school meals. Provision is outsourced(外包), leading to huge variation. In the last year, we’ve seen all of the age-old debates repeated once more. How do we decide who is entitled? How do we guarantee quality? Who decides what children eat? Who pays? Undernutrition does not just have physical effects, but also affects behavior and ability to learn. It has a lifelong impact. The arguments around free school meals seem never to end. But they are hugely important and, until poverty is ended, they will not and should not go away.
1. Why did Marcus Rashford start the petition?| A．To feed an increasing number of children in poverty. |
| B．To restart the debate over free school meals. |
| C．To raise fund for hunger relief for children. |
| D．To lift children out of poverty. |
| A．Officials. | B．Charities. |
| C．Advocates. | D．Critics. |
| A．Some children liked brassicas provided in the school. |
| B．School meals were both tasty and cheap. |
| C．School meals failed to meet children’s nutritional needs. |
| D．The Tory government chose nutrition over cost. |
| A．Never-ending. | B．Meaningless. |
| C．Influential. | D．Necessary. |
7 . A few plants in the cabbage and mustard (芥菜) family pay a dramatic price to fight off hungry caterpillars (毛毛虫): they kill off patches of their own leaves where butterflies have laid eggs. Without a living anchor, the eggs wrinkle and die. These plants’ egg-killing abilities have been documented since at least the 1980s, but a new study shows they appear in just a few closely related plants in this family — and they are triggered only by certain butterfly species.
Nina Fatouros of Wageningen University in the Netherlands and her colleagues investigated 31 plant species in the target family. First, they dabbed the plants’ leaves with liquid that had been exposed to egg material from a butterfly species known to lay eggs on them. Four closely related plant species reliably killed off the treated leaf patches. Further tests confirmed that the species with the most distinct response only reacted strongly when the egg material came from one group of butterflies, Pieris, which lays eggs on these plants in the wild. This is “clear evidence” that specific butterfly species could have stimulated the evolution of the necrosis (坏死) defense, Fatouros says. The researchers also tracked eggs laid by wild butterflies to confirm the defense mechanism. The work was detailed in New Phytologist.
“It’s very unlikely that you find this by coincidence,” says University of Sheffield molecular plant biologist Jurriaan Ton, who was not involved in the study. He adds that the plants’ relatedness, coupled with their exaggerated reaction to these butterflies, suggests a heated evolutionary “arms race” took place between the plants and insects.
“This is the first study to my knowledge where they really looked at the appearance of this trait within a particular plant family,” says ecologist Julia Koricheva, who was also not involved in the work.
Future research could explore how recently the trait evolved, Fatouros says. She notes that arms races rarely end—and evidence suggests the butterflies may be fighting back. Some prefer to lay their eggs in tightly grouped clusters(丛), making them less likely to be influenced by the plants’ strategy.
1. What is special about Nina Fatouros’ study?| A．It found the plants’ egg-killing abilities for the first time. |
| B．It pointed out the price plants paid to defend themselves. |
| C．It discovered a new species of egg-killing plants. |
| D．It narrowed down the range of the plant-butterfly interaction. |
| A．To see whether they would sacrifice their leaves. |
| B．To stimulate their defense mechanism. |
| C．To find out which species reacted most strongly to the liquid. |
| D．To track eggs laid by wild butterflies. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Approving. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．Survival strategies of plants |
| B．Evolution of plants against hungry caterpillars |
| C．Killer leaves emerge from plant-butterfly arms race |
| D．The relatedness of plants and butterflies |
8 . I saw in my rearview mirror that a large SUV headed straight for my car at a breakneck speed. My heart and mind started racing, and panic (恐慌)instantly set in.
With fear in my voice, I started saying out loud, "Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!", making my friend who was with me immediately scared and puzzled. I was sure that within mere seconds, we were going to be knocked from behind by a careless vehicle clearly going over 100 miles per hour in heavy traffic.
Unable to change lanes or speed up because of cars on all sides, I just prepared myself for the impact. But thank goodness, the driver missed hitting my car by an inch as he went into the lane beside me, nearly hitting another vehicle, tires screeching (刺耳声)and burning, filling the air with clouds of smoke. He continued dashing in and out of traffic, causing more near-collisions, and then quickly disappeared into the distance.
As I sat there surprised, loosening my fingers from the steering wheel, my friend and I began to talk about what if we had been hit. How life could have been changed in an instant(瞬间)or even ended.
I thought about my precious children, my husband, my family and things undone. I wondered whether I would have regrets if that had been my last day. I began to consider if I was truly enjoying and embracing(拥抱) my life, even if it hadn't turned out the way I thought it would or should. I couldn't help but ask myself if I was by accident taking for granted the pure blessing of waking up every morning and being given another day, and if I was spending time being unhappy because of difficult circumstances instead of living with joy.
1. Why was the author stuck in panic?| A．The road was too crowded. | B．A rude driver attacked her. |
| C．She drove at too high a speed. | D．An accident seemed to happen. |
| A．She took no action. | B．She sped up her car. |
| C．She gave others a warning. | D．She drove into another lane. |
| A．That day. | B．That car. |
| C．The author's life. | D．The author's family. |
| A．Behind bad luck comes good luck. | B．Love me, love my dog. |
| C．Live in the present moment. | D．Value our friends and family. |
9 . Almost every family buys as least one copy of a newspaper every day. Some people subscribe to as many as two or three different newspapers. But why do people read newspapers?
Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings--battles lost and won, kings or rulers overthrown(推翻)or killed--took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate. Today we can read in our newspapers of important events that occur in faraway countries on the same day they happen.
Apart from supplying news from all over the world, newspapers give us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, radio, television and film guides, book reviews, stories, and of course, advertisements. The bigger ones are put in by large companies to bring attention to their products. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for the advertising space, but it is worth the money for news of their products goes into almost every home in the country. For those who produce newspapers, advertisements are also very important. Money earned from advertisements makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit.
1. The phrase “subscribe to” in the first paragraph means“________”| A．go to the newspaper stand and buy | B．send their own news stories to |
| C．agree to buy for a specific period of time | D．become faithful readers of |
| A．bad news traveled quickly and good news slowly |
| B．few people cared about events that took place in faraway countries |
| C．kings and rulers were often overthrown or killed |
| D．news was passed from one person to another |
| A．wasted | B．not much |
| C．well spent | D．of no use to anyone |
| A．Five hundred years ago it took a long time for news to reach other countries. |
| B．Newspaper advertisements turn people’s attention away from their products. |
| C．The news that we read in newspapers is mainly about new products. |
| D．When newspapers are sold at a low price, the newspaper producers will lose money. |
10 . Two words can sum up the life of Dr. Catana Starks—determination and achievement. Now the story of one of her many accomplishments—she’s the first African-American woman in history to coach a male college sports team—is a movie!
The story is about Starks, who was the golf coach at her alma mater(母校) Tennessee State University, a traditionally Black College in Nashville. Starks’ distinctive coaching style and her achievements in the face of many challenges in her position and in life is what will leave audiences inspired. She had to drive the team bus, wash her players’ golf clothes, and had to constantly find places for her team to practice. Starks credits her strength to one woman in her life—her mother.
A native of Mobile, Alabama, Starks was diagnosed with severe asthma(哮喘). Doctors told her mother she could never participate in sports. “My mother, she had an almost mystical belief of not being limited by circumstances”, says Starks, “so I grew up with a basketball goal in the backyard.” Asthma wasn’t the only challenge; she grew up in the segregated(被隔离的) South of the 1940s, “I learned to swim. I had to walk four miles in Mobile to get to a Black pool”.
After getting the men’s golf coach job, Starks couldn’t find golfers. None of the males on campus would play. “Initially that didn’t work out because I was female,” said Starks. She had to innovate by recruiting internationally, via telephone. The calls attracted players from Sweden to South Africa. During nearly twenty years in her charge her former players have distinguished themselves throughout the world including: Sam Puryear, the former Michigan State University golf coach-the first African American in its history, and Robert Dinwiddie, an All-American golfer at TSU and a current member of the European Tour having achieved three consecutive Top-10 finishes in South Africa. Starks’ determination really paid off when the T-State Tigers won the National Minority Golf Championship in 2005. And another distinction for her career, ninety percent of the players graduated!
1. Which of the following is NOT a challenge Starks faced in her career?| A．Being the team bus driver. |
| B．Doing the laundry for her players. |
| C．Walking to the Black swimming pool. |
| D．Finding venues for team practice. |
| A．An optimistic attitude towards life. |
| B．A strong will to overcome tough situations. |
| C．A willingness to push the limits of her body. |
| D．Her distinctive coaching style. |
| A．racial discrimination | B．her gender |
| C．her physical condition | D．her lack of experience |
| A．like teacher like student | B．education is the key to success |
| C．practice makes perfect | D．equality is greater than division |
