1 . A Universal Greeting: Shaking Hands
A handshake seems to be a normal gesture. In fact, in the 9th century BC, an ancient site during the ruling of Shalmaneser III clearly shows two figures holding hands.The Iliad,usually dated to the 8th century BC, mentions that two characters “taking each other's hands and expressing their loyalty," Centuries later, Shakespeare once wrote of two characters who shook hands and swore to be brothers in the bookAs You Like It.Shaking hands seems to be an ancient custom whose roots have disappeared in the sands of time.
Historians who have studied ancient etiquette books note that the modern handshake did not appear until the middle of the 19th century, when it was considered a slightly inappropriate gesture that could only be used between friends. But what if Shakespeare had written about handshaking hundreds of years earlier?
According to author Torbjorn Lundmark in hisTales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World,the problem comes in differing definitions of the handshake. The early handshakes mentioned above were part of making deals or peace; King Shalmaneser 111 referred to a rebellion in which he signed a treaty with the King of Babylon. In theIliad,Diomedes and Glaucus shook, hands when they realized they were guest-friends, and Diomedes declared: "Let's not try to kill each other." Shakespeare was similarly referencing settlement of a conflict.
The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to trace. As a Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg — the chief authority for the history of handshaking — wrote in a chapter of ananthologycalledA Cultural History of Gesture,“More than in any other field, that of the study of gesture is one in which the historian has to make the most of only a few clues”.
One of the earliest clues he cites is a 16th-century German translation of the French writer Rabelais'sGargantua and Pantagruel.When one character meets Gargantua, Rabelais writes, “He was greeted by countless hugs and countless good days." But according to Roodenburg, the 16th-century German translation added references to shaking hands.
A popular saying suggests that Cleland's statements against bowing were actually a wish to go back to a potentially traditional method of greeting in Europe. As the centuries progressed, handshaking was replaced by more hierarchical ways of greeting — like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in a few remote places, like in Dutch towns where some would use the gesture to make peace after disagreements. Around the same time, those who valued equality also made use of handshaking. Then, as the Continent's hierarchy was weakened, handshaking became a common practice among people of the same rank, as it is today.
1. Why does the author mention Shakespeare in the first two paragraphs?| A．To prove that the history of handshaking is hard to find. |
| B．To illustrate that handshaking is a very old custom. |
| C．To show readers that handshaking is common in fiction. |
| D．To explain the value of handshaking in communication. |
| A．The origin of handshaking as a form of greeting is easy to trace. |
| B．Citizens usually shake hands to show friendliness in Holland. |
| C．It was used only between friends and to reach an agreement. |
| D．It is a common practice between people of different social positions. |
| A．the science of mental ability | B．a collection of selected literary passages |
| C．a daily written record of experiences | D．all the living things of a particular region |
| A．The handshake has disappeared in some remote parts of the Netherlands. |
| B．Handshaking has different meanings in different European countries. |
| C．Most Europeans prefer to shake hands rather than bow. |
| D．Handshakes are now common between people of different positions. |
2 . I’m a talker. I am keen on debating, gossiping and teasing when I have people to talk to. Under lockdown, however, I’ve only had my partner, Peter.
We not only lived, worked and travelled together, we mostly socialized together, too. Under the first UK lockdown, our already closeness began to feel uncomfortable. While talking to Peter, I could see his attention drift.
For the first time in our 10 years together, we needed to be alone. I tried to manufacture this by going on walks on my own, but a short walk wasn’t doing the job. I had hiked in remote spaces all over the world but always in a pair or group — for safety reasons. I considered my options and hit upon an idea: the semi-solo hike.
Could we do a circular hike but walk in different directions? This would give us the space and peace of a solo hike — done by a person alone. It felt like a promising way out, and he agreed to give it a try.
We started with a four-mile loop (环路) from Reeth. At the start, we parted ways. At first, I was aware of how close we were, which lessened the appeal. As I gained ground, however, I found myself very much alone. I set my own pace, and I decided to take my time.
I sat on a rock and breathed out. That moment — with the weak sun through the clouds and the breeze blowing — felt extraordinary to me. I was born and raised in London and had never imagined leaving until I met an outdoorsman. Now, my former life as a city girl felt crazy. In remembering what I had gained, I felt the tension leave me. There, in the chilly air, I no longer needed to talk. The semi-solo hike gave us a shared experience with added room to breathe.
I didn’t see Peter on the way but reunited back where we started, both pleased.
The semi-solo hike is admittedly silly in theory, but for me it has been a lifeline. It has given me the gift of time alone and, in a year of constant closeness, the joy of reuniting.
1. What motivated the author to adopt the semi-solo hike?| A．Peter’s disinterest in her words. |
| B．Her habit of venturing into the wild. |
| C．The lack of privacy under lockdown. |
| D．Her desire to engage in outdoor exercise. |
| A．Their routes coincide sometimes during the hike. |
| B．They depart in a separate way to different destinations. |
| C．They hike in each other’s company throughout the journey. |
| D．They start and return to the same place by a different route. |
| A．Fearless and refreshed. | B．Free and relaxed. |
| C．Tense and depressed. | D．Upset and embarrassed. |
| A．An appropriate distance creates beauty. |
| B．There are more solutions than difficulties. |
| C．Access to nature is better than social circles. |
| D．Hiking helps improve interpersonal relationships. |
3 . At first glance Esther Okade seems like a normal 10-year-old. She loves dressing up as Elsa from “Frozen”, playing with Barbie dolls and going to the park or shopping. But what makes the British-Nigerian youngster stand out is the fact that she’s also a university student.
Esther, from Walsall, an industrial town in the UK’s West Midlands region, is one of the country’s youngest college freshmen. The talented 10-year-old enrolled at the Open University in January and is already top of the class, having recently scored 100% in an exam.
“It’s so interesting and super easy,” she laughs. “My mum taught me in a nice way.” She adds: “I want to finish the course in two years. Then I’m going to do my PhD in financial maths when I’m 13. I want to have my own bank by the time I’m 15 because I like numbers and I like people and banking is a great way to help people.”
And in case people think her parents have pushed her into starting university early, Esther disagrees. “I actually wanted to start when I was seven. But my mum didn’t agree.” After three years of begging, Mother Efe finally agreed to explore the idea.
Esther has always jumped ahead of her peers. Her mother noticed her daughter’s gift for figures shortly after she began homeschooling her at the age of three. Initially, Esther’s parents had enrolled her in a private school but after a few short weeks, the usually-energetic youngster refused to go back to that school because the teachers didn’t let her talk in class. In the UK, education is not compulsory until five, so Efe started to do little things at home by teaching basic number skills but Esther was miles ahead. By four, her natural talent for maths had seen the eager student move on to algebra (代数学) and quadratic equations (二次方程式).
And Esther isn’t the only maths miracle in the family. Her younger brother Isaiah, 6, will soon be sitting his first A-level exam in June.
1. Which of the following makes Esther Okade different from her normal peers?| A．She is the youngest college student in the UK. |
| B．She goes to university at a much earlier age. |
| C．She often gets full marks in maths exams. |
| D．She loves acting as a university student. |
| A．Esther thinks her parents expect too much of her |
| B．Esther cannot adapt herself well to college life |
| C．Esther asked to go to university even earlier |
| D．Esther dislikes being taught at home |
| A．The gene from her family. | B．Her course in the university. |
| C．The criticism from her teachers. | D．Her mother’s homeschooling. |
| A．is ambitious and has a clear goal | B．is creative and loves exploring the unknown |
| C．is rebellious but ready to help others | D．is energetic but reluctant to challenge herself |
| The Film: The Great Gatsby (Based on Fitzgerald’s Novel The Great Gatsby ) Director: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby |
| Film Reviews: If you have never read the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, now is your chance to catch up — by watching the latest film adaptation. Because if there’s one sentence to sum up the film, it would be: It’s just like the book. The use of music is almost reason enough to see the film. Baz Luhrmann is at his best mixing visual and musical styles together to create something wholly original, for example, in one of the most outstanding scenes in the film, the first party scene, Nick walks quickly from one party guest to another party guest trying to explain all the gossip about Gatsby until he is finally introduced to the man himself, while the most stirring version of Rhapsody in Blue (蓝色狂想曲), which was composed by American musician George Gershwin in 1924, is played in the background. ─ Fox News Director Baz Luhrmann’s main challenge was either to find a visual equivalent (相等物) for Fitzgerald’s elegant quality — the open secret of the book’s popularity for so long time – or to match his own unusual personal strengths with the material. He tries it both ways, with considerable degrees of success. Leonardo DiCaprio does a good and professional job as the socialite (社会名流) by recreating Fitzgerald’s description of Gatsby’s charm. He can look at someone for an instant and understand how, perfectly, he or she wants to be seen. ─ Time Magazine |
| About the Book and the Main Character: Considered to be Fitzgerald’s representative work, The Great Gatsby explores themes of idealism, resistance to change, social change, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a tale regarding the American Dream. Nick, the narrator, moves to New York for the summer to visit his cousin Daisy. His next-door neighbor is Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), who rarely contacts with others and is said to be a hero of the Great War. Gatsby claims to have attended Oxford University, but the evidence is suspect. As Nick learns more about Gatsby, every detail about him seems questionable, except his love for the Daisy. Though Daisy is married, Gatsby still loves her as his “golden girl”. They first met when she was a young lady from a wealthy family and he was a working-class military officer. Daisy promised to wait for his return from the war. However, she married Tom, a classmate of Nick’s. Having obtained a great fortune, Gatsby sets out to win her back again. |
| A．reveal the fact that Nick wants to know more about Gatsby |
| B．show the version of Rhapsody in Blue matches the film well |
| C．prove that the director is good at combining visual and music |
| D．convince us that the first scene is perfectly filmed by the director |
| A．He adapted the story in the novel as he wished. |
| B．He made the film more powerful than the book. |
| C．He mixed his style with the elegance of the book. |
| D．He changed the story to meet his own style. |
| A．Faithful and warm-hearted. | B．Charming and professional. |
| C．Selfish and timid. | D．Mysterious and devoted. |
5 . Identifying the chemical makeup of pigment (色素) used in ancient documents, paintings, and watercolors is critical to restoring and conserving the precious artworks. However, despite numerous efforts, scientists had been unable to determine the source of folium, a popular blue dye used to color manuscripts (手稿) in Europe during the middle ages — from the 5th to the 15th century. Now, a team of researchers from Portugal has finally uncovered the mysterious ingredient responsible for the gorgeous blueish-purple color that helped bring ancient illustrations and texts to life.
The research team began by poring over instructions penned by European dye makers from the 12th, 14th, and 15th centuries. They found what they were seeking in a 15th-century text entitled The Book on How to Make All the Color Paints for Illuminating Books. However, translating the instructions was no easy task. It was written in the now extinct Judaeo-Portuguese language, and though the source of the dye was traced back to a plant, no name was mentioned.
However, by piecing together suggestions from the text, the scientists were able to determine that the dye was made from the bluish-green berries of the chrozophora tinctoria plant. After an extensive search, the team found a few varieties of the plant growing along the roadside near the town of Monsaraz in south Portugal.
The detailed instructions gave the researchers critical clues — including the best time to pick the berries. “You need to squeeze the fruits, being careful not to break the seeds, and then to put them on linen (亚麻).” The scientist says the detail was important since broken seeds polluted the pigment, producing an inferior quality ink. The dyed linen, which was left to dry, was an efficient way to store and transport the pigment during ancient times. When needed, the artist would simply cut off a piece of the cloth and dip it with water to squeeze out the blue color.
Once the key ingredient had been identified, the researchers began to determine the dye’s molecular structure. To their surprise, they found that folium was not like any other known permanent blue dyes — it was an entirely new class of color, one they named chrozophoridin. “Chrozophoridin was used in ancient times to make a beautiful blue dye for painting.” the team wrote in the study. “Thus, we believe that this will not be our final word on this amazing plant and its story and that further discoveries will follow soon.”
1. The primary purpose of the study is to ________.| A．restore and conserve ancient precious artworks |
| B．determine the substance making up the folium |
| C．prove the ancient dye-making technique was organic |
| D．identify which class of color folium belongs to |
| A．discussing publicly | B．testing repeatedly |
| C．passing directly | D．reading carefully |
| A．It was essentially an inferior type of ink. |
| B．It was the only kind made from wild berries. |
| C．It could be carried and used easily. |
| D．It was carefully squeezed from broken seeds. |
| A．how the mystery of a thousand-year-old blue dye was solved |
| B．why the researchers took the trouble to recreate the dye |
| C．what needs to be done to make an organic dye from a plant |
| D．when and where the discovery of the dye was made |
 | ||||||
Keep learning, wherever you are | ||||||
Stay connected | ||||||
Is coronavirus affecting your education or work? Explore online courses to continue studying, build professional skills, and connect with experts.  | ||||||
Explore top online courses | ||||||
London School of Hygiene &Tropical Medicine COVID-19:Tackling the Novel Coronavirus | University of Michigan The Future of Payment Technology | CIPD-Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development HR fundamentals | ||||
 | ||||||
Browse subjects Online learning offers a new way to explore subjects you’re passionate about. Pursue your interests by exploring our subject categories: | ||||||
 |  |  |  | |||
 | ||||||
Who will you learn with? Get access to high quality learning wherever you are, with online courses, programs and degrees created by leading universities, business schools and specialist organizations.   | ||||||
Why FutureLearn? | ||||||
Learn anything | Learn together | Learn with experts | ||||
Whether you want to develop as a professional or discover a new hobby, there’s an online course for that. You can even take your learning further with online programs and degrees. | Join millions of people from around the world learning together. Online learning is as easy and natural as chatting with a group of friends. | Meet educators from top universities and cultural institutions, who’ll share their experience through videos, articles, quizzes and discussions. | ||||
FutureLearn’s purpose is to transform access to education. | Be the first to hear about our latest courses by signing up to our mailing list. | |||||
 | ||||||
| A．students who want to learn at home |
| B．teachers who want to improve their teaching skills |
| C．businessmen who want to improve their business |
| D．people from all walks of life who want to learn something online |
| A．courses | B．subjects | C．partners | D．fees |
| A．FutureLearn provides users with the flexibility to pursue their own interests. |
| B．Learners can access high-quality learning at FutureLearn. |
| C．FutureLearn aims to totally change access to education. |
| D．This website aims to recruit new users for FutureLearn. |
7 . Earlier this year a series of papers in The Lancet reported that 85 percent of the $265 billion spent each year on medical research is wasted because too often absolutely nothing happens after initial results of a study are published. No follow-up investigations to replicate(复制) or expand on a discovery. No one uses the findings to build new technologies.
The problem is not just what happens after publication — scientists often have trouble choosing the right questions and properly designing studies to answer them. Too many studies test too few subjects to arrive at firm conclusions. Researchers publish reports on hundreds of treatments for diseases that work in animal models but not in humans. Drug companies find themselves unable to reproduce promising drug targets published by the best academic institutions. The growing recognition that something has gone wrong in the laboratory has led to calls for, as one might guess, more research on research — attempts to find rules to ensure that peer-reviewed studies are, in fact, valid.
It will take a concerted effort by scientists and other stakeholders to fix this problem. We can do so by exploring ways to make scientific investigation more reliable and efficient. These may include collaborative team science, study registration, stronger study designs and statistical tools, and better peer review, along with making scientific data widely available so that others can replicate experiments, therefore building trust in the conclusions of those studies.
Reproducing other scientists’ analyses or replicating their results has too often in the past been looked down on with a kind of “me-too” derision(嘲笑) that would waste resources — but often they may help avoid false leads that would have been even more wasteful. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to replication is the inaccessibility of data and results necessary to rerun the analyses that went into the original experiments. Searching for such information can be extremely difficult. Investigators die, move and change jobs; computers crash; online links malfunction. Data are sometimes lost — even, as one researcher claimed when confronted about spurious(伪造的) results, eaten by termites(白蚁).
There has definitely been some recent progress. An increasing number of journals, including Nature and Science, have adopted measures such as checklists for study design and reporting while improving statistical review and encouraging access to data. Several funding agencies, meanwhile, have asked that researchers outline their plans for sharing data before they can receive a government grant.
But it will take much more to achieve a lasting culture change. Investigators should be rewarded for performing good science rather than just getting statistically significant (“positive”) but nonreplicable results. Revising the present incentive(激励) structure may require changes on the part of journals, funders, universities and other research institutions.
1. What is the problem reported in those papers in The Lancet?| A．Great achievements in medical research failed to get published. |
| B．Money was wasted on follow-up investigations in medical research. |
| C．Too many new research findings are not put into use after publication. |
| D．Few scientists are devoted to building new technologies for mankind. |
| A．A high school decides to cut its art programs due to the lack of fund. |
| B．A patient gets sicker because he does not follow the doctor’s advice. |
| C．A marketing firm tests a website with participants that are not target population. |
| D．A drug company fails to produce the new drug due to no access to the latest data. |
| A．Measures are taken to ensure publication of tested results only. |
| B．Scientific experiments must be replicable to be considered valid. |
| C．Experiment replication is unoriginal and not worthwhile. |
| D．Rewards should be given only to those nonreplicable findings. |
| A．argue that scientific research lacks efficiency |
| B．explain the result of a recent scientific study |
| C．introduce some recent progress in medical research |
| D．highlight the possible problems of research studies |
