1 . Bumblebees(大黄蜂）aren't simply dancing around our gardens.Now,a new study suggests that bumblebees force plants to flower by making small bites in their leaves.
Consuelo De Moraes,a scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, noticed bumblebees making tiny bites in the leaves of their greenhouse plants.The insects didn't seem to be carrying off the bits of leaves to their nests or eating them.
Supposing the bees were causing the plants to flower,Consuelo De Moraes and his team set up a series of experiments.They placed flowerless tomato plants and two kinds of worker bees in cages.The bees fed with enough pollen(花粉）seldom damaged the plants,while the ones without having pollen for three days busily did so.Scientists then removed the plants after the bees made five to ten holes in their leaves.The small holes caused the tomato plants to flower a month sooner than usual.
＂In a sense,the bees are signaling,'Hey,we need food.Please speed up your flowering, and we'll pollinate(授粉）you."said Lars Chittka,a behavioral scientist at Queen Mary University of London.
To make sure that their discoveries didn't result from the man-made conditions in the lab, the scientists placed bumblebees and a variety of flowerless plant species on their Zurich rooftop in late March 2018.The bees were free to fly as far as they could.Yet they set to work damaging the leaves on all the non-flowering plants nearest to their nests.The bees lost interest in this activity toward the end of April as more flowers came out,according to the study.
The research is of great value,for it can increase the human food supply.However,some questions remain to be answered,like"Why do the bites cause the plants to flower?"and ＂Does flowering early lead to higher fitness for the plants?"
1. Why did the bumblebees bite the leaves?| A．Because they wanted to eat the leaves. |
| B．Because they were to get pollen to eat. |
| C．Because they were exercising to be stronger. |
| D．Because they would carry the leaves to the nests. |
| A．Dancing on the leaves. |
| B．Flying as far as they could. |
| C．Making small holes in the leaves. |
| D．Damaging the flowers near their nests. |
| A．Humans may produce more food. |
| B．Bumblebees can have more to eat. |
| C．Some plants can have more flowers. |
| D．Some plants will gain higher fitness. |
| A．Bumblebees speed up plants flowering by biting leaves. |
| B．Human food supply will largely depend on bumblebees. |
| C．Bumblebees like to damage the plants nearest their nests. |
| D．Rooftop plants flower more than the ones in greenhouses. |
2 . Hanukkah (光明节) is a Jewish festival. It is celebrated on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev (犹太教历), which is usually sometime in December. It is often called the festival of lights. The festival celebrates the time, over 2，000 years ago, when the Jewish people fought against an emperor who would not let them follow their own traditions and religion. When the Jewish people won back their temple in Jerusalem, they found there was only little holy oil to keep the sacred light burning for one day. However, to their surprise, this small amount of oil kept the light burning for eight days and nights until the people had time to make more oil.
At the center of the Hanukkah celebrations is a candlestick (called a Menorah) that holds nine candles. On the first night of Hanukkah the first candle is lit, and each day this candle is used to light another candle, until on the eighth day, the last day, all the candles are lit. During Hanukkah, people go to the synagogue (犹太教堂) to pray and to remember the miracle (奇迹) of the holy oil. Hanukkah is a time for family and friends to come together. People exchange gifts and greeting cards, and children go to parties. Parents often give their children money at Hanukkah. Potato cakes, called latkes, are a traditional Hanukkah food.
1. From the first paragraph we know that Hanukkah is a festival about ________.| A．Jewish month of Kislev | B．Jewish traditions and religion |
| C．how to make more holy oil | D．traditional Hanukkah food |
| A．Oil. | B．Money. | C．Cards. | D．Candles. |
| A．The war that they fought 2，000 years ago. |
| B．The God that they honored best. |
| C．The miracle of the holy oil that happened 2，000 years ago. |
| D．The church they built 2，000 years ago. |
| A．the history of Hanukkah and how it is celebrated |
| B．why Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah |
| C．why Jewish people protect their traditions |
| D．the miracle of the holy oil in the Jewish temple |
3 . A walk through the galleries of Quebec's Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) places individuals face-to-face with some 43,000 artworks ranging from Chinese ceramics (陶瓷制品) to Inuit sculpture.
While the visiting is an incredible cultural experience, a group of local physicians will soon be able to prescribe(开处方) museum visits as treatment for some illnesses.
Hélène Boyer, vice president of a Montreal-based medical association, explains that museum visits have been shown to increase levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter (神经传导物质) known as the "happy chemical" which helps to lift mood.
According to Boyer, the small increase in hormones(荷尔蒙)associated with enjoying an afternoon of art is similar to that offered by exercise, making museum prescriptions ideal for the elderly experiencing pain that prevents them from regularly joining in physical activity.
The museum visits are designed to improve traditional methods. As Bondil notes, spending time in a peaceful environment can provide a welcome distraction. "What is most important is this experience can help them escape from their own pain," she says. "When you enter the museum, you escape from the speed of our daily life."
"I am convinced that in the 21st century, culture will be what physical activity was for health in the 20th century," said Bondil. " Some people would do well to recall that just in the 19th century, sports were believed to do harm to the body. Just as doctors now prescribe exercise, they will be able to prescribe a visit to the MMFA."
1. What does Hélène Boyer think of museum visits?| A．They can cheer people up. | B．They can reduce physical activity. |
| C．They can slow down our life pace. | D．They can increase levels of art appreciation. |
| A．Stop them concentrating on pain. |
| B．Stop them focusing on traditional methods. |
| C．Encourage them not to be absent-minded. |
| D．Encourage them to slow their steps while walking. |
| A．Physical activities were popular in the 19th century. |
| B．Sports are considered to be harmful to the body. |
| C．Ideas of treating illnesses are changing over time. |
| D．Doctors prescribe museum visits regularly now. |
| A．Museum visits are ideal for the elderly. | B．Happy chemical helps to lift mood. |
| C．Peaceful environment helps escape pain. | D．Cultural activities will promote health |
4 . You can’t see it with your own eyes，but your smart-phone is likely to be covered with bacteria- perhaps even more so than your toilet seat. That's a lot of dangerous microbes（微生物）floating around, and yes, it is terribly dirty.
In this age of global travel and trade, it’s more important than ever to cut down on possible routes of infection and to stop bacteria and viruses spreading from person to person. Part of that means making sure your phone isn’t sending anything more than data.
And besides the potential health risks of a dirty phone, there's also the simple annoyance of looking at a screen that’s covered in fingerprints and other oily spots that are part of life with a smart-phone.
In short, you’ve got plenty of reasons to regularly give your phone a thorough clean. Not just during a pandemic（大流行病），either-we should be thinking about keeping our phones bacteria free all the time, says microbiologist Paul Turner, a professor at Yale University.
After all, we touch our phones all the time and many of us are relatively careless about cleaning them. “It sets the stage for kind of concern,” Turner says. “People could be handling phones and picking up any bacteria or virus that can attach to a surface and survive for a period of time.”
Take SARS-CoV-2, the corona- virus（冠状病毒）that causes the COVID-19, for example. Scientists are still trying to get solid evidence, but early research suggests that it can survive on plastic or stainless steel（不锈钢）surfaces for two or three days. That means you could be washing your hands perfectly well, but immediately picking the virus up again as soon as you reach for your phone.
You could be doing everything right（like washing your hands and staying away from people），but
if there’s a contaminated surface in your home or your pocket, you could expose yourself to the virus anyway, Turner says.
1. Why does the author mention the toilet seat?
| A．To draw a vivid picture of a dirty phone. |
| B．To show how dirty a toilet seat is. |
| C．To add some background information. |
| D．To introduce a topic for discussion. |
| A．Simply washing our hands is not enough. |
| B．Scientists have got solid evidence of the COVID-19. |
| C．The corona-virus can survive on smooth surfaces for 2 or 3 weeks. |
| D．The author suggests washing our hands before using our phones. |
| A．A stainless steel. | B．A deadly virus. |
| C．A clean phone. | D．An infectious phone. |
| A．You may get infected with your dirty phone. |
| B．You are supposed to wash your hands. |
| C．You’d better clean your dirty phone. |
| D．You’d better throw away your dirty phone. |
5 . Only three local students won Chinese Blog (博客) Competition. And 15 of the 18 awards went to students from China.
170 students' task: to get a fully-designed blog up and running, complete with many positions based on a theme of choice--- to food blogs.
The entries were judged on Language proficiency(熟练程度) and the quality of writing, as well as the design and level of exchanging ideas with readers.
Academics from the National University of Singapore and the SIM University, IT experts, and a journalist from Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore made up the judges.
In the end, only three Singaporean students make it to the award list---the rest of the awards were swept up by students from China.
"No surprise," said Mr. Chow Yaw Long, 37, teachers-in-charge from Innova Junior College, which organized the event, "Although the topics were local subjects, the foreign students were generally better because of the content of the posts and their grasp of the Chinese language."
One of the three local students winning the first prize in the Best Language Award was blogger Christina Gao, 19, from the Saint Andrew's Junior College, who spared no effors in researching for and writing her blog. Each entry took her between five and seven days to produce, complete with pictures and even podcasts (播客).
Her advice for bloggers is: Be responsible.
"Some bloggers out there only seek to blame the authorities and other bloggers." Said Miss Gao, "I think they lack responsibilities and there is no value to their posts."
1. The competition was organized by________.| A．the National University of Singapore | B．Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao |
| C．Innova Junior College | D．the Saint Andrew's Junior College |
| A．Chinese students won most of the awards. |
| B．Not all the themes were about local subjects. |
| C．The blogs could be written in Chinese or Singlish. |
| D．The judges were from universities in Singapore and China. |
| A．she likes to blame the authorities. | B．she has a sense of resposibility |
| C．she thinks highly of the others' blogs. | D．she loves to read valuable posts. |
| A．how Chinese students won the awards in the competition |
| B．why bloggers should take responsibility for their blogs |
| C．how Miss Gao won the first prize in the competition |
| D．what the result of the competition was |
6 . British singer-song writer James Blunt shot to fame in 2005 with his single You're Beautiful and album(专辑) Back To Bedlam, and since then he remained the top of the UK singles chart.
Before James Blunt became a musician, he served in the army to fight for Queen and country. He spent four and a half years there, with six months in Kosovo as part of the peacekeeping force. Before leaving the army, Blunt had decided to achieve his dream of becoming a musician. In 2003, he was discovered by music producer Linda Perry who signed him to her Custard label. However the road to success never runs smoothly. It seemed that he would become another struggling singer trying to live from hand to mouth (勉强维持生计) when his first two singles failed to make an impact on the British charts. But everything changed when his third single You're Beautiful made it all the way to No.1 on the UK singles charts, and remained there for five weeks. The album Back to Bedlam soon followed and quickly became one of the biggest selling records of the year, remaining then continual weeks at No.1. Since then, he has sold more than three million records, making him the first British artist to top the American singles charts in nearly a decade.
Blunt, 34, a throwback (返祖者) to the 1970s softrock golden age, has been quoted by Western media as saying that he will never get used to people screaming at him in the street.
His success proves a lasting theory: You spend years chasing the right song. Then, if you're lucky, and if the song really takes off, you spend the rest of your life trying to escape it, or learning to live with it, a few years removed from You're Beautiful, he can still fill stages worldwide with fans who stay until the end.
1. What do we learn from the passage?| A．Blunt was discovered by Linda Perry before joining the army. |
| B．Blunt has already become famous before joining the army. |
| C．Blunt spent five years in the army altogether. |
| D．Blunt had the dream of becoming a musician before leaving the army. |
| A．Difficult | B．Happy |
| C．Boring | D．Smooth |
| A．Blunt is well-known in the world for his talent. |
| B．Blunt's fame as a musician came easily. |
| C．Blunt wasn't lucky enough to win his fans' support. |
| D．Blunt has to face the inconvenience that his fame has caused. |
| A．The song You're Beautiful |
| B．The latest album of James Blunt |
| C．The success of James Blunt as a musician |
| D．The whole life of James Blunt |
7 . A comparison of nesting data recorded in the early 1900s with similar data today for more than 200 species of California birds shows that over all they are breeding(繁殖)5 to 12 days earlier than they did 75 to 100 years ago.
Earlier studies found that many but not all birds in California’s mountains are moving north or to higher altitude to find cooler temperatures in the face of global warming.
The shift to earlier breeding that we detected allows birds to nest at similar temperatures as they did a century ago, and helps explain why half the bird species in the mountainous areas of California did not need to shift upward in altitude in response to climate warming over the past century, said Steven Beissinger, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental sciences.
Early spring arrivals have long been noted by the public and reported by scientists, but the assumption has been that the birds are tracking resources, primarily food: with warming temperatures, plants produce leaves and seeds earlier, and insects appear earlier.
The new study spotlights another major reason: by nesting a week earlier, birds produce eggs and young at a temperature about 1 degree Celsius lower than if they nested at the normal time in the same place. This exactly counterbalances the approximately 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures over the past century.
“By nesting a week or 10 days earlier, birds are avoiding some of the negative effects of climate warming,”Beissinger said.” the good news is that there may be more flexibility for species to respond to climate change than we thought, and not all species may need to move farther north or to higher altitudes, “he added. “But we don't know yet whether staying in place and shifting schedules earlier is a permanent solution, or only provides temporary relief from the 2 degree Celsius rise in temperatures forecast to occur.”
Birds may find, for example, that the window of good temperatures for breeding becomes shorter, which may limit the opportunity to re-nest if they fail the first time. Larger species that have a longer nesting period might not have an enough time to complete their nests before it starts to become too warm, he said.
1. To fight against the global warming, earlier studies found that _______.| A．some birds tried to find cooler places |
| B．some birds failed to nest more than ever |
| C．some birds began to produce eggs earlier |
| D．some birds woke up earlier to catch insects |
| A．Early birds catch insects and get tender leaves |
| B．Global warming is responsible for earlier springs |
| C．Birds are smart in adapting to the climate changes |
| D．Birds are likely to have difficulty in breeding ways |
| A．Adds to |
| B．Reduces to |
| C．Makes up for |
| D．Goes along with |
| A．Birds’ moving north and global warming. |
| B．Early breeding of birds and climate changes. |
| C．Changes of birds’ life and early spring arrivals |
| D．Birds' reaction and early appearance of foods. |
8 . The year 2020 marks the beginning of the decade of the yold, or the “young old”, as the Japanese call people aged between 65 and 75. One might therefore expect peak retirement for baby-boomers born in 1955-60 in the coming years, but they are not retiring quietly into the background. By continuing to work, and staying socially involved, the yold will change the world, as they have done several times before at different stages of their lives.
The yold are healthier, wealthier and more numerous (众多) than previous generations of seniors. 134million 65-to-74-year-olds account for 11% of the population in rich countries in 2020, up from 99million (8%) in 2000. Health worsens with age, but the yold are resisting the decline better than most: of the 3.7 years of increased life expectancy in rich countries between 2000 and 2015. The yold are also better off: between 1989 and 2013, the median (中位的) wealth of families headed by someone over 62 in America rose by 40% , while the wealth of all other age groups declined.
The yold are not just any group of old people. The over-60s are one of the fastest-growing groups of customers of the airline business. They are also changing education. They are challenging the traditional expectations of the retired as people who wear slippers and look after the grandchildren. That will affect consumer, service and financial markets.
The rise of the yold will be a blessing to themselves, to economies and to societies. But for all this to happen, three big things will have to change. The most important is public attitudes towards older people, and in particular the expectation that 60-somethings ought to be putting their feet up and quietly retiring into the background. Government policies will have to change, too. The retirement age in many rich countries is still below the age to which many people want to work. Public policy makes retirement a cliff edge instead of a ramp (斜坡). Third, higher numbers of healthy yold people will require great changes in health spending although the yold will still be comparative healthy and active over the next decade.
1. Why will the yold not retire quietly into the background?| A．They have a longer life expectancy. |
| B．They are richer than the other age groups. |
| C．They have an increasing population. |
| D．They can still play a vital role in society. |
| A．To stay at home babysitting grandchildren. |
| B．To get further education in universities. |
| C．To travel all over the world by plane. |
| D．To stay socially engaged in the company. |
| A．Bringing forward their retirement age. |
| B．Being age-friendly towards them. |
| C．Reducing their cost in health care. |
| D．Taking good care of them at home. |
| A．Three effective measures should be taken for the yold. |
| B．People hold different opinions over the yold’s retirement. |
| C．The yold continue to make a big difference to society. |
| D．The baby-boomers are changing our society nowadays. |
9 . As anyone who's tried to befriend a baby knows,the very young are a tough crowd. In response to your solicitous babble(喋喋不休），a baby might lock eyes with you. Just as likely,though,she'll stare insistently into an empty distance,spit up,or simply protest by crying loudly.
New research suggests that babies are highly selective-discriminating even-in whom they will pay attention lo. And even before their first birthdays,this research shows,babies distinguish between "people like me"and all others.
For those of us who like to think that prejudice comes with age,this may be disappointing news.But a new study,published Monday in the journal PNAS,offers a fresh perspective on babies' remarkable ability to distinguish between"in-group"members("people like me")and out-group members("others") at such a young age.
Babies are all about learning new stuff,the new research concludes. And they won't waste a minute paying attention to someone they think unlikely to deliver the goods.
The new research shows that,given the choice of listening to someone speaking in their native language and someone speaking another tongue, 11-month-old babies will consistently ignore the foreign speaker and pay attention to the person speaking the language that's familiar to them. At the moment that those babies made such decisions,researchers detected a distinctive pattern in their brain activity-a pattern consistently seen in babies expecting to learn something new.
Yes,the babies were making"us"versus"them"Judgments which,research has found,become ever more generalized and powerful as we age. But they appeared to be making those selective judgments, the research found,in a bid to maximize the information they lake in,not to exclude the “other”。
1. If you keep talking to a baby,she may_______| A．be your friend | B．ignore you |
| C．lock you in the room | D．respond you with words |
| A．between bad people and good people |
| B．between researchers and journalist |
| C．between people who like them and people who dislike them |
| D．between people who are alike and people who are not alike |
| A．Chinese | B．English |
| C．French | D．Japanese |
| A．babies are born clever |
| B．babies may lock eyes with you |
| C．babies are eager to learn new things |
| D．babies can make selective judgments about people |
10 . Saving the giant panda from extinction isn't just good for the bears-it's good for the bottom line too,a new analysis by an international team of scientist shows.
The results,published in the journal Current Biology,highlight the economic benefits that they say go hand in hand with environmental conservation. In order to protect giant pandas,the government must protect their forests,which provide a host of often-under appreciated services to the communities that live in and around them. For example,forests allow for the growing of crops and the grazing(放牧）of animals,store clean fresh water and supply firewood,lumber(木材）and many useful plants.They manage storm runoff and help prevent erosion(侵蚀）。
The pandas themselves also hold enormous cultural value that has risen rapidly in recent decades among Chinese residents,the study also points out. "From 1980 to 2010,the cultural values of pandas and their reserves almost doubled,largely driven by tourism use,rising 500-fold from 1980 to 2010, "they said.
Taking all of these factors into account,the scientists calculated a total economic value of Approximately $2. 6 billion in 2010 in China. Keep in mind,the costs of preserving panda habitat at current levels come to about$255 million. The study authors said that including the global cultural Value of the animals would increase the total economic value to $6. 9 billion per year-or about 27 times the cost of habitat preservation.
The researchers also noted that the investment in panda habitat has improved the living conditions of local residents. They pointed to data from the Chinese Statistical Yearbook showing that the annual income in Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces,which sit next to panda reserves,rose by an average of 56%from 2000 to 2010. Farmers in counties within these provinces that were next to the panda reserves saw their annual incomes rise by 64%,on average.
The findings provide a promising example of how conservation efforts can pay off,and they could be applied to many other threatened and endangered species,the study authors said.
1. What does the underlined words "bottom line"refer lo in the first paragraph?| A．Moral standard. | B．Economic profits. |
| C．Overall development. | D．Environmental conservation. |
| A．Less farmland. | B．More foreign trade. |
| C．More forest fires. | D．Better farming conditions, |
| A．26. | B．10. |
| C．4. | D．3. |
| A．Protecting pandas takes great efforts. |
| B．Pandas are a major tourism attraction in China. |
| C．Conservation of pandas is economically rewarding. |
| D．Pandas make great contributions to the environment. |
