1 . I go to a gym in west London, always unwillingly. Exercise is too exhausting and boring. Always was. At school I made believe that I had headaches and parental notes too, to get out of PE classes and compulsory games. Now, twice a week, I dutifully get on cycling machines and other equipment and make myself work out for an hour. To get through the difficult hour, I people-watched: young and old, fit and unfit and Clayton Rose, one of the instructors.
Clayton is a personal trainer not only to body perfectionists, but to people who are mentally and physically disabled, the obese and hopeless. He treats them all the same. I have witnessed him listening keenly to a middle-aged working-class woman who goes on and on about her life, holidays, everything. Slim and attractive now, she was once so heavy that she was in a wheelchair. I have seen him calm down a young man with Tourette's syndrome(抽动症)and get him on a treadmill. I have also watched him pushing and coaching strong, cool men.
Clayton was shocked when I said I wanted to write about him. “Why? You know I'm not educated? I'm not clued up about politics and all that. Just an ordinary guy.”
He grew up in Twickenham, where his dad worked in a timber yard, his mum in an office. After college, the young man got into personal training and found his work. One of his best friends got seriously ill and was given months to live. Clayton put him on a program that kept him alive for almost five years: “I don't earn much, but I love my work; training and talking really helps people who don't have confidence, who are lonely, afraid, sick. Lots of people can't step into a gym. They need someone they can trust, someone who will be on their side.
The gym recently updated its equipment. The flashy new stuff confuses and upsets disabled customers. Me too. The private firm running these centers made decisions without considering these needs. Clayton is managing the chaos with grace and strength. Last week, when a young woman in a wheelchair started sobbing loudly, he calmed her down, restored her dignity, superhumanly contained his anger.
One of his colleagues thinks Clayton's “a legend”. He is, and doesn't know it—a rare thing in this age of extreme narcissism(自恋)and monetized(货币化) everything.
1. Why was I unwilling to go to a gym?| A．Because I suffered from headaches. |
| B．Because I had bad memories of PE classes. |
| C．Because I had to watch a large crowd exercising |
| D．Because I felt it tiring and no fun |
| A．He brings out the best in them. | B．He helps them with illness advice |
| C．He treats them differently. | D．He focuses on body perfection. |
| A．Reasons to go to a gym. | B．An instructor inspiring confidence. |
| C．Exercise with push and inspiration. | D．Rays of hope in the age of narcissism. |
2 . As a historian who's always searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past, I've become preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestors smiling (what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?). I've found quite a few, and - since I started posting them on Twitter — they have been causing quite a stir. People have been surprised to see evidence that Victorians had fun and could, and did, laugh. They are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.
Of course, I need to concede that my collection of ‘Smiling Victorians’ makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of painted backdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance. How do we explain this trend?
During the 1840s and 1850s, in the early days of photography, exposure times were notoriously long: the daguerreotype photographic method (producing an image on a silvered copper plate) could take several minutes to complete,resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs. The thought of holding a fixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much to contemplate, and so a non-committal blank stare became the norm.
But exposure times were much quicker by the 1 880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and other portable cameras meant that, though slow by today's digital standards, the exposure was almost instantaneous. Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy to capture by the 1890s, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of why Victorians still hesitated to smile.
One explanation might be the loss of dignity displayed through a cheesy grin. “Nature gave us lips to conceal our teeth.” ran one popular Victorian maxim, alluding to the fact that before the birth of proper dentistry mouths were often in a shocking state of hygiene. A flashing set of healthy and clean, regular “pearly whites” was a rare sight in Victorian society, the preserve of the super- rich (and even then, dental hygiene was not guaranteed).
A toothy grin (especially when there were gaps or blackened gnashers) lacked class: drunks, tramps and music hall performers might gurn and grin with a smile as wide as Lewis Carroll's gum-exposing Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming look for properly bred persons. Even Mark Twain,a man who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said that when it came to photographic portraits there could be “nothing more damning than a silly, foolish smile fixed forever”.
1. According to paragraph 1, the author's posts on Twitter ________.| A．illustrated the development of Victorian photography. |
| B．highlighted social media's tole in Victorian researches. |
| C．re-evaluated the Victorian's notion of public image. |
| D．transformed people's initial cognition of the Victorians. |
| A．a thought-provoking idea |
| B．a two-edged sword |
| C．a controversial view |
| D．a deep-rooted belief |
| A．When did the Victorians start to view photograph differently? |
| B．How come most Victorians looked stem and stiff in photographs? |
| C．How can re-assessing pasts reveal the contemporary tendency? |
| D．How did smiling in photograph become a post-Victorian norm? |
3 . One day your pocket might power your smartphone. Soon you may never have to worry about your smartphone running out of juice. Your clothing will simply power it back up for you. That's the word from scientists at China's Chongqing and Jinan Universities in a study just published in the journal ACS Nano.
Researchers have been hard at work during the last few years trying to create wearable energy, or clothes that can charge things. The assumption is simple. People today rely heavily upon devices such as smartphones and tablets. And they're looking for ways to recharge these devices on the go. So if you could design clothing fabric that could make use of solar power--one of the most widely available and inexhaustible（用不完的）renewable energy sources-you'd be able to charge your various devices with ease.
Scientists have had some past success creating energy-harvesting fibers. But there was always one problem when they tried to fashion these threads into self-powered smart clothes: The fibers they designed got damaged during the clothing manufacturing process, namely during the weaving and cutting. The Chongqing and Jinan University scientists say they've solved this problem because the energy-collecting and energy-storing threads they created are highly flexible--each individual thread is easily bendable, and not simply the fabric as a whole.
The team's sample textile can be fully charge to volts in 17 seconds by exposure to sunlight—enough voltage that your future smart T-shirt or smart dress might be able to power small electronics. I's durable, too; their research showed there was no decrease in the fabric after 60 days. But don't worry that this means the fabric is similar to rough cloth. The scientists note their textile can be fashioned into numerous different patterns, and tailored into any designed shape, without affecting performance.
1. What does the underlined phrase "running out of juice" in Paragraph I mean?.| A．Being lacking in energy. | B．Wanting to have some juice. |
| C．Being picked out of a drink. | D．Having some water running out. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Pessimistic. |
| C．Neutral | D．Doubtful. |
| A．persuade readers to buy new clothes |
| B．inform readers of the ways to use their devices |
| C．introduce new wearable energy to readers |
| D．remind readers to wear smart clothes |
4 . What is the nature of the scientific attitude, the attitude of the man or woman who studies and applies physics, biology, chemistry, geology, engineering, medicine or any other science?
We all know that science plays an important role in our societies. However, many people believe that our progress depends on two different aspects of science. The first aspect is the application of the machines, products and systems of knowledge that scientists and technologists develop. The second is the application of the special methods of thought and action that scientists use in their work.
What are these special methods of thinking and acting? First of all, it seems that a successful scientist is curious - he wants to find out how and why the universe works. He usually pays attention to problems which he notices have no satisfying explanation, and looks for relationships even if the data available seem to be unconnected. Moreover, he thinks he can improve the existing conditions and enjoys trying to solve the problems which this involves.
He is a good observer, accurate, patient and objective and uses the facts he observes to the fullest. For example, trained observers obtain a very large amount of information about a star mainly from the accurate analysis of the simple lines that appear in a spectrum(光谱).
He does not accept statements which are not based on the most complete evidence available. He rejects authority as the only basis for truth. Scientists always check statements and make experiments carefully and objectively.
Furthermore, he does not readily accept his own idea, since he knows that man is the least reliable of scientific instruments and that a number of factors tend to disturb objective investigation.
Lastly, he is full of imagination since he often has to look for relationships in data which are not only complex but also frequently incomplete. Furthermore, he needs imagination if he wants to guess how processes work and how events take place.
These seem to be some of the ways in which a successful scientist or technologist thinks and acts.
1. Which of the following statements about a curious scientist is TRUE?| A．He doesn't find confidence and pleasure in work. |
| B．He makes efforts to investigate potential connections. |
| C．He is interested in problems that are explained. |
| D．He looks for new ways of acting. |
| A．easily appreciate others' research work |
| B．easily believe in unchecked statements |
| C．always accept authority as the only basis for truth |
| D．always use evidence from observation to the fullest |
| A．Objective and careful. | B．Curious and casual. |
| C．Cautious and arrogant. | D．Subjective and down-to-death . |
| A．Key to a successful scientist. | B．Scientists’ ways of thinking and acting |
| C．Progress in modern society. | D．Application of modern technology. |
5 . If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also found the effect is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from London University, took a group of Britain people who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference was.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists. It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales has researched the link between bilingualism and math skill. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible,” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.
1. The main subject talked about in this passage is .| A．science on learning a second language |
| B．man’s ability of learning a second language |
| C．language can help brain power |
| D．language learning and math study |
| A．say language is also a kind of physical labor |
| B．prove that one needs more practice when he/she is learning a language |
| C．show the importance of using the language when you learn the language |
| D．make people believe language learning helps grey matter work well |
| A．learning a second language is the same as studying math |
| B．early learning of a second language helps you a great deal in study other subjects |
| C．Italian is the best choice for you as a second language |
| D．we’d better choose the ages between 2 and 34 to learn a second language |
6 . This time of year many of us are determined to get back into shape. But if you are having trouble fitting into your tight jeans, it may not be your fault. Scientists now believe that willpower alone is not enough to lose weight. They say success depends on your genes, hormones (荷尔蒙) and psychology.
A study of 75 people by BBC Science and Oxford and Cambridge Universities has looked into why one-size-fits-all diets are often not successful. The scientists divided over-eaters into three groups—people who feast, people who constantly crave food and emotional eaters. They tailored (定制) diets to the needs of each group.
Feasters can’t stop eating once they start. This is because they don’t have the hormones that tell them when they are full. Scientists designed a diet for this group paying special attention to high protein foods that make them feel full for a long time. This included fish, chicken, basmati rice and grains. Bread and potatoes were not allowed because they do not fill you up for long.
Constant cravers always feel hungry. Scientists say that certain genes stop the messages the stomach sends to the brain saying it is full, meaning the cravers always feel like they need more fatty, sugary food. Dieting seven days a week is very hard for these people, so scientists put them on a normal, healthy diet five days a week, and eating whenever they feel stressed. To help them change this behaviour, scientists offered them group support in meetings and online as well as a diet.
During the study, people from all three groups lost weight on the tailored diets, with feasters losing the most and constant cravers losing the least.
So what about you? If any of the eating habits sound familiar, perhaps you should consider a new approach to slimming for now.
1. What is the solution that scientists suggest for feasters?
| A．Providing them with a certain hormone. |
| B．Designing a high-protein diet for them. |
| C．Reducing their calorie intake on the weekend. |
| D．Giving them group support in meetings and online. |
| A．Bread and potatoes are harder to digest than fish and chicken. |
| B．Anyone can lose weight only if he or she has strong determination. |
| C．Emotional eaters are more likely to lose weight than constant cravers. |
| D．Scientists will find one-size-fits-all diets for those who want to lose weight. |
| A．Three factors that determine our success in getting back into shape. |
| B．Three approaches to losing weight according to eating habits. |
| C．Willpower is not enough to lose weight. |
| D．A research on tailored diets. |
7 . During the outbreak of novel coronavirus, cities are locked down and borders are closed. Science, on the contrary, is becoming more open. And this “open science” is already making a difference.
Soon after the epidemic started in China, a research team from Fudan University in Shanghai successfully sequenced（测定序列）the DNA of the virus. But they didn’t keep the information to themselves. Instead, they placed the sequences on GenBank, an open-access data platform, so researchers around the world could download them for free and start studying the virus.
Due to this openness, pharmaceutical（制药的）companies across the globe are now able to work simultaneously to develop a vaccine. “There may be room for multiple different vaccines for different purposes and different age groups,”Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in the US, told Al Jazeera.“The bigger menu we have of vaccines, the more resilient（有适应力的）well be against coronavirus outbreaks in the future. ”
Major drug companies around the world are also sharing their study results. Remdesivir, a drug originally developed by US company Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola, s found to be promising in fighting against the novel coronavirus. Currently, two trials of the drug are already underway in China, and the results might be available as soon as April, according to The Verge.
This openness in science is going to be even more crucial in the future. With climate change, increasing globalization, and population shifts, epidemics will not go away, and might even become more frequent, Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School professor, told Harvard Magazine.
He said, “No one group can do everything. It has to be a coordinated（合作的）approach. But I do think that the world has a greater sense of readiness this time to develop knowledge, drugs, and therapeutics（疗法）very rapidly.
Every epidemic is indeed a crisis, but it can also be a learning opportunity. One redeeming（补偿的）factor of the COVID﹣19 outbreak is that it is helping science adapt for the better.
1. What does the article mainly talk about?| A．Coordinated efforts to fight the epidemic. |
| B．The significance of openness and sharing of scientific knowledge. |
| C．Something positive we’ve learned from the epidemic. |
| D．What needs to be done to prevent future epidemics. |
| A．They alerted the world to the danger of the virus. |
| B．They helped remove people’s fear of the virus. |
| C．They invited collective efforts worldwide to develop a vaccine. |
| D．They showed the world how to produce a vaccine. |
| A．work at the same time. |
| B．work effectively |
| C．work continuously |
| D．work happily |
| A．To introduce a possible cure for the epidemic. |
| B．To prove that many drug companies readily share their discoveries. |
| C．To compare the treatment of Ebola and the novel coronavirus. |
| D．To show that the novel coronavirus will soon be contained. |
| A．The increase in globalization may worsen future epidemics. |
| B．Epidemics will be less frequent thanks to scientific development. |
| C．No single group can fight against the epidemics independently. |
| D．The world is becoming better prepared to deal with epidemics. |
8 . Learning a second language is tricky at any age and it only gets tougher the longer you wait to open that dusty French book. Now, in a new study, scientists have pinpointed the exact age at which your chances of reaching fluency in a second language seem to plummet: 10.
The study, published in the journal Cognition, found that it’s “nearly impossible” for language learners to reach native-level fluency if they start learning a second tongue after 10. But that doesn’t seem to be because language skills go downhill. “It turns out you’re still learning fast. It’s just that you run out of time, because your ability to learn starts dropping at around 17 or 18 years old,” says study co-author Joshua Hartshorne, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College.
Kids may be better than adults at learning new languages for many reasons. Children’s brains are more plastic than those of adults, meaning they’re better able to adapt and respond to new information. “All learning involves the brain changing,” Hartshorne says, “and children’s brains seem to be a lot more skilled at changing.”
Kids may also be more willing to try new things (and to potentially look foolish in the process) than adults are. Their comparatively new grasp on their native tongue may also be advantageous. Unlike adults, who tend to default (默认) to the rules and patterns of their first language, kids may be able to approach a new one with a blank slate (石板).
These findings may seem discouraging, but it was heartening for scientists to learn that the critical period for fluent language acquisition might be longer than they previously thought. Some scientists believed that the brief window closes shortly after birth, while others stretched it only to early adolescence. Compared to those estimates, 17 or 18 — when language learning ability starts to drop off — seems relatively old.
“People fared better when they learned by immersion (沉浸), rather than simply in a classroom. And moving to a place where your desired language is spoken is the best way to learn as an adult. If that’s not an option, you can mimic an immersive environment by finding ways to have conversations with native speakers in their own communities,” Hartshorne says. By doing so, it’s possible to become conversationally proficient — even without the advantage of a child’s brain.
1. The underlined word “plummet” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “__________”.| A．decrease | B．rise |
| C．end | D．vary |
| A．Children are too young to grasp a second language. |
| B．Age 10-18 is the best time to learn a second language. |
| C．Adults go beyond the critical period for learning a second language. |
| D．Communicating with native speakers enables you to master all the language skills. |
| A．Adults are less influenced by their mother tongues. |
| B．Adults spend more time responding to new information. |
| C．Adults are only too willing to experience something awkward in the process. |
| D．Adults prefer an immersive environment to a classroom in learning a second language. |
| A．the best age to learn a second language |
| B．the approaches to learning a second language |
| C．why kids learn a second language more easily than adults |
| D．whether adults can learn a second language like their younger selves |
9 . DNA analysis has revealed family relationships between more than 10 generations of Stone Age people at megalithic(巨石的) tombs in Ireland and Sweden.
The evidence suggests that megaliths, prehistoric large stone structures, sometimes acted as graves for family groups in northwestern Europe thousands of years ago. The latest findings throw new light on the origins and social structure of the groups that built megaliths in this region—a history that has long been hidden in mystery.
For their study, the international team of researchers analyzed the genomes—the complete set of genetic material in a cell—of 24 Stone Age individuals from five megalithic burial sites in lreland, Scotland and Gotland, a large Swedish island in the Baltic Sea.
This analysis showed that many of the individuals buried at each megalith, who all lived between 3,800 B.C. and 2,600 B.C., according to radiocarbon-dating of their remains, were closely related via family ties.
The results also showed that the individuals buried at the megaliths were related to Neolithic(新石器时代的) farmers in northern and western Europe but genetically distinct from other hunter-gatherers. This was particularly noticeable at the Ansarve site on the island of Gotland.
“The people buried in the Ansarve tomb are remarkably different on a genetic level compared to the individuals dug out from hunter-gather contexts, showing that the burial tradition in this megalithic tomb, which lasted for over 700 years, was performed by distinct groups with roots in the European Neolithic expansion,” Magdalena Fraser, co-first author from Uppsala University, said in the statement
1. What’s the significance of the new finding?| A．It reveals the family ties between people in Ireland and Sweden. |
| B．It implies that many people buried in the tombs were closely related. |
| C．It indicates the long-hidden mystery concerning DNA analysis. |
| D．It suggests that the megaliths became tombs thousands of years ago. |
| A．By interviewing individuals. | B．By travelling to different regions. |
| C．By analyzing genes. | D．By studying the burial sites. |
| A．Megaliths served as tombs thousands of year ago. |
| B．People buried at the megaliths were recently analyzed. |
| C．Latest findings shed light on a mystery about burials. |
| D．Stone-age people in Ireland and Sweden had close ties. |
10 . Walmart will soon use 360 robot cleaners across a few hundred of its stores. Using maps input by human employees, the AI-powered cleaners will travel in the store with no difficulty, sweeping the floor--just as human employees used to do.
Perhaps the most striking thing about these robot workers is how not-striking they are. Sci-fi movies suggest a future full of human-like robots who appear with their horrible qualities. Now the future is coming into view, and it looks like a giant lie. It's easy to imagine walking past an Auto-C on a shopping trip without even noticing its presence.
AI has already started to become a part of our everyday life. In New Jersey this week, dozens of workers were hospitalized after a robot at an Amazon fulfillment centre accidentally broke a can and enveloped workers in eye-and-lung-damaging gas. Days earlier in California, an auto-piloted Tesla drove a drunk, sleeping driver down a highway, which no doubt did some potential risk to the other drivers on the road. Highway patrol officers figured out on the spot how to stop the AI car.
Of course, industrial accidents and drunk drivers existed well before AI. Tools with the power to release the burden of physical labor—horses, steam machines, self-driving cars—also come with the power to injure. And the presence of AI-powered machines just steps away from us is, for now, still a rare thing for most people.
But the nature of robots’ coming into our daily life lives will make it harder to recognize—or object to—the bigger changes they bring later. Walmart insists that the robot cleaners give employees more time for customer service and other tasks. Critics point out that they could just as easily become an excuse to reduce staff and wages.
1. What is the difference between sci-fi movies and the reality?| A．Now the human-like robots is hard to recognize. |
| B．Now people don’t go to see the sci-fi movies. |
| C．Now the human-like robots can tell lies. |
| D．Now it is easy to ignore the robots. |
| A．They damaged the robot first. |
| B．The robot caused an accident on purpose. |
| C．The robot made a mistake by chance. |
| D．The robot driving them on the highway had an accident. |
| A．Supportive | B．Objective | C．Doubtful | D．Indifferent |
| A．Artificial intelligence is bringing great effect to our daily life. |
| B．Walmart will soon use 360 robot cleaners across its stores. |
| C．We should say no to artificial intelligence. |
| D．Artificial intelligence is dangerous to our life. |
