1 . A small bowl bought at a yard sale in Connecticut for just $ 35 has been identified as a rare 15th-century Chinese antique.
The blue-and-white bowl was made by China's royal court during the Ming dynasty. It is now expected to sell for up to $500,000, according to Sotheby's auction(拍卖)house in New York, where the auction will take place next month.
The purchase was made last year near New Haven, Connecticut. “I was just hanging around there aimlessly. But when I saw this bowl, I didn't even bargain over the $35 asking price,” the owner said. Shortly after the purchase, he sent photos of the bowl to auction specialists, who identified it as an item of historical significance.
Upon closer inspection, the artifact was found to have originated from the period of Yongle Emperor, who ruled from 1403 to 1424 - a period noted for its distinctive porcelain (瓷器)techniques. It's now valued between $300,000 and $500,000, with the top estimate nearly 14,300 times the amount it was purchased for.
“I was deeply attracted by the techniques. You can see why this bowl is so highly-valued from the very smooth porcelain body, silky glaze(上釉)and special blue coloring, which were never reproduced in later dynasties,” McAteer, an auction specialist, said.
“The Yongle Emperor improved the porcelain techniques and elevated the importance of porcelain from being an ordinary bowl into a true work of art. This small bowl has both practical and artistic value, ”McAteer said.
1. What can we infer about the bowl's owner?| A．He found the bowl by accident. |
| B．He hesitated during the purchase. |
| C．He doubted whether the bowl was real. |
| D．He bought the bowl because it was cheap. |
| A．The blue color on it. | B．The long history it has. |
| C．The people who made it. | D．The unique techniques used. |
| A．Forsaw. | B．Promoted. |
| C．Assessed. | D．Acknowledged. |
| A．An Amazing Bowl | B．A Special Yard Sale |
| C．The Return of Porcelains | D．A Man Making Fortune |
2 . It’s easy to assume that a vacation to Bali will cost a small fortune. There are plenty of accommodations, food and local transportation, and even the spas offer massages and treatments at value prices. However, you can easily spend a week or two in Bali for under $2,000, without having to sleep on the beach. Here are a few things to consider when planning Bali on a budget.
What is the best time to visit Bali on a budget?
If you’re on a budget, consider visiting Bali during the lower, wetter season, which runs from October through March. The crowds will be fewer, and both hotel rates and flights from abroad are often cheaper, except during the holiday period between mid-December and early January, when crowds swell. The only trade-off for the lower prices is the wet season. This time of year isn’t always ideal for sunbathing, and serious rainfall can make outdoor activities, such as whitewater rafting and visiting waterfalls and rice terraces, less than appealing. That said, even during rainy season, it doesn’t usually rain all day long. Expect bursts of sunshine between the storms.
What is the cheapest way to get around Bali?
The absolute cheapest way to get around Bali is by local bus, but it can take a long time. There are also tourist buses, including hop-on, hop-off options, that travel between different hubs across the island. Bali is well-served by taxis, both of the car and motorbike variety, and the prices tend to be affordable by international standards. Most drivers will offer you a fixed rate for full-day hires or to get from point A to point B, rather than using a meter.
Remember to bargain; doing so is particularly easy when a driver is on his own rather than at a taxi stand.
How much does food cost in Bali?
If you’re into fine dining, you can end up spending a large chunk of your budget on food. Eating at the average restaurant geared towards tourists is the best way to have a meal in Bali on a budget. A good meal should cost you around 100,000 rupiah (around $7), but if you’re willing to subsist mostly off of local specialties such as nasi goreng (fried rice) and eat at local restaurants, you can expect to pay around 30,000 rupiah ($2) to get fed. Best of all, most hotels and guesthouses in Bali come with free breakfast, and many offer heavier options of noodles and meat that may keep you full until lunch.
1. Which of the following situation can be best described by the underlined word trade-off in paragraph 2?| A．Jack got a reward after he returned the lost bag to its owner. |
| B．Lily spent much money buying some handicrafts at the local fair. |
| C．Wendy cancelled her trip in order to prevent the spread of the virus. |
| D．Sam was scolded by his parents for what he did in school last night. |
| A．It’s better for outdoor enthusiasts to visit Bali during the off season. |
| B．Passengers had better fix the price with drivers before the taxi pulls out from the station. |
| C．If on a tight budget, one is advised to visit Bali at the end of December every year. |
| D．It’s relatively economical to eat merely at average restaurants tailored to visitors. |
| A．City and Transport. | B．Travel and Recreation. |
| C．Nature and Environment. | D．Food and Health. |
3 . A robot with a sense of touch may one day feel “pain”, both its own physical pain and sympathy for the pain of its human companions. Such touchy-feely robots are still far off, but advances in robotic touch-sensing are bringing that possibility closer to reality.
Sensors set in soft, artificial skin that can detect both a gentle touch and a painful strike have been hooked up to a robot that can then signal emotions, Asada reported February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This artificial “pain nervous system,” as Asada calls it, may be a small building block for a machine that could ultimately experience pain. Such a feeling might also allow a robot to “sympathize” with a human companion’s suffering.
Asada, an engineer at Osaka University, and his colleagues have designed touch sensors that reliably pick up a range of touches. In a robot system named Affetto, a realistic looking child’s head, these touch and pain signals can be converted to emotional facial expressions.
A touch-sensitive, soft material, as opposed to a rigid metal surface, allows richer interactions between a machine and the world, says neuroscientist Kingson Man of the University of Southern California. Artificial skin “allows the possibility of engagement in truly intelligent ways”.
Such a system, Asada says, might ultimately lead to robots that can recognize the pain of others, a valuable skill for robots designed to help care for people in need, the elderly, for instance.
But there is an important distinction between a robot that responds in a predictable way to a painful strike and a robot that’s able to compute an internal feeling accurately, says Damasio, a neuroscientist also at the University of Southern California. A robot with sensors that can detect touch and pain is “along the lines of having a robot, for example, that smiles when you talk to it,” Damasio says. ‘It’s a device for communication of the machine to a human.” While that’s an interesting development, “it’s not the same thing” as a robot designed to compute some sort of internal experience, he says.
1. What do we know about the “pain nervous system”?| A．It is named Affetto by scientists. | B．It is a set of complicated sensors. |
| C．It is able to signal different emotions. | D．It combines sensors and artificial skin. |
| A．Delivered. | B．Translated. | C．Attached. | D．Adapted. |
| A．Robots can smile when talked to. |
| B．Robots can talk to human beings. |
| C．Robots can compute internal feelings |
| D．Robots can detect pains and respond accordingly. |
| A．Machines Become Emotional | B．Robots Inch to Feeling Pain |
| C．Human Feelings Can Be Felt | D．New Devices Touch Your Heart |
4 . When I was a kid, my sister and I would fight all the time over nearly everything. But as we grew older, our bond strengthened by sharing secrets, offering advice and trading clothes. Having a sister by my side while growing up taught me many lessons about the unique bond.
And now, thanks to an 8-year long study that’s making the rounds on the Internet again, science is confirming what I know is true. In the study, researchers discovered that having an older or younger sister can help ease the anxiety for kids between the ages of 10 and 14 years. They also found that people with sisters can “learn how to make up and to have control over their emotions again, which are skills that undoubtedly serve children well.
The revival of this study actually comes on the heels of another newer study, which shows that it’s not just the older kids and parents who influence and shape children as they grow. It turns out that younger siblings(兄弟姐妹) do too, and what’s more, they may also give their older siblings a greater chance of developing empathy (同情).
The Canadian study followed 452 pairs of siblings, all between a year-and-a-half and 4 years old. The researchers found that having a younger sibling increased the older sibling's level of empathy.
This research confirms that sisters are pretty amazing in making the world a much lovely place. As the mom of two boys, I often wonder what kinds of lessons they will learn from their younger sister. Perhaps they will be the same lessons I learned from mine that cooler heads always win. This study gives me hope that all those endless arguments between my kids may actually be laying the groundwork for conflict-settlement skills.
1. What can we learn from the study?| A．Children under four develop empathy fastest. |
| B．It is normal for siblings to quarrel. |
| C．Having siblings is not always a headache. |
| D．Having sisters is helpful to mental health. |
| A．Result | B．Beginning. |
| C．Reappearance. | D．Significance. |
| A．They love their mom very much. |
| B．They have a higher level of empathy. |
| C．They often quarrel with one another. |
| D．They have learned the same lessons as the the author. |
| A．Siblings have a unique bond. |
| B．Siblings have something in common. |
| C．Having siblings is good to children. |
| D．Children having siblings are considerate. |
5 . A sleepover (过夜) program, which is designed to make kids believe that their favorite toys enjoy reading, can help encourage children to pick up more books, a new study suggests.
Toys sleepover programs are designed to get children interested in books. Children take their toys to a library for the night. At this point, workers and volunteers take photos of the toys which explore the library and read books. The next day, the children collect their toys and the photos of what the toys did during the night. They are given the books their toys chose to read.
It was found that before the sleepover the children did not spend time looking at the books in their play area at preschool. Immediately after the sleepover, the number of children who read to the toys was higher than the number who did not, but after three days the effect decreased gradually.
The researchers also tested a method for sustaining the effect. They reminded the children of the sleepover a month later, by hiding the toys and showing them the photos again the next day. This simple method brought an increase in the number of children reading to their toys.
The study proves for the first time that children who take part in sleepover programs read picture books to their toys more. “We wanted to know if there really was an effect, and if so, how long it lasts. Surprisingly, not only did the children show interest in the books, but they also began to read to their toys. This means that a new behavior pattern appeared that the children hadn’t had before. We did not expect anything like this,” said one of the researchers.
Reading is important for the development of children’s language skills and imagination. When parents read to their children, it is a passive way of reading for the child. However, when children read to their toys, it is a more active, self-directed way of reading, helping them develop into more active readers, researchers said.
1. What is the purpose of the sleepover program?| A．To develop children’s language skills. |
| B．To help children to sleep well. |
| C．To encourage children to read more. |
| D．To guide children to form a good sleeping habit. |
| A．Go around the library with their toys. |
| B．Sleep with their toys. |
| C．Read together with their toys. |
| D．Take their toys to the library. |
| A．keeping | B．testing | C．surveying | D．showing |
| A．Children showed no interest in the books. |
| B．The effect of the sleepover program could last long. |
| C．Children began to read to their toys on their own. |
| D．Whether the sleepover program had an effect remained unknown. |
6 . When talking about being overcome with emotions, both good and bad, we have a somewhat strange expression to describe that situation：to be beside yourself. So, if I say I am beside myself with joy, I am filled with joy! However, I can also be beside myself with sadness, anger, or any other emotions. The expression is useful and simple，but queer. It sounds as if someone has become two people. How can you be next to yourself? Being “beside yourself ” is technically impossible.
In American English，you can simply say “I’m beside myself ” to mean you are very upset. For example，if you have a bad quarrel with a close friend, you might be beside yourself. You might shout, write an angry letter to your friend, or just go somewhere by yourself and cry.
Here’s another situation. A high school student applies to several colleges. If all her applications are refused, she could be beside herself. She might stay up all night worrying about what to do next.
If a person becomes seriously ill, he could start talking in a way that does not make any sense. The patient may also start behaving strangely, walking around the room—back and forth. A doctor might say, “He is beside himself.”
We have another expression that is very similar to “being beside yourself”.We can also be “out of our minds”. We use this expression in the same way we use “beside oneself ”. So we can be out of our minds with fear, with love, with happiness，or with any other emotions. And just like “beside oneself”.we also use this expression on its own without a specific emotion. So, if someone says or does something crazy—like learning how to ride a motorcycle on a dark, rainy night, you can simply say, “She is out of her mind!” You could also say the person is crazy or has lost her mind.
1. What does the underlined word “queer” probably mean?| A．Easy. | B．Difficult. | C．Common. | D．Strange. |
| A．Excited. | B．Unhappy. | C．Relaxed. | D．Frightened. |
| A．By asking some questions. |
| B．By telling some stories. |
| C．By giving some examples. |
| D．By listing some data. |
| A．The usage of the phrase “out of one’s mind”. |
| B．The difference between the two expressions. |
| C．An example about “being beside yourself ”. |
| D．More expressions about different feelings. |
7 . Killer whales, or orcas, are known for their severe attacks on sea animals but they have never posed a threat to humans. However, since late July, the normally social animals have been intentionally attacking sailboats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal.
The strange behavior first surfaced on July 29, 2020, when a 46-foot boat was repeatedly attacked for almost an hour by nine orcas, causing the boat to rotate(旋转) 180 degrees and having its engine switched off. Since then, over 30 more similar incidents have been reported. On September 23, 2020, Spain's government banned boats of less than 50 feet in length from sailing in the 60-mile stretch of the Atlantic coastline between Ferrol and the Estaca de Bares Cape, where the attacks have been occurring.
Researchers across the world are trying to explain the orcas' behavior. Some believe it could be a result of the overfishing of the bluefish tuna - the orcas' primary food source -which has left the area's killer whales starving and unable to feed their babies. "I saw them look at boats carrying fish. I think they know humans are somehow related to food shortages, "says Ken Balcomb, senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research in Washington, USA. The environmentalists believe the sudden increase in boat traffic and fishing activities, after months of absence due to restrictions on human activity last spring, could also be contributing to the agitation.
However, Alfredo López, a biology professor in Galicia, Spain, thinks the attacks are defensive measures the orcas adopted to protect themselves against boat injuries. The researcher came to this conclusion after looking at the of the videos of a few incidents and noticing that two of the young killer whales involved had serious injuries. Hopefully, the experts will be able to find a way to restore the harmony between the animals and the humans soon.
1. What do we know about orcas in paragraph 1?| A．They are friendly to humans. | B．They have changed their behavior. |
| C．They are famous for hunting skills | D．They have met tough living conditions. |
| A．Ken Balcomb. | B．The environmentalists. |
| C．Alfredo López. | D．Spain's government. |
| A．The attacks. | B．Food shortages. | C．The overfishing. | D．Human activities. |
| A．How do killer whales attack humans? |
| B．Why Are Killer Whales attacking Boats? |
| C．How can we live in harmony with animals? |
| D．Why are boats banned from sailing on the sea? |
8 . When homework and tests keep you up late at night, you may plan to make up for your lost sleep during the weekends. But is it useful?
A study published in the journal Current Biology shows that the habit of sleeping in on weekends doesn’t fix the damage that has been done by a lack of sleep during the week. Even worse, it may damage your health.
In the study, which was conducted over 10 days, 36 healthy young men and women with different sleep requirements were divided into three groups. The first group were asked to sleep nine hours a night and the second group five hours a night. The members of the third group slept for five hours on weekdays but rested as long as they wanted on the weekend.
The researchers found that people who lacked sleep ate more snacks and gained weight quickly. However, this wasn’t the case for the first group.
That could be partially due to the shifting of the biological clock and changes to certain body hormones, especially hunger hormones. In order to catch up on their sleep during weekends, people in the third group would eat later as a habit. So their biological clocks shifted, which also changed the production of hunger hormones.
“The hormone leptin(瘦素) decreases appetite(胃口), while the hormone ghrelin(饿素) increases appetite,” explained US researcher Vsevolod Polotsky. “Sleep shortage causes leptin to drop and ghrelin to rise, so you’re hungry and eat more.”
And even if they tried to sleep for as long as they wanted to during weekends, according to researchers, it was still not enough because they found it difficult to fall asleep.
Moreover, short and insufficient sleep schedules will lead to an inability to change blood sugar and increase the risk of metabolic(新陈代谢) disease in the long term.
1. Which of the following is true about the study?| A．Participants were divided into two groups. |
| B．Researchers studied 36 children and adults. |
| C．It lasted for more than two weeks. |
| D．Each group follow different sleep requirements. |
| A．increasing | B．lacking | C．changing | D．shortening |
| A．They need to create more energy. |
| B．There is less leptin in their bodies. |
| C．They have a lower blood sugar. |
| D．Their bodies produce less hormones. |
| A．Appetite Affects our Sleep Quality |
| B．Sleeping in Causes Weight Loss |
| C．Catching up on Sleep Harms Our Body |
| D．Men and Women Sleep Differently |
9 . A group of second-year college students have discovered hidden writing on a page from a book from the 1500s, using a special camera system they built.
Surprisingly, finding hidden writing on very old documents isn’t all that unusual. In fact, there’s even a special name for documents like this: a palimpsest (再生羊皮纸卷).
Long ago, writing was done on parchment — thin, dried animal skins specially prepared for writing. But parchment wasn’t easy to make and wasn’t cheap. So it became common to erase the old writing off a parchment and then reuse it for another piece of writing. That’s what creates a palimpsest.
The writing erased off the parchment can’t be seen directly, but scientists have learned ways to use special lighting to reveal the original writing. But it’s unusual for young college students to discover palimpsests.
Last year, first-year students at the Rochester Institute of Technology took part in a class that brought together many students to take on a project as a group. The project was to build a special camera system that could take pictures using different kinds of light.
Over the summer, the students working on the imaging camera managed to finish it. When they were done, they borrowed several old parchments from the collection at the school’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection. When they put one of the pages under their camera system with UV light, the hidden writing suddenly appeared. Under the UV light, handwriting in French could easily be seen behind the fancy writing and decorations normally visible on the page.
Zoe, a student involved in the project, said, “This was amazing because this document has been in the Cary Collection for almost 10 years and no one noticed it.” The students are even more excited because even though the parchment is no longer part of a book, they know where 29 other pages from the same book are. The students, who are now working with others to locate the other parchments, hope these, too, will have hidden writing and that they can figure out what it means.
1. What was parchment designed for in ancient times?| A．Writing. | B．Decorating. |
C．Imaging.  | D．Collecting. |
| A．Heat up. | B．Bring out. |
| C．Adjust to. | D．Clear away. |
| A．Make a handwriting-recognizing camera. |
| B．Identify what the parchments are made of. |
| C．Track the origin of the palimpsests in the Cary Collection. |
| D．Discover hidden writing and its meaning on more parchments. |
| A．To tell about a new discovery. | B．To recommend a special book. |
| C．To explain a cultural phenomenon. | D．To introduce an old document. |
10 . When Mike Coots was 18, he lost his leg to a shark bite. It was near his home on the island of Kauai - a typical fall morning with friends. The waves were really good. Suddenly a large shark came right up under Mike and sank his teeth into Mike's lower leg and Mike felt no pain.
As he struggled(挣扎), the shark bit down harder. He beat the shark in the face again and again until the shark let him go. As Mike swam back into shore he realized the shark had bit his lower right leg off. Mike's friends rushed to his aid. The doctors later told Mike that's probably what kept him alive during the drive to the hospital.
As soon as Mike was given the OK by his doctors, he started riding the waves again. In fact, his first time back was near the site o£ his attack. Mike was unshaken. He was curious -why was he attacked?
His curiosity led him to research sharks, and while he never figured out why he became a target, Mike did learn something that would change his life: Humans are far more dangerous to sharks than the other way around. "I watched a documentary, and I learned about the fact that 70 million sharks a year are killed for their fins(鳍)alone.
He began working with the Hawaii state government to help pass a ban on shark-derived products. He also likes using his photos to spread the message about what's happening to sharks and why it matters. ^Sharks are here on earth for a very important reason, holding together the web of biodiversity, and without them, our seas cannot survive.,,
1. In the doctors, opinion, what helped Mike Coots survive?| A．His good swimming skill. |
| B．His struggle with the shark. |
| C．Timely treatment by doctors. |
| D．The first aid offered by his friends. |
| A．Nervous. | B．Strong-minded. | C．Excited. | D．Afraid. |
| A．He worked hard to protect sharks. |
| B．He was curious about many things. |
| C．He found out why he was attacked. |
| D．He made documentaries on sharks. |
| A．Curious and humorous. | B．Honest and confident. |
| C．Brave and caring. | D．Patient and adventurous. |
