1 . If you visit Uluwatu temple in Bali, be cautious. The long-tailed temple monkeys there are well-known thieves. Since a long time ago, they have made a living by robbing visitors of their possessions and then holding those objects until a ransom in the form of food is paid. But Jean-Baptiste Leca of the University of Lethbridge, in Canada, wondered whether these monkeys are cleverer still. Sometimes, they do not accept the first offer and hold out for more. He therefore asked himself whether they are able to assess how valuable an object is to its owner, and factor that into their negotiations.
Dr. Leca and his colleagues conducted their experiment by wandering around the temple with video cameras, recording the activities of the monkeys. Every time they saw a monkey show interest in a particular tourist? they recorded the interaction. To work out what was going on, they had first to establish the relative values of food rewards to monkeys, and of stealable objects to people.
To confirm which stealable objects are most valued by people, they divided them into six classes: empty containers, such as phone cases and plastic bottles; accessories (搭配物) such as hairpins and key rings; hats and shoes; spectacles and sunglasses; and electronics and wallets. They then observed how often victims bothered to bargain with the thief for the return of property belonging to different classes, and thus classified objects into low value, medium value and high value.
They found that monkeys do, indeed, have a complicated sense of what they are doing — at least, adults and sub-adults do. These animals have a preference for stealing high-value items, and will often hold out either for more rewards, or for better ones, if they are in possession of such items. But this is something that they have to learn how to do as they grow up. Young monkeys make no such distinctions, and sub-adults are less good at doing so than adults.
1. What is the purpose of Leca's research?| A．To prove monkeys are cleverer than men. |
| B．To find out what is valuable for monkeys. |
| C．To record the negotiations between monkeys. |
| D．To make sure monkeys can judge item values. |
| A．Bilk. | B．Reward. | C．Tax. | D．Rent. |
| A．By the material of objects. | B．By the preference of victims. |
| C．By the buying price of objects, | D．By the frequency of bargaining. |
| A．Young monkeys can evaluate items. | B．All monkeys prefer high-value items, |
| C．Monkeys have a simple sense of acts. | D．Monkeys' stealing is an acquired skill. |
2 . The first patient who died on my watch was an older man with a faulty heart. We tried to slow it down with treatment, but it suddenly stopped beating completely. Later, whenever I would have a case like that one, I found myself second-guessing my clinical management. However, it turns out that thinking twice may actually cause more harm than good.
In a working paper, Emory University researchers found that when doctors delivering a baby have a bad result, they are more likely to switch to a different delivery method with the next patient, often unnecessarily and sometimes with worse results.
Because doctors make so many decisions that have serious consequences, the fallout from second-guessing appears especially large for us. A 2006 study found that if a patient had a bleed after being prescribed (开药) warfarin, the physician was about 20% less likely to prescribe later patients the blood thinner that prevents strokes (中风). However, if a patient was not on warfarin and had a stroke physicians were still no more likely to prescribe warfarin to their other patients.
These findings highlight interesting behavioral patterns in doctors. In the blood-thinner study, doctors were more affected by the act of doing harm (prescribing a blood thinner that ended up hurting doctors were more affected by the act of doing harm(prescribing a blood thinner that ended up hurting a patient) and less affected by letting harm happen (not prescribing a blood thinner and the patient having a stroke). Yet a stroke is often more permanent and damaging than a bleed.
But this phenomenon is not unique to medicine. ''Overreaction to Fearsome Risks'' holds true for broader society.
For instance, sensational headlines about shark attacks on humans in Florida in 2001 caused a panic and led the state to prohibit shark-feeding expeditions. Yet shark attacks had actually fallen that year and, according to the study, such a change was probably unnecessary given the extremely small risk of such an attack happening.
Humans are likely to be influenced by emotional and often irrational (不理性的) thinking when processing information, bad events and mistakes. As much as we don't want to cause an unfortunate event to happen again, we need to be aware that a worst situation that can be imagined doesn't necessarily mean we did anything wrong. When we overthink, we fail to rely on thinking based on what we know or have experienced. Instead, we may involuntarily overanalyze and come to the wrong conclusion.
I have treated dozens of patients who presented with the same illnesses as my first patient, who died more than a year ago. Instead of second-guessing myself, I trusted my clinical instinct (本能) and stayed the course. Every one of those patients survived. You should trust your instinct in your life, too.
1. The first two paragraphs suggest that________.| A．bad medical outcomes affect doctors |
| B．delivering babies can be difficult work |
| C．some doctors are not very experienced |
| D．doctors sometimes make silly mistakes |
| A．tend to prescribe less effective medicine |
| B．are more concerned about the patients' safety |
| C．become less confident in writing a prescription |
| D．believe a stroke is more treatable than a bleeding |
| A．Result | B．Benefit | C．Difference | D．Absence |
| A．we should not doubt our own decisions |
| B．our experience will pave way for our future |
| C．humans are emotional and irrational on the whole |
| D．instincts don't necessarily lead to wrong directions |
3 . You’re walking around and a thought occurs: “I should check my phone.” The phone comes out of your pocket. You type a message. Then your eyes remain glued to the screen, even when you walk across the street. We all do this kind of distracted walking, or“twalking.”
Why are we so addicted to it? People are, by nature, information-seeking creatures. When we regularly check our phones, we are snacking on information from devices that offer an all-you-can-eat buffet of information. And in some ways, smartphones were designed to be irresistible to information-seeking creatures.
However, at what point is this considered addiction?
Not all constant phone use was considered addictive, said Steven Sussman, a professor at the University of Southern California. External pressures, like a demanding job, could force people to frequently check their phones. But when people check their devices just to enhance their mood, this could be a sign of a developing problem.
Another signal of addictive behavior is becoming preoccupied with smartphone use when you should be doing something else. An even clearer indicator is what happens when the phone is taken away.
“Let’s say you go out to the mountains and you don’t get reception, so you can’t use a smartphone,” Dr. Sussman said. “Do you feel a sense of relief? Or do you feel, wow, I want to get out of these mountains — I want to use the smartphone. If you feel the latter, that’s toward the addictive direction.”
Jim Steyer, the chief executive of Common Sense Media, said there needed to be a broad public awareness campaign over the dangers of walking and texting in parallel with distracted driving.“You have distracted pedestrians and distracted drivers, so it’s the double whammy,” he said. “Tech addiction hits in both ways.”
1. What is probably the proper explanation of the word “twalking”?
| A．Talk while working. |
| B．Text while walking. |
| C．Travel while walking. |
| D．Tease others while walking. |
| A．Twaling is interesting and beneficial. |
| B．The news on the cellphone is of great value. |
| C．Twalking is trend that everyone want to follow. |
| D．Smartphones comply with our eagerness for information. |
| A．We use smartphones constantly for work. |
| B．When we use the smartphones, we are in a bad mood. |
| C．When smartphones are taken away, we are anxious to find them. |
| D．Climbing mountains without cellphone makes us feel a sense of relief. |
| A．Distracted driving is more dangerous than twalking. |
| B．Twalking brings more dangers than distracted driving. |
| C．The number of twalking people is equal to distracted drivers. |
| D．Twalking and distracted driving deserve more public concern. |
4 . Scientists have long known a fairly reliable way to extend life span in rodents(啮齿类动物) and other lab animals: Reduce the amount of calories they eat by 10 percent to 40 percent.
This strategy known as caloric restriction, has been shown to increase the life span of various organisms and reduce their rate of cancer and other age-related ailments. Whether it can do the same in people has been an open question. But an intriguing new study suggests that in young and middle-aged adults, chronically(慢性地) restricting calorie intake can have an impact on their health.
In the new study, researchers looked at a group of 143 healthy men and women who were instructed to practice caloric restriction for two years, with the aim of cutting the calories they consumed by 25 percent.
On average, the dieters managed to slash about 12 percent of their total calories, or roughly 300 calories a day, the amount in a few chocolate chip cookies or a small Starbucks Mocha. But the group saw many of their health markers improve.
They lost weight and body fat. Their blood pressure fell slightly, and they had better blood sugar control and less inflammation. At the same time, a control group of 75 healthy people who did not practice caloric restriction saw no improvements in any of these markers. Some of the benefits in the calorie restricted group stemmed from the fact that they lost a large amount of weight. However, the results of the survey suggest that caloric restriction might have some unique biological effects on disease pathways in the body.
Calorie restriction may be a useful tool for better health and weight loss, but it’s unclear whether the changes in the new study will ultimately translate into longevity and reductions in chronic disease, said Frank Hu, the chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard, who was not involved in the research.
1. What happened to the lab animals, after the amount of calories was reduced?| A．More lab animals got cancers. |
| B．More Lab animals can live longer. |
| C．Health condition of lab animals got worse. |
| D．Lab animals will suffer from no disease in their future life. |
| A．Their healthy markers improved. |
| B．They did not get chronic diseases. |
| C．They did not get lose any weight at all. |
| D．They did not eat chocolate chip cookies. |
| A．Reduce. | B．Increase. |
| C．Add. | D．Beat. |
| A．Calorie restriction is beneficial to weight loss. |
| B．People with caloric restriction will love longer than others. |
| C．More people should be encouraged to take caloric restriction in life. |
| D．The relation between caloric restriction and longer lifespan is uncertain. |
5 . A 2018 report found that food waste would increase by a third to 2. 1billion tons by 2030. Beyond the cost of the waste itself，thrown-away food generates a gas that contributes to climate change.
Home delivery meal kits(盒)can reduce food waste by more than two-thirds，but suppliers need to switch to reusable packaging to make them environmentally friendly.
Tailor-made meal kits cut waste by providing people with precise amounts of fresh ingredients(烹饪原料)for chosen recipes，meaning leftovers are minimized. But while the delivery services score well on reducing food waste，buying the same food ingredients from the supermarket almost always saves energy overall simply because meal kits use so much single-use packaging. The good news is that if people have meals that are tailored for consumption，they won’t overbuy and have less food waste. They fine-tune the amount of food to what they will actually eat.
Meal kits can reduce transport emissions(排放)if people go to the supermarket less frequently. If people only go and buy such goods as soap and toilet paper，they may only have to visit once every couple of months. A delivery truck can carry meals for a lot of people in the neighborhood. So dozens of car trips might be replaced with one truck trip.
However，study found that even if delivery meal kits reduced food waste to zero，they would still use up more energy overall than buying the same food from the supermarket unless the energy used for the meal kit packaging was cut by a fifth. The packaging is a killer if it’s single-use and thrown away，which can make all the environmental benefits lost. But if the packaging can be reused，if it’s glass bottles，like in the old days，we can get some benefits.
1. What can we learn about home delivery meal kits?| A．They can cut down on daily expenses. |
| B．They will totally solve the problem of food waste. |
| C．They can keep energy consumption to a minimum. |
| D．They will benefit the environment with reusable packaging. |
| A．Attach. | B．Adjust. |
| C．Raise. | D．Compare. |
| A．reduce transport emissions | B．save more food |
| C．shop only in the supermarket | D．shorten car trip distances |
| A．Supportive. | B．Unfavorable. |
| C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
6 . One day, gardeners might not just hear the buzz of bees among their flowers, but the whirr of robots, too. Scientists have managed to turn an unassuming drone (无人机) into a remote-controlled pollinator (授粉媒介) by attaching horsehairs coated with a special, sticky gel to its underbelly.
Animal pollinators are needed for the reproduction of 90% of flowering plants and one third of human food crops. Chief among those are bees — but many bee populations in the United States have been in steep decline in recent decades. Thus, the decline of bees isn't just worrisome because it could disrupt ecosystems, but also because it could disrupt agriculture and economy. People have been trying to come up with replacement techniques, but none of them are especially effective yet.
Scientists have thought about using drones, but they haven't figured out how to make free-flying robot insects that can rely on their own power source without being attached to a wire. “It’s very tough work,” said senior author Eijiro Miyako, a chemist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. His particular contribution to the field involves a gel, one he’d considered a mistake 10 years before and stuck in a storage cabinet. When it was rediscovered a decade later, it hadn’t dried up or degraded at all. “I was so surprised because it still had high viscosity,” Miyako said.
The chemist noticed that when dropped, the gel absorbed an impressive amount of dust from the floor. Miyako realized this material could be very useful for picking up pollen (花粉). He and his colleagues chose a drone and attached horsehairs to its smooth surface to mimic a bee’s fuzzy body. They coated those horsehairs in the gel, and then controlled the drones over lilies, where they would pick up the pollen from one flower and then deposit the pollen at another one, thus fertilizing it.
The scientists looked at the hairs under a scanning electron microscope and counted up the pollen grains attached to the surface and found that the drones whose horsehairs had been coated with the gel had about 10 times more pollen than those that had not been coated with the gel.
Miyako does not think such drones would replace bees altogether, but could simply help bees with their pollinating duties. There’s a lot of work to be done before that's a reality, however. Small drones will need to become more controllable and energy efficient, as well as smarter, with better GPS and artificial intelligence.
1. What does the underlined word “viscosity” in Para.3 probably mean?| A．Hardness. | B．Stickiness. |
| C．Flexibility. | D．Purity. |
| A．bees disrupt both agriculture and economy |
| B．scientists have invented self-powered robot insects |
| C．bees in the United States are on the edge of extinction |
| D．Miyako found the special feature of the gel by chance |
| A．its body is made like a bee’s |
| B．its GPS works more efficiently |
| C．some flowers are coated with the gel |
| D．horsehairs with the gel are attached to it |
| A．are not yet ready for practical use |
| B．may eventually replace bees in the future |
| C．are much more efficient than bee pollinators |
| D．can provide a solution to economic depression |
7 . Name-calling, teasing, pushing and fighting—whether you have experienced it or not, the chances are that these are the things that appear in your mind when you hear the word “bullying”. Yet, many of us know little about the serious, lasting harms bullying could cause.
If you’ve watched 13 Reasons Why, you’ll understand the impacts that bullying can have. The second season of the popular US teenage drama was released on May 18. It tells the story of Hannah Baker, a high school student who takes her own life after she’s picked on by fellow students, while others stand by and do nothing to help her.
One of the important messages audiences could get from the show is to treat people with kindness and respect. “It teaches us that every single thing we say and do has an impact on others,” news platform Odyssey noted.
Some may think 13 Reasons Why exaggerates (夸大) the seriousness of school bullying, but according to the US National Center for Educational Statistics, more than 20 percent of US students were bullied in 2016, and only 36% of this group reported it.
NBA player Gerald Green opened up about being called “alien hands” during his teenage years due to his big hands. “Being bullied was embarrassing,” he said. “I still remember shying away from crowds and walking around with my hands in my pockets to evade the attention from my peers.” To get away with the teasing, he found his motivation by playing basketball and making a career out of it. But not everyone is so lucky to discover a release.
According to statistics released by the US government, if someone prevents a bully, there’s a 57% chance that the bullying will stop within 10 seconds. So if you ever witness bullying, consider stepping up and supporting the victim. As US actor Brandon Flynn, who stars in 13 Reasons Why, said, “Just because you’re not the one getting bullied, it doesn’t mean it’s not your problem.”
1. What is the purpose of the last paragraph?| A．To add some background information. |
| B．To encourage eyewitnesses to take action. |
| C．To introduce a new topic of the discussion. |
| D．To give people advice about dealing with bullying. |
| A．Bullying isn’t a problem in many schools. |
| B．School bullying can’t cause too much pain. |
| C．Only a few people are concerned about bullying. |
| D．Many people who’re bullied choose not to seek help. |
| A．Attract. | B．Focus. |
| C．Avoid. | D．Keep. |
| A．It overstates school bullying. |
| B．It was first shown on May 18. |
| C．It is mainly about school bullying. |
| D．It shows few people can report bullying. |
