1 . Ever wonder how your brain works when making decisions bigger than medium versus spicy salsa, like buying a car or accepting a job offer? Researchers from the University of Dundee in Scotland conducted a study that clarifies why you may want to have a small bite before making that big decision.
Benjamin Vincent from the University of Dundee’s Psychology department and his co-author Jordan Skyrnka tested 50 people two times: once when they followed their normal eating patterns and once when they did not eat anything during the day. Using three different types of rewards (food, money, and song downloads), the team discovered when presented with the choice of receiving the reward now versus double the award at some point in the future, participants would usually volunteer to wait for 35 days to earn a larger bounty, but when they were hungry, they said they would only wait three days.
“We wanted to know whether being in a state of hunger had a specific effect on how you make decisions only relating to food or if it had broader effects, and this research suggests decision-making gets more present-focused when people are hungry,” Vincent said in a story about the study on the university’s website. “You would predict that hunger would impact people’s preferences relating to food, but it is not yet clear why people get more present-focused for completely unrelated rewards. Hunger is so common that it is important to understand the non-obvious ways in which our preferences and decisions may be affected by it,” he said.
In an earlier study of the subject by a team at Cambridge University in England, the researchers noted that serotonin plays a major role in the decision-making process. “Since the raw material for making serotonin—an amino acid called tryptophan — only comes from diet, levels of the chemical decline between meals,” reports a piece in the Telegraph about the study. “This can lead to aggressiveness and impulsiveness,” say the team.
1. How did Benjamin Vincent and Jordan Skyrnka carry out their research?| A．By analyzing reasons. | B．By making comparison. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By filling questionnaires. |
| A．bonus. | B．quantity. | C．income. | D．fortune. |
| A．It’s common to make a wrong decision if you are hungry. |
| B．Make sure you are not hungry before making a big decision. |
| C．The more hungry you are, the quicker you will make a decision. |
| D．Being hungry drives you to make a decision connected with food. |
| A．What should be eaten to make a wise man. |
| B．How can we get enough serotonin from our diet. |
| C．What other factors will influence one’s decision-making. |
| D．How does a chemical function in the course of making a decision. |
2 . It can be easy to brush off certain events as small matters that don’t require attention— but when the safety of dozens of airplane passengers was on the tine, this NASA engineer decided to speak up.
Rumaasha Maasha was preparing to fly from Huntsville to Colorado back in January when he spotted a liquid leak from his window seat on the wing.
“Normally, if it’s a wet day, you’ll see vortices (旋涡) off the wing. About 1,000 feet off the ground, I started seeing something white and thought, ‘maybe we’re just hitting some humidity (湿气).’ Well, after a while it was still doing it, and that’s when I knew something was up. I looked closer and immediately realized that we were losing fuel.” Maasha also knew that as the plane increased in altitude, the situation would got worse.
“I gestured the flight attendant to come over and fortunately she was very attentive,” he said. “She called the crew and the key thing is that she did this as we were still climbing out. Within a minute or two, they reduced speed and leveled off. The fuel leak diminished immediately when they slowed down.”
Much to the anger of the passengers, the plane returned to the Huntsville airport, but upon finding out the reason for the return—and the hero behind it—some of the passengers made friends with Maasha.
Maasha’s experience with NASA wasn’t the only thing that came in handy that day, the engineer first fell in love with aviation (航空) as a teenager growing up near an airport in Monrovia, Liberia. “Looking back, I guess I had the perfect sets of circumstances to recognize the issue that day,” he said. “Since I was a kid, I’ve always tried to sit in a window seat near the wing, and as I grew up, I am determined to run after my dream during my university years. That’s not the first time I’ve noticed something. I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
1. When did Maasha realize something went wrong?| A．Before the plane started to fly. |
| B．When the white thing continued to leak. |
| C．After he settled on his window seat. |
| D．When he first noticed the liquid. |
| A．Worsened. | B．Decreased. | C．Occurred. | D．Continued. |
| A．His birth place and home location. |
| B．His university years and honesty. |
| C．His childhood education and seat choice. |
| D．His working experience and personal interest. |
| A．A Childhood Dream Has Come True |
| B．Fluid Leaking Happened to a Jet |
| C．A NASA Engineer Saved Passengers |
| D．Passengers Feel Grateful to an Engineer |
3 . 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. |
4 . As people get older, the types of friends they have tend to change. As young adults, humans have a lot of friends. With age, they often prefer to spend their time with just a few close, positive individuals. Researchers long believed that this change was unique to humans, but a new study finds that chimps also have similar tendencies.
One explanation for the humans to get picky about social connections has to do with awareness of our limited life span. “People monitor how much time we have left in our life and choose emotionally-fulfilling relationships in old age,” says one of the study's lead authors Alexandra G. Rosati, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. As people age, they don’t want to be surrounded by a large group of negative friends, but would prefer to be near a handful of optimistic individuals.
Rosati and her colleagues were curious whether chimps would show similar features even though they don’t seem to be aware of their upcoming death. Researchers used 78, 000 hours of observations made over 20 years from the Kibale Chimpanzee Project in Uganda. The data looked at the social interactions of 21 male chimps between 15 and 58 years old. The researchers only studied male chimps because they show stronger social bonds and have more social interactions than female chimps.
Researchers found that wild chimpanzees share a similar pattern. “They interact with others in more positive ways as they get older. Younger adults, in contrast, show more aggression and were more likely to form one-sided relationships where their partner did not reciprocate. ”says Rosati. For example, the older chimpanzees would sit close to their long-time companions and groom (给……梳毛) each other, while younger chimps had more one-sided relationships where they would groom a friend, but the action wasn't returned. The study was published in the journal Science.
“This aging pattern may be the result of shared changes in our abilities to manage our emotions with age,” Rosati says. “This shared pattern between chimpanzees and humans could represent an adaptive response where older adults focus on important social relationships that provide benefits and avoid interactions that have negative consequences as they lose competitive fighting ability.”
1. Why do humans change their preference for friends in old age?| A．They don’t like making new friends. |
| B．Their friends pass away one by one. |
| C．They adapt to the changes in nature. |
| D．They know their life is running out. |
| A．To show the study was done scientifically. |
| B．To show how scientists tried to prove their assumption. |
| C．To show how hard it was to observe the chimps. |
| D．To show male chimps are unaware of upcoming death. |
| A．Repay their kindness. | B．Take care of them. |
| C．Get along well with them. | D．Sit close to them. |
| A．People Prefer Positive Partners in Old Age |
| B．Positive Bonds Benefit Chimps in Many Ways |
| C．Aging Chimps like Us Get Picky About Friends |
| D．Chimps Share Similar Tendencies with Humans |
5 . 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 |
6 . A 15-year-old Indian girl, Kumari, who pedalled her injured father more than a thousand kilometres across India, has been invited to try out for the national cycling team.
In January, a motor-bike driver, Mohan Paswan, who made a living by carrying passengers in New Delhi, was injured in a traffic accident. After the accident, Paswan couldn't drive. So his daughter, Kumari took a train across the country to take care of him. But without income, Paswan could no longer afford the rent and they were running out of food. They decided to go home. With the last $20, the 15-year-old girl bought an old bicycle, and planned to take her father to their home village across India --- in a heroic, life-saving ride.
Kumari rode a bicycle with her father, sitting on the pillion(后座)and holding their belongings from Gurugram city, near New Delhi, to their village in the northeastern state of Bihar. They arrived home on May 16 after covering 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) in seven days.
The father and daughter's arduous journey on a second-hand bike bought with their remaining funds made headlines. It also caught the attention of the Cycling Federation of India, which offered Kumari the chance to try out for the country's team. "She covered this long and difficult distance in seven days with her father and some luggage too. I thought she has something in her endurance level. We can try her," chairman Onkar Singh told the journalist.
“She said she only wants to pursue her studies. We told her that we also take care of studies at our academies. Singh said the federation would test Kumari to see if she is suitable for competitive cycling.
There were also other people who praised Kumari's efforts, describing it as a "'beautiful model of endurance and love."
1. What made Kumari have to ride a bike back home?| A．That her father was injured. |
| B．That she could only afford a bike. |
| C．That her home village was far away. |
| D．That she wanted to join in the cycling race. |
| A．dangerous | B．lovely | C．pleasant | D．tough |
| A．Because she has extraordinary physical ability. |
| B．Because he didn't have anyone better than her. |
| C．Because she only wants to pursue her studies. |
| D．Because she is suitable for competitive cycling. |
| A．strong and caring | B．positive and confident |
| C．warm-hearted and brave | D．hard-working and beautiful |
7 . While orcas are known for their well-designed joint attacks on unsuspecting oceanic animals, they have never posed a threat to humans. However, since July 2020, the normally social animals have been intentionally attacking sailboats off the coasts of Spain. The unusual hostility is puzzling scientists worldwide.
The strange behavior first surfaced on July 29, when Victoria Morris, a biology graduate, noticed nine orcas circling the 46 foot boat she was crewing near the shores of the Strait of Gibraltar. She was initially cheerful to see the friendly animals, with which she had numerous encounters while teaching sailing in New Zealand. However, that changed when the orcas started striking the boat repeatedly for almost an hour. “They almost turned the boat over and the deafening noise was terrifying,” she said.
The continuous attacks broke the boat's automatic rudder, leaving the boat disabled. Spanish biologist Rocio Espada says, “It is crazy. I've seen these whales grow from babies. I know their life stories. I've never seen or heard of attacks.”
Since then, over 30 more similar incidents have been reported. Some researchers believe the orcas' unusual behavior could be a result of the overfishing of tuna—orcas' primary food source—which has left the area's orcas starving and unable to feed their babies. “I saw orcas look at boats carrying fish. The intelligent animals may know humans are somehow related to food shortages,” says Ken Balcomb, an American scientist.
However, Alfredo Lopez a Spanish biology professor, thinks the attacks were preventative measures the orcas adopted to protect themselves against boat injuries. The researcher came to this conclusion after looking at the footage of a few incidents filmed on the scene and noticing that two of the young orcas involved had serious injuries. The scientist wasn't sure if the orcas were hurt during or before the recent boat encounters. Lopez said, “Our interpretation is that they don't have the slightest intention of attacking people.” Hopefully, the experts will find a way to restore the harmony between the animals and humans soon.
1. What does the underlined word “hostility” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Unfriendliness. | B．Defence. | C．Cooperation. | D．Impatience. |
| A．Her major led her to anticipate orcas' intense attacks. |
| B．She rarely spotted orcas when working as a sailing coach. |
| C．Her joy gave way to fear after the orcas began attacking the boat. |
| D．She was doing research on the shore when she caught sight of nine orcas. |
| A．Predictable. | B．Abnormal. | C．Unavoidable. | D．Natural. |
| A．Orcas frequently get hurt by boats. | B．Orcas enjoy playing tricks on humans. |
| C．Orcas are punishing humans for overfishing. | D．Orcas attack boats to safeguard against dangers. |
8 . If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.
Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meaning of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example, in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.
As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.
For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.
If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.
1. According to the author, which should you improve first among the four skills?| A．Reading and listening. | B．Reading and writing. |
| C．Writing and speaking. | D．Speaking and listening. |
| A．meet by accident | B．discover |
| C．find on purpose | D．look for |
| A．everyone should listen to VOA or BBC programs every day |
| B．you needn’t practice listening if you keep on reading every day |
| C．being good at reading is helpful in improving your listening |
| D．you should take notes of whatever you are hearing |
| A．choose suitable listening materials |
| B．deal with new words in reading |
| C．improve your English as quickly as possible |
| D．become fluent in speaking and writing English |
9 . A thief who dropped a winning lottery ticket at the scene of his crime has been given a lesson in honesty.His victim,who picked up the ticket and then claimed the $25,000 prize,managed to trace him,and handed over the cash.The robbery happened when maths professor Vinicio Sabbatucci,58,was changing a tire on an Italian motorway.Another motorist,who stopped “to help”,stole a suitcase from his car and drove off.The professor found the dropped ticket and put it in his pocket before driving home to Ascoli in eastern Italy.
Next day,he saw the lottery results on TV and,taking out the ticket,realized it was a winner.He claimed the 60 million lire(里拉) prize.Then he began a battle with his conscience.Finally,he decided he could not keep the money despite having been robbed.He advertised in newspapers and on the radio,saying,“I’m trying to find the man who robbed me.I have 60 million lire for him—a lottery win.Please meet me.Anonymity(匿名) guaranteed.”
Professor Sabbatucci received hundreds of calls from people hoping to trick him into handing them the cash.But there was one voice he recognized and he arranged to meet the man in a park.The robber,a 35-year-old unemployed father of two,gave back the suitcase and burst into tears.He could not believe what was happening.“Why didn’t you keep the money?”he asked.The professor replied,“I couldn’t because it’s not mine.”Then he walked off,spurning the thief’s offer of a reward.
1. The underlined sentence “Then he began a battle with his conscience.” in Paragraph 2 implies all of the following except that .| A．he knew what he should do as soon as he saw the lottery results |
| B．he hesitated about keeping the money for sometime |
| C．he thought for a moment of avenging himself on the robber |
| D．he came to realize that honesty is more important than money |
| A．wanted to make fun of him | B．hoped to get the money |
| C．knew who the robber was | D．lost the lottery ticket |
| A．Excited. | B．Frightened. |
| C．Ashamed. | D．Incredible. |
| A．accepting | B．claiming |
| C．rejecting | D．cancelling |
| A．A Thief’s Lucky Day | B．A Popular Maths Professor |
| C．A Magic Lottery | D．A Reward of Honesty |
10 . A shop owner placed a sign above his door that said: “Puppies For Sale.” Signs like this always have a way of attracting young children, and to no surprise, a boy saw the sign and approached the owner.
“How much are you going to sell the puppies for?” he asked.
The store owner replied, “Anywhere from $30 to $50.”
The little boy pulled out some change from his pocket. “I have $2.37,” he said. “Can I please look at them?”
The shop owner smiled and whistled. A lady ran down the aisle of his shop followed by five tiny balls of fur.
One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging puppy and said, “What’s wrong with that little dog?”
The shop owner explained the puppy was disabled by nature and it would always be lame. The little boy became excited. “I’ll buy it.” The shop owner said, “No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.” The little boy looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger, and said, “I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for.”
The shop owner countered, “You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and play with you like the other puppies.”
To his surprise, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the shop owner and softly replied, “Well, I don’t run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!”
1. From the passage we can infer ______.| A．The owner persuaded the boy out of buying the lame dog. |
| B．The dog was badly treated because it was different from other dogs. |
| C．The boy decided to pay the owner at least $30 for the lame dog. |
| D．The boy decided to pay off the rest of the money in a month. |
| A．Because the boy was disabled as well. |
| B．Because the puppy recovered one day. |
| C．Because the lady sold the disabled puppy. |
| D．Because the boy refused his offer. |
| A．said | B．argued | C．yelled | D．persuaded |
| A．love | B．kindness | C．generosity | D．understanding |
