1 . Until now, scientists haven’t been able to study the new rock on the moon.The new samples from Chang’e 5 will change this. They’re from near Mons Rümker, a volcanic mountain where the rock is thought to be much younger-- about 1 billion years old.
There are a lot of reasons scientists are eager to study this younger rock, one of which is that it could help us more precisely date not only the moon, but many rocky planets and other objects.
Here’s how that works: Scientists date lunar rock by using something called a chronology curve（年代学曲线）, says Jollliff, a scientists at Washington University in St. Louis. Basically, they estimate the age of the rock by counting the number of craters（火山口） in the area the rock comes from; those increase as objects strike the rock over time. To make this estimation, scientists need to match the number of craters to a precise age. Right now, they only have data points for lunar rock that is 3 to billion years old. Modern techniques can date the new sample extremely accurately, and once scientists know its precise age, they can add a valuable data point to their chronology curve. The dating system will also help us more accurately estimate the age of all sorts of objects in space, like rocky planets and other moons.
Another reason scientists are keen to study this young volcanic rock is to find out more about how volcanism works on the moon. Jollliff says that it’s unclear why there was volcanic activity on the moon for such a long period of time. Most of the moon; s volcanic activity, he says, is thought to have occurred 3 or 4 billion years ago, when the moon was still pretty young. But since the moon does not have plate structure, which drives volcanism on Earth, it’s unclear what could have caused much later volcanic activity. “That’s something that you can find out of the samples by studying them in the lab,” Jollliff says.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The fact of being unable to study the new rock. |
| B．The new rock from near Mons Rümker. |
| C．One of the reasons to study the moon;s new rock. |
| D．The study of the moon’s younger rock. |
| A．ensure there was volcanic activity on the moon. |
| B．more precisely date only the moon. |
| C．date lunar rock by using a chronology curve. |
| D．explore how volcanism works on the moon. |
| A．Scientistsare keen to study this young volcanic rock. |
| B．Scientists can’t know why volcanic activity exists on the moon. |
| C．The moon’s volcanic activity occurred 3 or 4 billion years ago. |
| D．It’s clear what could have caused much later volcanic activity. |
| A．How scientists study the younger rock. |
| B．Why the research is important. |
| C．Why the younger rock is worth studying. |
| D．What scientists do to study the younger rock. |
2 . The different parts of a health care system have different focuses. A hospital's stroke （中风） unit monitors blood flow in the brain. The cardiac unit is interested in that same flow, but through and from the heart. Each collection of equipment and data is effective in its own field. Thus, like the story of blind men feeling an elephant, modern health care offers many separate pictures of a patient, but rarely a useful united one.
On top of all this, the instruments that doctors use to monitor health are often expensive, as is the training required to use them. That combined cost is too high for the medical system to scan regularly, for early signs of illness, so patients are at risk of heart disease or a stroke.
An unusual research project called AlzEye, run by Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, in cooperation with University College, London (UCL) , may change this. It is attempting to use the eye as a window through which signals about the health of other organs could be discovered. The doctors in charge of it, Siegfried Wagner and Pearse Keane, are studying Moorfields' database of eye scans, which offers a detailed picture of the health of the retina (视网膜).
The project will go a step further：With the information about other aspects of patients' health collected from other hospitals around England, doctors will be able to look for more accurate signs of disease through eye scans.
The Moorfields data set has lots of linked cases to work with--far more than any similar project. For instance, the UK Biobank, one of the world's leading collections of medical data about individual people, contains 631 cases of a "major cardiac adverse event". The Moorfields data contain about 12, 000 such. The Biobank has data on about 1, 500 stroke patients. Moorfields has 11, 900. For the disease on which the Moorfields project will focus to start with dementia, the data set holds 15, 100 cases. The only comparable study has 86.
Wagner and Keane are searching for patterns in the eye that show the emergence of disease elsewhere in the body. If such patterns could be recognized reliably, the potential impact would be huge.
1. Why does the author mention “the story of blind men feeling an elephant” in Paragraph 1?| A．To claim the ineffectiveness of our health care system. |
| B．To tell the similarity in various health care units. |
| C．To explain the limitation of modern health care. |
| D．To show the complexity of patients' pictures. |
| A．The challenge of making advanced medical instruments. |
| B．The high risk of getting a heart disease or a stroke |
| C．The inconvenience of modern health care service. |
| D．The incomplete and expensive health monitoring. |
| A．By thoroughly examining one's body organs. |
| B．By identifying one's state of health through eye scans |
| C．By helping doctors discover one's diseases of the eye |
| D．By comparing the eye-scan data from different hospitals. |
| A．It takes advantage of abundantly available medical data. |
| B．It makes the collection of medical data more convenient. |
| C．It improves the Moorfields' competitiveness in the medical field. |
| D．It strengthens data sharing between the Moorfields and the Biobank. |
3 . Let’s face it.You’re likely reading this article in an effort to avoid some other tasks you’re procrastinating (拖延) to learn how to stop procrastination, but the clock is ticking. So why can’t you seem to get rid of that?
Though the psychological causes are still debated, there’s a human tendency to over or underestimate the value of a reward based on its temporal proximity (时间接近). This is often referred to as temporal discounting. For example, if I offered you$100 today or 110 in a month, most would take the hundred and run. But what if instead I offered you 100 dollars in a year or 110 in a year and one month, you might say to yourself if I can wait a year I can wait the extra month.
But the time and value difference are the exact same in each example. It turns out that human motivation is highly influenced by how near the reward is meaning the further away the reward is the more you discount its value. So being online is more appealing than preparing for your test. The problem is surfing the Internet provides many small quick and continuous rewards unlike your test scores which are a future one.
So how do you overcome the urge to put off so many tasks?
Unfortunately there is no definite answer, but try rewarding yourself with a timely snack or other enjoyable activities. The Pomodoro Technique makes use of a timer to work for 25 minutes straight and when you’ve done this give yourself the reward with a 5-minute break. Then start the working clock again, Gradually increasing the amount of work time you put in will improve your time management skills.
It’s been shown that creating a costly deadline is also an effective way to manage your working habits. And try to enjoy the process of achieving something instead of thinking only our minutes of suffering.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．This article. | B．Procrastination. | C．An effort. | D．The clock. |
| A．interesting | B．accurate | C．understandable | D．influential |
| A．It helps them kill time faster. |
| B．It offers them more information. |
| C．It supplies instant rewards to them. |
| D．It strengthens the bond between friends. |
| A．Rewarding yourself with a future gift. |
| B．Increasing the amount of work time. |
| C．Ignoring the process of doing the task. |
| D．Paying dearly for your procrastination. |
4 . The two giant pandas living at Ouwehands Dierenpark in the Dutch city of Rhenen staged a charming debut(初次登台) for hundreds of long- awaited admirers on Tuesday afternoon.
After six weeks since their arrival on April 12, Wu Wen, the female giant panda made tentative steps into her outdoor enclosure(围场). She threw herself at the first bamboo plant. she saw and started to chew. Xing Ya, the male, sat on a rock to enjoy the early summer sunshine. Wu Wen and Xing Ya, both three-and-a-half-year old, will stay at Ouwehands for 15 years. Native to south central China, they belong to a species which counts only 1,864 individuals.
" Both are in perfect health and adapt well to their new home, " said Zhang Hongwen, chief economist of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration."I am glad to see that Wu Wen and Xing Ya are so popular in the Netherlands. Their stay will surely promote Sino-Dutch cooperation relating to the protection of forest and biodiversity.
Martijn van Dam, Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sad, "From today on, Dutch children will get to know Wu Wen and Xing Ya.They can get inspired by all the beautiful and powerful things nature has offered.
China has succeeded in stopping the decline of the number of pandas. China also makes efforts to maintain the natural habitat of the giant pandas. We would also like to contribute to that."
He stressed, "Wu Wen and Xing Ya underline these good developments. Let this be a sign of hope that with joint forces we can protect our nature worldwide, and let this be the beginning of a wave of inspiration for the new generation."
1. What did Wu Wen do after she went outdoors?| A．She walked step by step. |
| B．She threw herself on a rock. |
| C．She enjoyed the sunshine. |
| D．She ate a bamboo plant. |
| A．They belong to an endangered species. |
| B．People in the Netherlands love them. |
| C．They inspire young children to protect nature. |
| D．Hundreds of people have been scared by them. |
| A．Stopping the increase of panda numbers. |
| B．Welcoming pandas to the Netherlands. |
| C．Protecting pandas and their habitat. |
| D．Learning more about the nature of pandas. |
| A．Two giant pandas meet the public in the Netherlands. |
| B．Giant pandas adapt to the lite in foreign countries easy. |
| C．Giant pandas are becoming fewer and fewer. |
| D．How China protects giant pandas. |
5 . Some of the most famous scientific discoveries happened by accident. From the microwave oven to penicillin, scientists trying to solve a problem have sometimes found unexpected things. This is exactly how we created phosphorene nanoribbons (磷烯纳米带) — a material made from one of the universe’s basic building blocks, which has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of technologies.
We'd been trying to separate layers of phosphorus crystals (晶体) into two-dimensional sheets. Instead, our technique created tiny ribbons one single atom thick and only 100 or so atoms across, but up to 100,000 atoms long. We spent three years improving the production process, before announcing our findings. The two-dimensional ribbons have a number of remarkable properties (属性). Their unbelievable width allows their properties, such as whether and how they conduct electricity, to be controllable. They are also very flexible, which means that they can follow any surfaces they’re put on perfectly, and can even be twisted.
More than 100 scientific papers predicted the transformative potential of these ribbons, should it be possible to create them, across a range of technologies — some as many as five years before the publishing of our discovery in Nature. Perhaps the most important of these is in the area of battery technology. The structure of phosphorene nanoribbons means that the charged ions (带电离子) that power batteries could soon move up to 1000 times faster than they currently possible do. This would mean a significant decrease in charging time, alongside an increase in capacity of approximately 50%. Such performance gains would provide massive boosts to the electric car and aircraft industries, and allow us to use renewable energy more readily, even on grey, calm days.
1. What does “we” in the text refer to?| A．Scientists. | B．Doctors. |
| C．Publishers. | D．Technicians. |
| A．Its shape. | B．Its origin. |
| C．Its structure. | D．Its characteristic. |
| A．The cleaner source of energy. |
| B．The bigger batteries of tiny ribbons. |
| C．The increasing capacity of batteries. |
| D．The faster moving speed of charged ions. |
| A．The amazing development of battery technology. |
| B．Significant changes brought by wonderful discoveries. |
| C．A “Wonder material” created accidentally by scientists. |
| D．Unexpected inventions made in human’s history. |
Young Inspirations was founded two years ago to provide mentoring sessions for students and unemployed young adults aged 11 to 21.
Alex Goldberg, the program’s founder, said： “We set up Young Inspirations because we wanted to give young people experiences which will potentially be life changing and broaden their outlook.” “We try to create work experience opportunities that will really make a difference to our youth. For example, we’ve secured internships (实习）with world-famous firms such as Honda.”
“At a time of funding cutbacks, schools are finding it more and more difficult to offer this kind of mentoring because of that. It is extremely important that these opportunities are available both to help youth with their school work and grades and to give them opportunities which may help shape their futures." Kieran Hepbum, 14, is one of a group of Banbury youth who has benefited from the program so far. In October the Banbury School pupil was accompanied by Young Inspirations staff to Paris where he was an observer at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) International Youth Forum(论坛).
The event was held for young people from around the world, to seek their views on how the future of youth and education should look. Kieran joined several hundred observers mostly in their
20s and was the only UK school pupil to attend the event. Kieran thinks the trip was a life changing experience. Before we left 1 didn’t quite know what to make of it but when we got there we didn 't stop、it was amazing” he said, “We went to three or four hours of debates each day and then did something cultural each afternoon.”
The main theme of the forum was how youth can drive change in political and public life. It dealt with issues(问题）such as drug abuse, violence and unemployment.
Kieran said： It has really helped me to improve my confidence and social skills as well as my school grades and I was voted most improved pupil at school in August.”
The Young Inspirations mentoring sessions take place each Friday in Banbury.For details visit www. younginsviratiom. com.
1. Why is The Young Inspirations mentoring program set up?| A．To provide youth with unique experiences |
| B．To train staff for world-famous firms |
| C．To equip the unemployed with different skills |
| D．To offer job opportunities to young adults |
| A．the shortage of money |
| B．the lack of support from firms |
| C．the effect of unemployment |
| D．the lack of opportunities |
| A．the visit to the United Kingdom was amazing |
| B．the mentoring sessions are held every day except Friday |
| C．the youth have found a way to solve their problems |
| D．Kieran has made great progress in many aspects |
| A．Alex Goldberg, Founder of Young Inspirations |
| B．Kieran, Banbury School Pupil to Paris |
| C．Young People Find a World of Opportunity |
| D．Debates Help Youth with Their Grades. |
