1 . Humans visiting Mars will likely happen within the next 15 years. However, it will be a nine-month journey one way. And dehydrated (脱水的) food for space missions, which is less nutritious than fresh food and difficult to pack too much, isn’t ideal for feeding humans in the long term. Finding a way to feed humans on Mars is, therefore, critical before anyone steps on the Red Planet.
A recent study offered a practical method for growing nutrient-rich vegetables by drawing upon an ancient farming technique, intercropping, used by the Mayans centuries ago. Intercropping, as opposed to monocropping, consists of multiple plants being grown together in the same fields.
Researchers compared three different crops — tomatoes, carrots and peas — in Mars-like soil called regolith, soil and river sand, all by monocropping and intercropping. The researchers believed they would complement each other. Tomatoes provide climbing support for peas and shade for carrots, while peas fix nitrogen (氮) in soil by turning it into food for plants. Carrots, in turn, improve water and nutrient intake.
There were 60 pots of plants in total in Mars-like greenhouses. In all three soil types, all the crops grew. Tomatoes did especially well in the intercropping regolith. However, the peas and carrots were not fans of sharing a pot with tomatoes in the regolith, producing decreased yields. There’re several possible reasons. Tomatoes are “heavy feeders” likely taking nutrients from the peas and carrots. Additionally, the bacteria working together with peas for nitrogen-fixing couldn’t survive in the regolith, resulting in the peas not being able to fix nitrogen for neighboring crops.
This study, however, is still promising to researchers, as they’ve come up with ways to adjust the regolith. Besides, intercropped plants did better in the river sand than monocropped plants, proving intercropping would be beneficial to agriculture on Earth as well, especially in places where soil is becoming sandier. Not just astronauts on Mars, but many communities on Earth have plenty to learn from the Mayans.
1. Why is farming a vital requirement for exploring Mars?| A．It ensures an increased yield of food on Mars. |
| B．It provides a source of relaxation for astronauts. |
| C．It supplies astronauts with fresh and nutritious food. |
| D．It tests the effects of Martian soil on Earth-based crops. |
| A．Isolate. | B．Supply. | C．Reply. | D．Harm. |
| A．The peas failed to fix nitrogen. | B．The tomatoes took up too much space. |
| C．They were sensitive to the Mars-like soil. | D．They were not exposed to enough sunlight. |
| A．Mars: the New Frontier for Agricultural Innovation |
| B．The Advantages and Challenges of Growing Crops on Mars |
| C．Intercropping Helps Sustainable Martian Agriculture Come True |
| D．Agriculture on Mars Is Possible Thanks to Mayan Farming Practices |
The Refrigerator Boxes
It couldn't have been easy for my mom - a single mother with three energetic kids aging ten to sixteen, who worked long hours to provide us with clothing and food. Somehow she did it, keeping us busy and out of trouble Sometimes she had to be really creative.
One Christmas, Mom came home from work with three boxes… three refrigerator boxes. Seriously. Refrigerator boxes. That weekend, she sent us out to the garage with those boxes and several cans of paint. Our only instructions were to paint them however we wanted. We had no idea what those boxes would be used for and I painted mine in my favorite color: bright purple. After our day of painting, my siblings and I put those boxes out of our minds and began to look forward to Christmas Day. We knew Mom didn't have a lot of extra money, we shopped at the thrift store for school clothes, gathered supplies at Pic-N- Save, and bought day- old bread at a local bakery. But that certainly didn't keep me from wanting something very special that year. I knew, though, it was unlikely.
Christmas Eve came. We talked about what we hoped would be under the tree. My sixteen-year-old sister desired a beanbag chair, my brother mentioned his drum set; I, as the youngest child, wanted an all- for- me bicycle! I kept telling myself that it wasn't going to happen. I would be happy with whatever my mom gave me. We headed for home and opened our stockings. As always, they were full of candy, small toys, and a pair of socks. We drank hot cocoa and sang a few more carols. Then it was off to bed. On Christmas morning, after eating eggs, bacon, and toast, we ran to the living room.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Seeing the refrigerator boxes under the tree, we were frozen there.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We were wondering at these gifts when my mom appeared.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Here’s a quick quiz. Person A does a favor for you. Person B asks you to do a favor for him. Who do you tend to like more? Surprisingly, the answer is Person B. This quirk (怪癖) of human nature is known as the Ben Franklin Effect.
Benjamin Franklin came across the phenomenon in 1736 when serving as a clerk to the Pennsylvania Assembly. A powerful member didn’t care for Franklin and threatened to make life miserable for him. What to do? Instead of winning him over with sweet talk, Franklin asked if he could borrow a rare and valuable book the man owned. This request altered the man’s attitude and paved the way for their friendship. Franklin’s takeaway: “He that has once done you a kindness will be ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
Several studies have confirmed this. But how can we explain the Ben Franklin Effect? Some psychologists refer to cognitive dissonance (失调). It’s difficult to hold two contradictory thoughts at the same time. It makes us uncomfortable. We resolve this tension by changing our mind. “I don’t like Joe, but I am doing him a favor,” we might think. “So maybe I do like him.”
While cognitive dissonance explains a lot, it alone doesn’t explain the Ben Franklin Effect. One 2015 study found that it was, rather, the affiliative (亲和的) motive that the requests convey. That is, we humans want to maintain good relations with other humans, and one way to achieve this is by doing favors for others. This explains a lot about altruistic behavior. We like being useful and, by extension, we like those who give us the opportunity to do so. It’s in our genes.
Yet there is much we still don’t know about the Ben Franklin Effect. Does it apply equally across cultures? Is there a point beyond which asking a favor makes you less, not more likable? Asking to borrow a book is one thing; asking to borrow a car is another.
1. Why does the author mention Benjamin Franklin’s experience?| A．To illustrate a dilemma in making choices. | B．To suggest a way of striking up friendships. |
| C．To stress the importance of strategic requests. | D．To introduce the origin of the Ben Franklin Effect. |
| A．Reducing the tension caused by social contact. |
| B．Increasing the chance of getting help in return. |
| C．Avoiding the discomfort from conflicting thoughts. |
| D．Establishing a cooperative community of shared trust. |
| A．Selfless. | B．Impolite. | C．Aggressive. | D．Responsible. |
| A．It makes little sense. | B．It applies to most cultures. |
| C．It has situational limitations. | D．It has great practical significance. |
Summer vacation finally arrived, and with the pressure of exams off my shoulders, I could finally rest. Unfortunately, my daydreaming was interrupted by my mother’s announcement. She and my father had decided to take me to Uncle John’s farm in the countryside. Being born and raised in the city, I had absolutely no clue about farm life. In my mind, I pictured waking up at dawn with cows biting my sleeves (袖子). I begged my parents to let me stay home, but it was no use. They claimed that farm life would teach me far more important things than any book on my shelf, which I thought was nonsense.
Therefore, on a sleepy morning, we packed our suitcases into the car trunk and drove off at daybreak. Even though I was low- spirited throughout the ride, the moment the car entered the farm’s gates, I wondered at the scenery. It looked like an oil painting, with a few cows feeding freely on a pasture (牧场) in the distance. Uncle John and Aunt Alice happily showed us around and introduced us to the animals. Aunt Alice pointed at a sheep that was moving slower than the others and said, “She’s about to give birth. Do you want to see the baby lambs?” I nodded.
That night, after eating dinner around a campfire, we settled into our wooden beds and fell into a sleep. Suddenly, I felt somebody shaking my shoulders. I opened my eyes; it was Aunt Alice! She excitedly told me that the lambs were here. I quickly got up and raced toward the barn (谷仓). There they were! The mother sheep was lying on the straw, and three newborn lambs huddled (蜷缩) next to her, drinking milk. Uncle John was already there, but he looked worried. “What’s wrong?” I asked.“ Look at that little one; it’s not strong enough.” Uncle John pointed at the smallest lamb. It was true; the two other lambs were much bigger and took up all the space. The little one tried its best but still got pushed out. Uncle John said,“ It’s probably not going to survive.”
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右;2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1: I knew instantly that I had to help that lamb.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Paragraph 2: Soon, it was the end of summer vacation, and we had to go back home.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . UChicago Pritzker Molecular Engineering Prof. Y. Shirley Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversion (LESC)has created the world’s first anode-free sodium (无阳极钠) solid-state battery. With this research, the LESC has brought the reality of inexpensive, fast- charging, high-capacity batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage closer than ever.
”Although there have been previous sodium, solid-state, and anode-free batteries, no one has been able to successfully combine these three ideas until now,“ said UC San Diego PhD candidate Grayson Deysher, first author of a new paper outlining the team’s work.
The paper demonstrates a new sodium battery architecture with stable cycling for several hundred cycles. By removing the anode and using inexpensive, abundant sodium instead of lithium(锂), this new form of battery will be more affordable and environmentally friendly to produce. Through its innovative solid-state design, the battery also will be safe and powerful. This work is both an advance in the science and a necessary step to fill the battery scaling gap needed to shift the world economy off fossil fuels.
The lithium commonly used for batteries isn’t that common. It makes up about 20 parts per million of the Earth’s crust(地壳), compared to sodium, which makes up 20,000 parts per million. This scarcity, combined with the rising demand for the lithium-ion batteries for laptops, phones and EVs, have sent prices skyrocketing, putting the needed batteries further out of reach.
Sodium, common in ocean water and soda ash mining, is an inherently more environmentally friendly battery material. The LESC research has made it a powerful one as well.
”Sodium solid-state batteries are usually seen as a far-off-in-the-future technology, but we hope that our work can encourage more push into the sodium area by demonstrating that it can indeed work well, even better than the lithium version in some cases,“ Deysher said.
The ultimate goal? Meng expects an energy future with a variety of clean, inexpensive battery options that store renewable energy, scaled to fit society’s needs.
1. What do we know about the new sodium battery?| A．It’s on sale now. | B．It’s advanced. |
| C．It charges slow. | D．It’s expensive. |
| A．It will make batteries more expensive. |
| B．It will shift the form of world economy. |
| C．It will meet the need for EVs. |
| D．It will reduce dependence on fossil fuels. |
| A．shortage | B．storage | C．strategy | D．source |
| A．Find more sources of material for battery. |
| B．Put sodium battery technology to market. |
| C．Offer diverse clean cheap battery choices. |
| D．Scale to fit society’s need for development. |
6 . When I was young, my family had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I used to listen with
Then I discovered that inside the wonderful
My first personal
“Isn’t your mother home?” came the question.
“Nobody’s home but me.”
“Are you bleeding?”
“No.” I replied.
“Can you open your icebox?” she asked. I said I could. “Then
After that I called her for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and math. She even
As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood
| A．respect | B．sincerity | C．fascination | D．caution |
| A．driven | B．pushed | C．opened | D．fastened |
| A．hole | B．device | C．home | D．community |
| A．supply | B．change | C．delete | D．guess |
| A．meeting | B．experience | C．interview | D．cooperation |
| A．approval | B．confidence | C．sympathy | D．comment |
| A．pressed | B．fixed | C．replaced | D．lifted |
| A．ordered | B．cheered | C．yelled | D．declared |
| A．teacher | B．audience | C．partner | D．assistant |
| A．heat up | B．slip on | C．put away | D．chip off |
| A．informed | B．showed | C．warned | D．inspired |
| A．conversations | B．injuries | C．pains | D．dreams |
| A．glory | B．kindness | C．doubt | D．anger |
| A．admitted | B．appreciated | C．wondered | D．estimated |
| A．optimistic | B．ambitious | C．disciplined | D．understanding |
7 . Whether playing tricks or holding funerals in the wild, crows have surprised the public with their unexpected capabilities. But their “intelligence” knows no bounds. A new study published in Current Biology revealed for the first time that crows can use statistical logic to solve problems.
Crows have a large brain for their size and a particularly noticeable forebrain, associated with statistical and analytical reasoning in humans. “In our lab, crows have shown complicated numerical competence and careful consideration during decision-making,” said Dr. Melissa Johnston, a fellow at the University of Tübingen. In her recent work, Johnston and her team pushed these abilities to a new extreme, testing statistical reasoning.
In the experiment, two crows were first trained to peck (啄) at various images on touchscreens to earn food treats; and gradually they had to choose between two of these images, each corresponding to a different reward probability. “Crows were tasked with learning rather abstract quantities and then applying that combination of information in a reward maximizing way,” Johnston detailed. Over 10 days of training and 5,000 trials, the two crows managed to pick the higher probability of reward, showing their ability to use statistical inference. To researchers’ much surprise, even after a month without training, the crows still perform well every time.
Statistical reasoning involves using limited information about a situation to draw conclusions and make decisions. People unknowingly use such cognitive ability every day. When we select cafes for social meetups, our brains automatically weigh collected statistics from past observations and favor the one more capable of meeting needs. Similarly, crows remembered and analyzed the connections between the images and the reward probabilities to make themselves get the most treats possible.
Crows once symbolized misfortune and death, causing them disliked even killed by people. Actually, they are among the few animals to adapt to urbanization successfully due to underestimated intelligence. “I think these studies do help change public views and improve our relationship with these lovely animals,” Johnston stated.
1. What makes crows’ intelligence possible?| A．Their limitless abilities of tricks. |
| B．Their social leaning in the wild. |
| C．Their physical structure of brains. |
| D．Their training received in the lab. |
| A．Instruct, task, and retest. |
| B．Train, perform, and record. |
| C．Assume, prove, and reflect. |
| D．Prepare, teach, and examine. |
| A．By sharing a personal experience. |
| B．By quoting a previous study. |
| C．By making a detailed comparison. |
| D．By using a common example. |
| A．Food Prize Competition: Crows Choosing Rewards |
| B．Urban Bird Survival Strategies: Living with People |
| C．Beyond Tricks: Surprise of Crows’ Statistical Reasoning |
| D．Animal Behavior Study: Training Crows in Experiments |
1. When are kites believed to be invented?
| A．About 3, 000 years ago. | B．About 2, 500 years ago. | C．About 15, 000 years ago. |
| A．Celebrating victories. | B．Carry ropes to cross rivers. | C．Crossing valleys. |
| A．Adam Smiths. | B．John Bate. | C．Marco Polo. |
Hiking in the wild is one of Ehlers’ favorite hobbies. And he had a single goal: to hike in the hills of west - central Iowa, which is the best wild place for people who love hiking in the wild. Although it’s about 250 miles from the hills of west - central Iowa to Ehlers’ home in Minnesota, he still put into practice with his friends.
During a long trip home, following a weekend of hiking, Ehlers thought about the small brown dog he had seen trembling alongside the road. At the time, he stopped the car and tried to coax (哄劝) the dog to him but, frightened, it ran off. It immediately disappeared without a trace.
Back home, Ehlers was troubled by that lost dog, which drove him to make up his mind to find that dog. So, four days later, he called his friend Greg, and the two drove back.
Arriving at that place, they came across a local farmer and asked him, “Have you seen a lost dog? We had seen the dog trembling alongside the road four days ago.” Meanwhile, Greg described the dog’s appearance to him.
“The dog sounded like one advertised as lost in the local paper. The ad had a phone number for a town in southern Minnesota and the dog’s picture,” the local farmer told them.
Ehlers and Greg were excited to know that the dog’s owners were Jeff and Lisa. So they called Jeff and Lisa to tell them they were finding their dog. Hearing that, Jeff was surprised and said, “We had hiked in Iowa before Thanksgiving with our dog, Rosie, but a fierce dog came out of nowhere and scared Rosie off. We searched in vain for Rosie in the next four days. So we drove back home.”
“We are also driving there now, and it will take about two hours to arrive in Iowa. Tell me exactly where you are. Let’s search Rosie together,” Jeff said. “OK. We will wait for you while looking for Rosie,” Ehlers replied.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
After nearly two hours’ careful search, an amazing thing happened.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Ehlers called Jeff and Lisa again and waited for their arrival.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10 . The vast majority of people have an ongoing conversation with themselves, an inner voice, that plays an important role in their daily lives. But between 5 to 10 percent of the population do not have the experience of an inner voice, and they find it more difficult to perform certain verbal memory tasks, new research shows.
Johanne Nedergard from the University of Copenhagen and her colleague Gary Lupyan are the first researchers to investigate whether the lack of an inner voice, or an endophasia as they have coined the condition, has any consequences for how these people solve problems, for example how they perform verbal memory tasks.
People who reported that they either experienced a high degree of inner voice or very little inner voice in everyday life were subjected to one experiment that aimed to determine whether there was a difference in their ability to remember language input and one about their ability to find rhyme words.
The first experiment involved the participants remembering words in order— words that were similar, either phonetically or in spelling, e. g. “bought” “caught”. The participants without an inner voice were significantly worse at remembering the words. The same applied to an assignment in which the participants had to determine whether a pair of pictures contained words that rhyme,e. g. pictures of a sock and a clock. Here, too, it is crucial to be able to repeat the words in order to compare their sounds and thus determine whether they rhyme.
According to Nedergard, the differences in verbal memory that they have identified in their experiments will not be noticed in ordinary everyday conversations. And the question is, does not having an inner voice hold any practical or behavioral significance?
So far, the researchers are not sure because they are only on the very beginning of a whole process of study. But there is one field where they suspect that having an inner voice plays a role, and that is therapy; in the widely used cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, you need to identify and change adverse thought patterns, and having an inner voice may be very important in such a process. However, it is still uncertain whether differences in the experience of an inner voice are related to how people respond to different types of therapy. Nedergard said she would like to continue her research to find out whether other language areas are affected if you do not have an inner voice.
1. What does the underlined word”coined“in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Assessed. | B．Revised. | C．Created. | D．Discovered. |
| A．display how people pick up different words | B．see how people differ in degrees of inner voice |
| C．explain why some participants can repeat words | D．assess a group’s ability to remember words in order. |
| A．have poorer verbal memory | B．show traits in daily conversations |
| C．can obtain it through training | D．have serious problems in learning |
