1 . All evidence points to the fact that Mars once had flowing water, but numerous flybys, orbiters and landers have confirmed one undeniable fact — any liquid (液体的) water that was once on its surface is now long gone.
One idea, the Mars Ocean Hypothesis, suggests that Mars not only had some liquid water, but a lot of it. But the new study’s co-author Kun Wang says his team’s finding pours cold water on it.
“Mars’ fate (命运) was decided from the beginning.” Wang, an assistant professor of Earth and planetary sciences, said in a statement. That’s because the lower mass and gravity of Mars makes it easier for volatile (挥发) elements and compounds such as water to escape from its surface into space.
The researchers looked at 20 Martian meteorites (陨石) ranging in age from about 200 million years old to 4 billion years, dating back to a time when the solar system was still in the chaos of formation. The researchers analyzed water behaves in much the same way, indicating that most of it would have been lost to space during the formation of Mars.
The liquid water that did remain on the Martian surface carved out the riverbeds and other formations that we see there today, Wang says. But that water, too, would likely have disappeared had it not been trapped as ice at the Martian poles as the climate on the planet became colder, he notes.
“This does probably indicate a lower limit on size for a planet to be truly habitable,” Wang says, “Understanding that lower limit is important — there are lines of evidence that small planets are more common than big ones, so if the small ones are dry, then there are fewer habitable (适于居住的) worlds out there than we thought.”
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?A.To present an argument. | B.To make a comparison. |
C.To reach a conclusion. | D.To explain a concept. |
A.Water is too easy to dry out. |
B.The cold weather froze the water. |
C.Flybys consumed most of the water. |
D.The gravity of the Mars can hardly lock water. |
A.Comparing results. | B.Listing figures. |
C.Giving examples. | D.Raising questions. |
A.We are in great need of water on earth. |
B.They are trying to find suitable place for humans. |
C.Mars is the destination to explore in the long run. |
D.Mars is very significant for the health of the earth. |
2 . Research shows people have a tendency to seek out information during uncertain times — it’s a natural coping mechanism (机制). But is continuous information-seeking on social media, sometimes called doomscrolling (末日刷刷刷), helpful during a pandemic, or any time?
Research on the effects of bad news on mood suggests exposure to negative COVID news is likely to be dangerous to our emotional well being. For instance, one study conducted in March 2020 involving more than 6,000 Americans found that the more time participants spent consuming COVID news in a day, the unhappier they felt.
These findings are striking but leave a few key questions unanswered. Does doomscrolling make people unhappy, or are unhappy people just more likely to doomscroll? How much time spent doomscrolling is a problem? And what would happen if, instead of doomscrolling, we were “ kindness scrolling ” — reading about humanity’s positive responses to a global crisis?
To find out answers to these questions, researchers conducted a study where they showed hundreds of people real-world content on either Twitter or YouTube for two to four minutes. The Twitter feeds and YouTube videos featured either general news about the COVID, or news about kindness during COVID. Researchers then measured these participants’ moods using a questionnaire, and compared their moods with participants who did not engage with any content at all.
People who were shown general COVID-related news experienced lower moods than people who were shown nothing at all. Meanwhile, people who were shown COVID news stories involving acts of kindness didn’t experience the same decline in mood, but also didn’t gain the boost in mood they’ d predicted. These findings suggest that spending as little as two to four minutes consuming negative news about COVID-19 can have a negative impact on our mood.
Researchers are still working on what people can do to look after themselves, and make time on social media more pleasurable.
1. How did the author introduce the topic of the text?A.By asking a question. | B.By telling a story. |
C.By listing lots of figures. | D.By answering a question. |
A.To figure out why people like doomscrolling. |
B.To find out what news has bad effects on emotion. |
C.To figure out the answers to the few key questions. |
D.To find out what news people like about doomscrolling. |
A.No news may lead people to low mood. |
B.General COVID-related news may cause low spirits. |
C.COVID news of kindness may boost mood. |
D.2-4 minutes of COVID-19 news viewing doesn’t affect mood. |
A.The research time. | B.The results of the study. |
C.The study institution. | D.The number of participants. |
3 . Screen time is often considered the enemy when it comes to teaching kids to be active. However, a new research found that for 9 and 10 years old children greater social media use was related to some positive effects, including increased physical activity, less family conflict (冲突) and fewer sleep problems.
The findings come from an analysis of data from about 4,500 young people and their parents collected by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The study gathered information about how young people’s brains develop.
In the study, children self reported activities like watching TV, texting or visiting social media sites — and the time spent on each. They were also asked about whether they play mature (成年的) video games. They rated their time on them as never, once in a while and all the time. Kids and parents report on family conflict. Parents also kept track of how well the kids slept and filled out a checklist that assessed (评定) their children’s behavior.
The results haven’t been published yet, but are being presented Tuesday at the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Diego. Previous research has been done. largely in older kids or teenagers with less focus on younger kids. Communities and social networks can have beneficial effects, so kids who are using social media to build connections may see positive outcomes.
Do these findings mean that parents should ban TVs and sign their kids up for Twitter? Probably not. Psychologist Chris Ferguson of Stetson University says that the differences identified in the research are small.
1. What does the passage mainly about?A.More screen time is needed by kids. |
B.Screen time is the enemy of teaching kids to be active. |
C.Parents should ban TVs and sign their kids up for Twitter. |
D.A look at social media may have possible benefits for kids. |
A.They carried out interviews. | B.They asked kids and parents to report. |
C.They got the data from other scientists. | D.They downloaded the data from the Internet. |
A.Objective. | B.Subjective. | C.Supportive. | D.Doubtful.. |
A.A novel. | B.A travel guide. | C.A news report. | D.A book review. |
4 . Famous Israeli gastronome (美食家) Michal Ansky is a professional taster and a Master Chef judge. So when she was invited to the world’s first public blind taste test setting lab-grown chicken into competition against a conventionally raised product, she was confident that she would be able to tell the difference.
Surrounded by cameras at a restaurant bar, she tasted from two dishes, labeled A and B. A team of lawyers looked on, tasked with making sure that the tasting truly was blind. Even the chef who sautéed (嫩煎) the meat in sunflower oil—no salt, no seasonings—didn’t know which was which. Both were flavorless, Ansky noted, but she would bet her reputation that sample A was the real thing. It had a richer, more “chickeny” taste.
The tasting was hosted by a meat-tech startup SuperMeat at its in-house restaurant, The Chicken. Ever since 2013, when the first lab-grown hamburger was presented to the public with a $330,000 price tag, alternative-meat companies have been inching closer to a product that is just as tasty and nearly as affordable as the real thing, but without the climate impacts. One new study found high-income countries could cut agricultural emissions (排放物) by almost two-thirds by moving away from animal-based foods.
But one question remains: Would consumers be able to tell the difference? SuperMeat decided to put its product to the test without the deep frying and sauces that are usually used to mask a lack of flavor. Sample B had less flavor, so Ansky reasoned that it had to be the one grown in a lab. She was so convinced of her decision that when SuperMeat founder Ido Savir announced that it was in fact A that was lab-grown, she corrected him. “No,” she said. “A is the real chicken.”
A day later, I spoke to Ansky about the tasting. “It’s one of the only times in my life that I’m really happy that I was wrong,” she admitted.
1. What do we know about the taste test?A.It was hosted by a chicken-themed restaurant. |
B.Food samples were made with different flavors. |
C.Michal Ansky was invited to the test for her reputation. |
D.Lawyers were involved to ensure the authority of the activity. |
A.lab-grown chicken tastes as good as raised chicken |
B.meat eaters turn a blind eye to the taste of chicken |
C.even a world-famous gastronome can make mistakes |
D.chicken should be cooked well to appeal to customers |
A.More chickeny taste. |
B.More affordable price. |
C.Less artificial flavor. |
D.Less carbon footprint. |
A.She wanted to ease her embarrassment. |
B.She saw a milestone in the food industry. |
C.She changed people’s opinion of her job. |
D.She believed in the power of making mistakes. |
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Who invented the ATM? There have been
Back in the mid-1960s, James Goodfellow was working
The cash machine has become a world-conquering piece of technology. There are now 3 million ATMs worldwide, with
赞成 | 1.作业、学习压力减小; 2.有更多的时间培养自己的兴趣爱好; 3.…… |
反对 | 1.业余时间多了,一些孩子可能会打游戏; 2.只有努力学习,才能打下更扎实的基础; 3.…… |
你的看法 | …… |
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
参考词汇:双减 double-lightening the burden
Ski resorts in northern China are seeing their business skyrocket, as winter sports
“When we opened a few years ago, there was no one here
Luo’s resort is not the only one in Zhangjiakou
Luo said that the increasing business has been supported by long—term investments by private businesses, as well as a national campaign to increase the
9 . A study led by Plana-Ripoll, a psychiatrist (精神病医生) at Aarhus University in Denmark, tries to deal with a fundamental question that has bothered researchers for more than a century—What are the roots of mental illness?
In the hope of finding an answer, scientists have piled up a large amount of data over the past decade, through studies of genes (基因), brain activity and neuroanatomy (神经解剖学). They have found evidence that many of the same genes underlie seemingly distinct disorders and that changes in the brain's decision-making systems could be involved in many conditions.
Researchers are also rethinking theories of how our brains go wrong. The idea that mental illness can be classified into distinct, separate categories such as “anxiety” or “psychosis” has been disproved to a large extent. Instead, they’ve found that disorders shade into each other, and there are no hard dividing lines.
Now, researchers are trying to understand the biology that underlies mental illness.
They have a few theories. Perhaps there are several dimensions of mental illness—so, depending on how a person scores on each dimension, they might be more prone (易患) to some disorders than to others. An alternative idea is that there is a single factor that makes people prone to mental illness in general; which disorder they develop is then determined by other factors. Both ideas are being taken seriously, although the former one is more widely accepted by researchers.
The details are still vague, but most psychiatrists agree that one thing is clear: The old system of categorizing mental disorders into neat boxes does not work. They are also hopeful that, in the long run, replacing this framework with one that is grounded in biology will lead to new drugs and treatments. Researchers aim to reveal, for instance, the key genes, brain regions and neurological (神经的) processes involved in psychopathology (精神病理学), and target them with therapies (疗法). Although it might take a while to get there, they are long-term optimistic if the field really does its work.
1. What have researchers found in their study?A.There exist links between mental disorders. | B.Genes are different in distinct mental disorders. |
C.Brain function has little to do with mental illness. | D.Mental illness is classified into different categories. |
A.the theory of genetic influences | B.the belief of brain abnormalities |
C.the concept of multiple dimension | D.the idea of the determined risk factor |
A.Its genes are too complex to study. | B.Hunting for its biology might help. |
C.Scientists are clear about its details. | D.Its new drugs can be available soon. |
A.The categories of mental illness. | B.The symptoms of mental illness. |
C.The theories of mental illness. | D.The roots of mental illness. |
10 . It’s never too late to get into science fiction.
While science fiction, or sci-fi, often asks that most powerful question “What if?” —— it also deals with “This, now”: reflecting it, questioning it and satirizing (讽刺) it. Science fiction can act at once as a glimpse into our imaginary future while holding a mirror up to our current state of society.
Indeed, it can act as a warning for the present to avoid a terrifying future or as a blueprint for future technology. Science fiction can inspire us to live better today so that we can live better lives tomorrow. As Scientific Americans noted, “Science fiction can remind us of … wonder and hope. But it also sends us a warning —— to think about the potential influences of our findings, beyond our idealistic dreams.”
Thanks to its brilliant creators, sci-fi becomes the perfect genre to ask the greatest questions that humans dare to ask and broaden the concepts of what is possible in the universe. Who are we and what can we become? Can technology make the world a better place? What will tomorrow bring —— and what can we do today to make that a reality?
The genre of sci-fi can push the boundaries of what we think is possible, like the legendary submarine mentioned in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea far before any such vehicle existed. Or it can warn us of a near-future impacted by biotechnology, as in the MaddAddam trilogy. Sci-fi can even imagine how Earth responds to first contact with aliens, a focus of The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Sci-fi and its creators know no limits to what can be imagined. Anything is possible.
As science fiction grows in popularity, more books are being written, and more movies and TV shows are adapting these works for the screen. An adaptation of Dune is slated for a 2021 release, and The Three-Body Problem as well as MaddAddam are also in development. The medium of film and television has brought science fiction to life and continues to inspire — or scare — viewers with visions of the future.
1. What can science fiction act as?A.A mirror of reflecting “What if” | B.A wonder of science technology |
C.A vision of the future | D.A tool of broadening all concepts |
A.By giving examples | B.By listing statistics |
C.By making comparisons | D.By classifying facts |
A.3 | B.4 | C.5 | D.6 |
A.To honor those brilliant science fiction creators |
B.To think about the potential influences of sci-fi |
C.To inspire or scare viewers with visions of the future |
D.To encourage readers to get started with science fiction |