2 . Directions: Read the following three passages. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

What do We Know About “Mathephobia”

Mathematician Mary de Lellis Gough, who often observed her struggling students fail to work out mathematical problems, coined the term ‘mathephobia’ in 1953. She described it as “a disease that proves fatal before its presence is detected”. Other experts have defined it as “the panic, helplessness and mental disorganization that arises among some people when they are required to solve a mathematical problem” and “a general fear of contact with mathematics”.

Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist and her colleagues of Barnard College in New York have shown that math anxiety can start as soon as we enter formal schooling. “Math is one of the first places in school in western cultures where we really learn about whether we got something right or wrong, and are exposed to being evaluated in timed tests.”

Girls may be more prone to it than boys. Primary school teachers often have high levels of math anxiety, says Beilock, and in the US and elsewhere, they are mostly female. Since young children tend to identify with adults of the same gender, this means girls are more likely to pick up math anxiety from their female teachers. Having a female teacher with math anxiety makes girls more likely to believe gendered stereotypes about math, leading to poorer achievement.

“Once you have it, it can be self-lasting. Worrying about it can make it worse.” says Beilock, whose study of children between the ages of five and eight suggests math anxiety might weaken performance by burdening working memory. “As our ability to focus limited, our attention gets divided when we do more than one task at a time.” she says. “If you’re worried about having to do math, you may have an internal monologue saying you can’t do this and at the same time you’re trying to calculate numbers.”

When people have math anxiety, they tend to avoid the subject, as researchers from 2019 show. But since math builds on itself, avoiding it makes it harder to catch up. “Math is foundational. If you miss a certain idea, it’s harder to learn the next one.” says Darcy Hallett. “And then you can fall behind, which might make math more of a targeted anxiety compared to other topics.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . When it comes to black holes, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that all black holes give off thermal radiation(热辐射)and eventually evaporate(蒸发). In doing so, they seemed to be destroying information contained in the matter that fell into them, therefore going against a rule of quantum mechanics(量子力学): information cannot be created or destroyed.

Some argued that the outgoing “Hawking radiation” preserved the information. However, if this were the case, then given certain assumptions, the event horizon(视界)—— the black hole’s boundary of no return—— would become intensely energetic, forming a firewall. But such firewalls go against the theory of general relativity, which says that space-time near the event horizon should be smooth. The black hole firewall paradox was thus born.

Now, Sean Carroll at the California Institute of Technology and his colleagues have shown that the paradox disappears when the evolution of black holes is understood in the context of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

The quantum state of the universe is described by something called the global wave function(全局波函数). According to traditional quantum mechanics, whenever there are many possible outcomes for physical process, this wave function ”collapses“ to represent one outcome. But in the many-worlds Interpretation, the wave function doesn’t collapse-rather, it branches, with one branch for each outcome. The branches evolve independently of each other, as separate worlds.

In this way of thinking, the formation of a black hole and its evaporation due to Hawking radiation lead to multiple branches of the wave function. An observer monitoring a black hole also splits into multiple observers, one in each branch.

The new work shows that from the perspective of an observer in a given branch, space-time behaves as described by general relativity and the black hole has no firewall.

But does that imply loss of information? No, says team member Aidan Chatwin-Davies, also of Caltech. That is because the principle of preservation of information applies to the global wave function and not to its individual branches, he says. Information is preserved across all branches of the global wave function, but not necessarily in any one branch. Given this case, a black hole that doesn’t lose information and yet has a smooth, uneventful event horizon without a fire wall isn’t a contradiction.

Yasunori Nomura at the University of California at Berkeleyy has independently arrived at some similar conclusions in his work. He agrees that the many-worlds approach resolves the paradox around information loss from black holes. “Many worlds should be taken seriously,” he says.

1. Which word in the article is similar in meaning to the underlined word in Paragraph 2?

A．Assumption (Paragraph 2)	B．Interpretation (Paragraph 4)
C．Evaporation (Paragraph 5)	D．Contradiction (Paragraph 7)

2. According to the many-worlds interpretation, which of the following statements is true?

A．There is a firewall.	B．No observer will split.
C．No information is lost.	D．The wave function collapses.

3. The last paragraph is intended to __________.

A．introduce an independent scientist

B．support the many-worlds interpretation

C．question whether many worlds really exist

D．argue against the information loss from black holes

4. What is the article mainly about?

A．Rules of quantum mechanics.

B．A new understanding of the black hole.

C．Hawking’s interpretation of the black hole.

D．The development of the global wave function.

4 . Biology is making it clearer that a man’s health and well-being have a measurable impact on his future children’s health and happiness. This is not because a strong, responsible man has a greater ______ of being a good dad—or not only for that reason—or because he’s probably got good genes. Whether a good man’s genes are good or bad(and whatever “good” and “bad” mean in the context)，his children’s bodies and minds will reflect ______ choices he has made over the years, even if he made those choices ______, he ever imagined himself strapping on a baby Bjorn.

Doctors have been telling men for years that smoking, drinking and recreational drugs can lower the ______ of the sperm(精子). What doctors should probably add is that the health of unborn children can be affected by what and how much men eat; the toxins(poisonous substances)they ______, the traumas(unpleasant experiences)they endure, their poverty or powerlessness; and their age at the time of conception(怀孕). ______, what a man needs to know is that his life experience leaves ______ traces on his children. Even more astonishingly, those children may pass those traces along to their children.

Lately scientists have been obsessed with(着迷于)a means of ______ that isn’t genetic but isn’t non-genetic either. It’s epigenetic,“Epi”,in Greek, means “above” or “beyond”. Think of epigenetics as the way our bodies modify their genetic makeup. Epigenetics describes ______ genes are turned on or off, in part through compounds that get on top of DNA—or else jump off it—______ whether it makes the proteins that tell our bodies what to do.

In the past decade or so, the study of epigenetics has become so ______ that it is practically a craze. Psychologists and sociologists particularly like it because gene expression or suppression(抑制)is ______ affected by the ______ and plays at least as large a role as genes do in the development of a person’s characteristics, body shape and tendency to disease. I’ve become obsessed with epigenetics because it ______ me as both game-changing and terrifying. Our genes can be switched on or off by three environmental factors, among other things: what we ingest(food, drink, air, toxins)，what we ______(stress, trauma)，and how long we live.

1.

A．passion

B．likelihood

C．opportunity

D．value

2.

A．lifestyle

B．genetic

C．habitual

D．parental

3.

A．long before

B．long after

C．as long as

D．shortly after

4.

A．quantity

B．quality

C．value

D．size

5.

A．release

B．produce

C．absorb

D．consume

6.

A．Moreover

B．On the contrary

C．In other words

D．On the other hand

7.

A．vital

B．potential

C．distinct

D．biological

8.

A．inheritance

B．growth

C．development

D．breeding

9.

A．where

B．why

C．when

D．how

10.

A．regulating

B．determining

C．defining

D．testing

11.

A．serious

B．popular

C．significant

D．sensitive

12.

A．at the most

B．at the least

C．in general

D．to some degree

13.

A．intelligence

B．culture

C．environment

D．psychology

14.

A．shocks

B．strikes

C．discourages

D．inspires

15.

A．experience

B．suffer

C．support

D．comprehend

5 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Global Cooperation

In the 21st century, we’ve seen a new trend that is pushing the boundaries of human invention and innovation—global cooperation. Scientific and technical research and development is now so complicated that no one scientist can know it all. So, increasingly, innovation is coming from the combining of cutting-edge expertise (专业知识) from different scientific fields.

There are now over 8, 000 scientific journals worldwide and it is impossible to be an expert in all areas. Therefore, in this highly specialized world, scientists, medics and engineers have to cooperate in order to innovate. Professor Bob Langer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has made significant breakthroughs in the field of biomedical engineering. But he hasn’t done it on his own. He has invited experts from around the world in different fields to form a global team to design new substances which can go inside the body, deliver medicines and then dissolve. Also at MIT, when Cesar Harada heard about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he quit his dream job there and tried to develop a more efficient way to remove the oil. But rather than focusing on profit, he decided to ‘open-source’ the design. He shared his own ideas on the web for free and then got experts from all around the world to contribute ideas and even donations. Thanks to this free, not-for-profit way of sharing ideas and intellectual property on the internet, a boat capable of cleaning oil quickly came into being. Obviously, international cooperation based on sharing information freely has produced innovative approaches to solving problems.

It appears that the days of brilliant individuals working in their garages on their own are over. Global teams with a united purpose building on everyone’s expertise can collectively do far more than one brilliant individual. Today’s world calls for global cooperators, sharers, and not protectors of ideas.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6 . With advances in electronics and neuroscience, researchers have been able to achieve remarkable things with brain implant devices. In addition to restoring physical senses, scientists are also seeking innovative ways to ____ communication for those who have lost the ability to speak. A new “decoder” receiving data from an electronic device implanted inside the skull, for example, might help paralyzed patients speak using only their minds. Researchers from the University of California developed a two-stage method to turn brain ____ into computer-synthesized speech.

For years, scientists have been trying to control and use neutral inputs to give a voice back to people whose neurological damage prevents them from talking. Until now, many of these brain-computer interfaces have ____ a letter-by-letter approach, in which patients move their eyes or facial ____ to spell out their thoughts. But these types of interfaces are very slow - most max out producing 10 words per minute, a fraction of human’s average speaking speed of 150 words per minute.

The brain is undamaged in these patients, but the neurons - the pathways that ____ your arms, or your mouth, or your legs are broken down. These people have high cognitive functioning and abilities, but they cannot accomplish ____ tasks like moving about or saying anything, “says a co-lead author of the new study and an associate research specializing in neurological surgery at UCSF.” We are essentially by passing the pathway that’s broken down.“

The researchers started with high-resolution brain activity data collected from five volunteers over several years. These participants - all of whom had normal speech function - were already undergoing a ____ process for epilepsy(癫痫)treatment that involved implanting electrodes(电极)directly into their brains. The research team used these electrodes to ____ activity in speech-related areas of the brain as the patients read off hundreds of sentences.

From there, the UCSF team worked out a two-stage process to recreate the spoken sentences. First, they created a decoder to ____ the recorded activity patterns as instructions for moving parts of a virtual vocal tract(声道). They then developed a synthesizer that used the ____ movements to produce language.

Other research has tried to decode words and sounds directly from neural signals, ____ the middle step of decoding movement. However, a study the UCSF researchers published last year suggests that your brain’s speech center focuses on how to move the vocal tract to produce sounds, ____ what the resulting sounds will be.

Using this method, the researchers successfully reverse-engineered words and sentences from brain activity that ____ matched the audio recordings of participants’ speech. When they asked volunteers on an online crowd-sourcing platform to attempt to ____ the words and sentences using a word bank, many of them could understand the simulated(模拟的)speech, though their ____ was far from perfect. Out of 101 synthesized sentences, about 80 percent were perfectly transcribed(记录)by at least one listener using a 25-word bank.

1.

A．offer

B．facilitate

C．initiate

D．influence

2.

A．signs

B．consciousness

C．signals

D．waves

3.

A．featured

B．neglected

C．rejected

D．missed

4.

A．expressions

B．muscles

C．languages

D．masks

5.

A．contribute to

B．communicate with

C．match with

D．lead to

6.

A．daily

B．delicate

C．repetitive

D．tough

7.

A．growing

B．producing

C．checking

D．monitoring

8.

A．track

B．map

C．organize

D．design

9.

A．copy

B．transform

C．follow

D．interpret

10.

A．physical

B．virtual

C．individual

D．external

11.

A．considering

B．creating

C．skipping

D．moving

12.

A．other than

B．aside from

C．regardless of

D．rather than

13.

A．roughly

B．barely

C．similarly

D．formally

14.

A．spell

B．identify

C．parallel

D．invent

15.

A．version

B．fluency

C．pronunciation

D．accuracy

7 . 选词填空

A. benefit B. closely C. containing D. deprived E. feasted F. fundamental G. introduction H. original I. purchasing J. supply K. typically

The Pleasures of the Table

APRIL 9, 2020 was the darkest day in the recent recorded history of the restaurant industry. The     1     of lockdowns, combined with people voluntarily avoiding others, meant that on that Thursday bookings in America, Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Mexico made via OpenTable, a restaurant-reservation website, whose reservations     2     numbered in the millions plunged to zero.

Being     3     of the dining experience has made people realize how much they value it. Eating out fulfils needs which seem     4     to human nature. People need to go on dates, to seal deals, and to simply have the ability to peer at their fellow humans. At a good restaurant, you can travel without the need to be actually travelling or simply feel rich for a night.

Yet restaurants in their current form are a few hundred years old at most. They do not satisfy some primeval (原始的) urge, but rather those of particular sorts of societies. Economic and social forces have created both the     5     of and demand for restaurants.

People have long     6     outside the home. Archaeologists have counted 158 snack bars in Pompeii, the ancient Roman city destroyed by a volcano in 79 AD—one for every 60 to 100 people, a higher rate than that found in many global cities today. Ready-cooked meals     7     meat and fish were available for Londoners to purchase from at least the 1170s. Samuel Cole, an early settler, opened what is considered to be the first American tavern (酒馆) in1634, in Boston.

These were more like takeaways, though, or stands where food might be thrown in with a drink, than eat-in restaurants. The table d’hôte, which appeared in France around Cole’s time, most     8     resembled the modern restaurant we know and love today. Diners sat at a single table and ate what they were given. Many ofthese early restaurants existed only for the     9     of locals. Strangers were not always welcome.

What does the history of the restaurant say about its future? In recent weeks, global restaurant reservations have risen back up close to their pre-pandemic levels. The long-term future of the restaurant is less clear. The pandemic has led to many people     10     much more takeout food than before, while others rejoice in their newfound love of cooking. Restaurants have little choice but to continue to adapt.

8 . Looking on the Bright Side with Moon Worship

According to Cheshire psychic Claire Stone, a growing number of women are looking to the moon to increase their health, power and wealth. Daily Mail reporter Samantha Brick recently ______ a full moon ceremony hosted by Ms. Stone in a field near Hale. She joined a group of females dressed in white as they stood in a circle holding hands.

“There is drumming and chanting,” wrote Ms. Brick, “then ______ as each woman engraves her hopes and ambitions for the coming month on a white or silver candle.” They were told to ______ what they wanted to attract into their lives. “We ‘see’ it coming true in our minds,” said Ms. Stone. “The ______ is amplified by the energy of the moon and those in the circle.”

Ms. Stone said that wishing on the moon helped her move into her ______ home, a £l.4 million farmhouse, which she shares with her husband and two daughters.

Ms. Stone was initially attracted to complementary sources of ______ as a teenager suffering from anxiety. “I started looking for something to help make me happier,” she said. “I first joined a couple of local groups where women would ______ once a month on the full moon when I was in my 20s. It seemed like a natural and ______ thing to do.” The paper commented: “Claire, who drives a black Mercedes GLE coupe, was so ______ by her early experiences of moon circles that she decided to hold her own monthly ceremonies outside her home.

They have been a(n) ______ success: at various times more than 3,000 women have come along. Her circles —priced at £22.00 for a two-hour session—______ for up to 100 women at a time online, and 50 at a time in person. Several famous and powerful women have announced their interest in moon worship. Friends actor Jennifer Aniston is said to ______ moon circles where women sit and share their experiences and dreams. Lady Carole Bamford, described in the press as a “billionaire eco entrepreneur” explains on her website. “Our bodies are made up of 70 per cent water, so it’s no wonder that the moon, which controls the ______, has the power to affect us all in different ways as well.”

The report ended with veterinary nurse Victoria Twist, who ______ the moon for her return to full health after spinal surgery. Ms. Twist is also convinced that ______ attending moon circles, she was also able to manifest her dream home.

1.

A．witnessed

B．covered

C．attended

D．broadcast

2.

A．discussion

B．silence

C．dance

D．ceremony

3.

A．convince

B．share

C．visualize

D．pray

4.

A．imagination

B．intention

C．impression

D．illustration

5.

A．country

B．holiday

C．family

D．dream

6.

A．researching

B．studying

C．disturbing

D．healing

7.

A．call up

B．build up

C．meet up

D．line up

8.

A．normal

B．pleasant

C．magical

D．attractive

9.

A．obsessed

B．inspired

C．fascinated

D．affected

10.

A．astonishing

B．progressive

C．immediate

D．puzzling

11.

A．appeal

B．attempt

C．call

D．cater

12.

A．host

B．participate

C．favor

D．attend

13.

A．winds

B．nights

C．tides

D．temperatures

14.

A．celebrates

B．claims

C．concerns

D．credits

15.

A．apart from

B．regardless of

C．thanks to

D．instead of

9 . Why working from anywhere isn’t realistic

For most white-collar workers, it used to be very simple. Home was the place you left to go to work. The office was almost certainly where you were_________. Co-working spaces were for entrepreneurial people in T-shirts who wanted to hang out with other entrepreneurial people in T-shirts. You could stay at a hotel on a work trip, but it was not a place to get actual work done, which is why a hotel’s “business centre”_________all of business as using a printer.

The pandemic has thrown these neat_________up into the air. Most obviously, home is now also a place of work. According to a recent Gallup survey, three-quarters of American workers whose jobs can be performed_________expect to spend time doing just that in the future. And offices are increasingly where you go to put the company into company – through collaborative work and social activities.

_________, the boldest version of remote working extends well beyond these two locations. “Working from anywhere” imagines a completely_________existence, in which people can do their jobs in Alaska or Zanzibar. The idea sounds wonderful. Nevertheless, plenty of_________remain. Some are practical. The payroll and tax of working from different locations in a year are an administrative headache._________, working from anywhere is only feasible if your equipment functions reliably. If you spill suntan lotion on your laptop, the people on the hotel’s reception desk are more likely to offer you_________than a replacement computer.

Another set of obstacles is more__________. The carefree promise of working from anywhere is far easier to__________if you don’t have actual cares. Children of a certain age need to go to school; partners may not be able to work remotely and have careers of their own to manage.

The option to work from anywhere will be most attractive to people who have well-paid jobs and fewer__________: childless tech workers, say. For many other people, the “anywhere” in working from anywhere is a simple choice between their home and their office. That might be a recipe for__________within teams. Imagine dialing into a Zoom call covered in baby drool (口水), and hearing your colleague Greg saying how amazing Chamonix (法国城市夏蒙尼) is at this time of year.

Adding it to the menu of working options for sought-after employees__________. The working-from-anywhere policy will probably help employers attract better people. But for the foreseeable future, working from anywhere will be a bonus for a lucky few rather than a(n)__________for things to come.

1.

A．heading

B．resisting

C．worrying

D．navigating

2.

A．demanded

B．modified

C．defined

D．served

3.

A．programs

B．means

C．cases

D．categories

4.

A．solely

B．properly

C．responsibly

D．remotely

5.

A．However

B．Therefore

C．Instead

D．Besides

6.

A．isolated

B．unrestricted

C．sophisticated

D．distinguished

7.

A．principles

B．insights

C．barriers

D．arguments

8.

A．In other words

B．On the contrary

C．What’s more

D．After all

9.

A．compensation

B．enforcement

C．pressure

D．sympathy

10.

A．distinct

B．complicated

C．personal

D．unnoticeable

11.

A．realize

B．evade

C．vanish

D．make

12.

A．visions

B．descendants

C．perspectives

D．obligations

13.

A．jealousy

B．cooperation

C．fraud

D．interaction

14.

A．takes time

B．steals thunder

C．makes sense

D．works wonders

15.

A．review

B．blueprint

C．source

D．sacrifice