1 . Humans’ invention of zero was vital for modern mathematics and science, but we’re not the only species to consider “nothing” a number. Parrots and monkeys understand the concept of zero, and now bees have joined the club, too.
Honey bees are known to have some numerical skills such as the ability to count to four, which may come in handy when keeping track of landmarks in their environment. To see whether these abilities extended to understanding zero, researchers trained 10 bees to identify the smaller of two numbers. Across a series of trials, they showed the insects two different pictures displaying a few black shapes on a white background. If the bees flew to the picture with the smaller number of shapes, they were given delicious sugar water, but if they flew toward the larger number, they were punished with bitter-tasting food.
Once the bees had learned to consistently make the correct choice, the researchers gave them a new choice: a white background containing no shapes at all. Even though the bees had never seen an empty picture before, 64% of the time they chose it rather than a picture containing two or three shapes, the authors report today in Science. This suggests that the insects understood that “zero” is less than two or three. And they weren’t just going for the empty picture because it was new and interesting. Another group of bees trained to always choose the larger number tended to pick the nonzero image in this test.
In further experiments, the researchers showed that bees’ understanding of zero was even more complex: for example, they were able to distinguish between one and zero-a challenge even for some other members of the zero club. Advanced numerical abilities like this could give animals an evolutionary advantage, helping them keep track of predators（捕食者）and food sources. And if an insect can display such a thorough grasp of the number zero, write the researchers, then this ability may be more common in the animal kingdom than we think.
1. According to the trials, the researchers have found that bees ________.| A．have the same intelligence as parrots and monkeys |
| B．can count many numbers after being trained |
| C．can identify the smaller number quickly |
| D．understand the concept of zero |
| A．confirm the bees are able to identify the smaller number |
| B．find the big difference between the two groups of bees |
| C．prove the bees are interested in new things |
| D．show the bees can be distinguished easily |
| A．Bees should be trained more. |
| B．Numerical abilities could help predators find bees. |
| C．Insects are better at understanding zero than animals. |
| D．Animals may display a thorough grasp of the number zero. |
| A．New Findings About Bees’ Concept of Zero |
| B．Experients on Bees’ Numerical Skills |
| C．Complex Trials About the Zero Club |
| D．A Science Report of the Species of Bees |
2 . Many shopping malls now have special areas that offer shoppers their first chance to experience “VR technology”. You may have entered one out of curiosity, or you may think it is just another piece of useless technology. Whatever your opinion, VR, or virtual (虚拟的) reality, is going to become a big part of our lives very soon.
2016 saw the introduction of many fancy products in the world of VR, including Microsoft’s HoloLens and Samsung’s Gear VR. All of them offer an exciting look at the new realities and opportunities that VR brings. These, however, are the early days of a technology that is expected to go from strength to strength. And 2017 looks like it is going to be the year in which VR technology really takes off.
For a start, using VR will become more normal in 2017. Microsoft and Intel have already discussed their plans for simpler and less expensive VR headsets.
“The idea of VR will stop being a sci-fi (science-fiction) idea, and instead it will turn into an industry of real products used as ways to show off imagination.” Said Andrew, a designer at US VR Company, Survios. It is also expected that VR products will play a part in more common and real-life fields like fashion and film. For example, to enjoy the atmosphere and energy of the front row experience at a fashion show, fans will no longer have to go along in the flesh. Instead people will be able to enjoy the experience by just wearing a VR headset at home.
You can also expect VR mirrors and fitting-rooms sooner rather than later. “This is an especially good opportunity for brands looking to offer very personalized experiences.” Said Roy De Young from US-based marketing agency, PMX.
As time goes on, there will be less discussion about whether people will accept VR technology. It will simply be a discussion of when.
1. Why do many shopping malls have areas for VR experiences?| A．To collect shoppers’opinions. |
| B．To meet the demands of shoppers. |
| C．To introduce the new technology to shoppers. |
| D．To entertain shoppers with new technology. |
| A．In time | B．In person |
| C．In line | D．In order |
| A．They are not expensive at present. |
| B．They will meet more personal demands. |
| C．They are being used almost everywhere. |
| D．They won’t be accepted for many years. |
| A．VR Meets Our Life Goal | B．VR Mirrors Are Coming |
| C．VR Takes over Fashion | D．VR Is Becoming Real |
3 . The American self-image is spread with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the United States as a land of unlimited possibility, not so much a classless society but as a place where class is mutable(可变的) -- a place where brains, energy and ambition are what count, not the environment of one’s birth. However, we are not who we think we are.
The Economic Mobility Project, an ambitious research led by Pew Charitable Trusts, looked at the economic fortunes of a large group of families over time, comparing the income of parents in the late 1960s with the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here is the finding: The “rags to riches” story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the top.
That is right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom of the study sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top. Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder.
It is noted that even in Britain -- a nation we think of as burdened with a hidebound(顽固的，死板的) class system(阶层体系) -- children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up. When the studies were released, most reporters focused on the finding that African-Americans born to middle-class or upper middle-class families are earning slightly less, in inflation-adjusted(扣除通胀后的) dollars, than did their parents.
One of the studies indicates, in fact, that most of the financial gains white families have made in the past three decades can be attributed to(归功于) the entry of white women into the labor force. This is much less true for African-Americans.
The picture that emerges is of a nation in which, overall, “the current generation of adults is better off than the previous one”, as one of the studies notes.
The median(中值的) income of the families in the sample group was $55,600 in the late 1960s; their children’s median family income was measured at $71,900. However, this rising tide has not lifted all boats equally. The rich have seen far greater income gains than have the poor.
Even more troubling is that our nation of America as the land of opportunity gets little support from the data. Americans move fairly easily up and down the middle rungs(横档) of the ladder, but there is “stickiness at the ends” -- four out of ten children who are born poor will remain poor, and four out of ten who are born rich will stay rich.
1. What did the Economic Mobility Project find in its research?| A．Children from low-income families are unable to move up to the top. |
| B．Hollywood actors and actresses can get rich easily. |
| C．The rags to riches story is more fiction than reality. |
| D．The rags to riches story is only true for a small minority of whites. |
| A．perfect its self-image as a land of opportunity |
| B．have a lower level of upward mobility than Britain |
| C．enable African-Americans to earn more than whites |
| D．encourage the current generation to work harder than their parents |
| A．The US is a land where brains, energy and ambition are what count |
| B．Inequality remains between whites and blacks in financial gains. |
| C．Middle-class families earn slightly less with inflation considered. |
| D．Children in lowest-income families manage to climb a single rung of the ladder. |
| A．Social Upward Mobility. | B．Incredible Income Gains. |
| C．Inequality in Wealth. | D．America Not Land of Opportunity |
4 . Curiosity is at the heart of lifelong learning. It not only gives children an advantage in school, but today’s business leaders agree that it's also at the heart of successful organizations.
Psychologists view curiosity as a life force, vital to happiness, intellectual growth, and well-being.
1.
Often, the temptation（诱惑）is to benefit students when their curiosity leads to a desired outcome or good grade. But it’s more important to notice and strengthen curiosity when you see it in action. When you praise students by describing how their questions and explorations are contributing to their own or classroom learning, you let them know that they are valued for their motivation, regardless of the grade they achieve.
2. Teach students how to ask quality questions.
Quality questions are vital for curiosity; Google, is great at finding answers but doesn’t motivate the formation of questions.
3. Spread the curiosity around.
4. Explore a variety of cultures and societies.
How is one culture or society uniquely different from another one? Encourage students to explore their genetic or emotional links to other cultures.
| A．Value and reward curiosity. |
| B．Teach students to be critical. |
| C．Good questions contain “why,” “what if,” and “how”. |
| D．Why do they relate to certain beliefs or values that other societies hold? |
| E．The greatest advantage of curiosity lies in its power to motivate learning. |
| F．Create opportunities for more curious and less curious students to work together in learning. |
| G．How can students create a new poem, science experiment or product from their explorations? |
5 . We may think we're a culture that gets rid of our worn technology at the first sight of something shiny and new, but a new study shows that we keep using our old devices(装置) well after they go out of style. That’s bad news for the environment — and our wallets — as these outdated devices consume much more energy than the newer ones that do the same things.
To figure out how much power these devices are using, Callie Babbitt and her colleagues at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York tracked the environmental costs for each product throughout its life — from when its minerals are mined to when we stop using the device. This method provided a readout for how home energy use has evolved since the early 1990s. Devices were grouped by generation — Desktop computers, basic mobile phones, and box-set TVs defined 1992. Digital cameras arrived on the scene in 1997. And MP3 players, smart phones, and LCD TVs entered homes in 2002, before tablets and e-readers showed up in 2007.
As we accumulated more devices, however, we didn't throw out our old ones. "The living-room television is replaced and gets planted in the kids' room, and suddenly one day, you have a TV in every room of the house," said one researcher. The average number of electronic devices rose from four per household in 1992 to 13 in 2007. We're not just keeping these old devices — we continue to use them. According to the analysis of Babbitt's team, old desktop monitors and box TVs with cathode ray tubes are the worst devices with their energy consumption and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions（排放）more than doubling during the 1992 to 2007 window.
So what's the solution（解决方案）? The team's data only went up to 2007, but the researchers also explored what would happen if consumers replaced old products with new electronics that serve more than one function, such as a tablet for word processing and TV viewing. They found that more on-demand entertainment viewing on tablets instead of TVs and desktop computers could cut energy consumption by 44%.
1. What does the author think of new devices?| A．They are environment-friendly. | B．They are no better than the old. |
| C．They cost more to use at home. | D．They go out of style quickly. |
| A．To reduce the cost of minerals. |
| B．To test the life cycle of a product. |
| C．To update consumers on new technology. |
| D．To find out electricity consumption of the devices. |
| A．The box-set TV. | B．The tablet. |
| C．The LCD TV. | D．The desktop computer. |
| A．Stop using them. | B．Take them apart. |
| C．Upgrade them. | D．Recycle them. |
6 . The Paris climate agreement finalised in December last year heralded a new era for climate action. For the first time, the world’s nations agreed to keep global warming well below 2°C.
This is vital for climate-vulnerable nations. Fewer than 4% of countries are responsible for more than half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. In a study published in Nature Scientific Reports, we reveal just how deep this injustice runs.
Developed nations such as Australia, the United States, Canada, and European countries are essentially climate “free-riders”: causing the majority of the problems through high greenhouse gas emissions, while incurring few of the costs such as climate change’s impact on food and water. In other words, a few countries are benefiting enormously from the consumption of fossil fuels, while at the same time contributing disproportionately to the global burden of climate change.
On the flip side, there are many “forced riders”, who are suffering from the climate change impacts despite having scarcely contributed to the problem. Many of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries, the majority of which are African or small island states, produce a very small quantity of emissions. This is much like a non-smoker getting cancer from second-hand smoke, while the heavy smoker is fortunate enough to smoke in good health.
The Paris agreement has been widely welcomed as a positive step forward in addressing climate change for all, although the details on addressing “climate justice” can be best described as sketchy.
The goal of keeping global temperature rise “well below” 2℃ is praiseworthy but the emissions-reduction pledges submitted by countries leading up to the Paris talks are very unlikely to deliver on this.
More than $100 billion in funding has been put on the table for supporting developing nations to reduce emissions. However, the agreement specifies that there is no formal distinction between developed and developing nations in their responsibility to cut emissions, effectively ignoring historical emissions. There is also very little detail on who will provide the funds or, importantly, who is responsible for their provision. Securing these funds, and establishing who is responsible for raising them will also be vital for the future of climate-vulnerable countries.
The most climate-vulnerable countries in the world have contributed very little to creating the global disease from which they now suffer the most. There must urgently be a meaningful mobilisation of the policies outlined in the agreement if we are to achieve national emissions reductions while helping the most vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.
And it is clearly up to the current generation of leaders from high-emitting nations to decide whether they want to be remembered as climate change tyrants or pioneers.
1. The author is critical of the Paris climate agreement because ________.| A．it is unfair to those climate-vulnerable nations |
| B．it aims to keep temperature rise below 2℃ only |
| C．it is beneficial to only fewer than 4% of countries |
| D．it burdens developed countries with the sole responsibility |
| A．They needn’t worry about the food and water they consume. |
| B．They are better able to cope with the global climate change. |
| C．They hardly pay anything for the problems they have caused. |
| D．They are free from the greenhouse affects affecting “forced riders”. |
| A．They have little responsibility for public health problems. |
| B．They are vulnerable to unhealthy environmental conditions. |
| C．They have to bear consequences they are not responsible for. |
| D．They are unaware of the potential risks they are confronting. |
| A．Encouraging high-emitting nations to take the initiative. |
| B．Calling on all the nations concerned to make joint efforts. |
| C．Pushing the current world leaders to come to a consensus. |
| D．Putting in effect the policies in the agreement at once. |
7 . Regrets are often painful. A study suggests that some people can overcome them, said Jia Wei Zhang, a psychology graduate at the University of California. But this isn’t the case for everyone, he said.
The researchers wondered why some people report feeling improvement from regrets but others don’t. Does it lie in how people approach their regrets?
In the study, the researchers focused on self-compassion (自我同情) as a potential factor in why some people have an easier lime leaving their regrets behind them.
400 people attended an experiment. First, they were asked to write about their biggest regret. Half wrote something they did but wish they hadn’t done; the other half wrote something they didn’t do but wish they had. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: self compassion, self-esteem and a control group. The self-esteem group was asked to respond by “talking to yourself about this regret from the aspect of confirming your positive qualities”.
The control group was asked to write about their favorite hobby rather than their regret. Then, they were asked about their feelings of forgiveness, acceptance and personal improvement following the exercise.
They found that the self-compassion group reported greater feelings of acceptance, forgiveness and personal improvement, compared with the control group and the self esteem group. In other words, focusing on your best qualities is not what helps you feel better about a regret. Rather, being compassionate toward yourself is what may make a difference, the researchers found.
It’s possible that people who practice self-compassion are able to confront their regrets and see what went wrong, so they can make a better choice in the future, Zhang told Live Science. Self-compassion pushes people to accept their regret instead of running away from it.
The researchers used an example of this from a previous study on breast cancer patients who were asked to try thinking about their treatment in a positive light before it began. The women who did so reported greater feelings of personal growth later on.
1. What does the underlined word “confront” in Paragraph 7 mean?| A．Handle | B．Forget. |
| C．Ignore | D．Show. |
| A．Think of a way out. | B．Write about their regrets. |
| C．Record their favorite hobbies. | D．Treat their regrets in positive ways. |
| A．To cover up their regrets. |
| B．To see if they have weaknesses. |
| C．To see if they have self compassion. |
| D．To help them feel better about their regrets. |
| A．To show the method of the research. |
| B．To show the value of the acceptance. |
| C．To show the truth of people’s feeling. |
| D．To show the difficulty of the research. |
8 . I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let’s take a look at three types of “waits”.
The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait. It is without doubt the most annoying of all. Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池) as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it’s full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.
A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of discipline. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup required a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. “Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes.”I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience.
Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.
Turning one’s life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn’t come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.
We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you’re standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you’ll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don’t be desperate. You’re probably just as busy as the next guy.
1. While doing a Watched-Pot Wait, we tend to ___________.| A．keep ourselves busy |
| B．get absent-minded |
| C．grow anxious |
| D．stay focused |
| A．The Forced Wait requires some self-control. |
| B．The Forced Wait makes people passive. |
| C．The Watched-Pot Wait needs directions. |
| D．The Watched-Pot Wait engages body and brain. |
| A．It is less voluntary than the Forced Wait. |
| B．It doesn’t always bring the desired result. |
| C．It is more fruitful than the Forced Wait. |
| D．It doesn’t give people faith and hope. |
| A．Take it seriously. |
| B．Don’t rely on others. |
| C．Do something else. |
| D．Don’t lose heart. |
| A．exploring various causes of “waits”. |
| B．describing detailed processes of “waits”. |
| C．analyzing different categories of “waits” |
| D．revealing frustrating consequences of “waits” |
9 . The other evening we had a knock at the door. It was a new
We've lived here almost six years and
This experience
For those of us who want to make a(n)
| A．classmate | B．neighbor | C．stranger | D．beggar |
| A．persuaded | B．commanded | C．encouraged | D．invited |
| A．live | B．work | C．study | D．play |
| A．somebody | B．anybody | C．nobody | D．everybody |
| A．plan | B．suppose | C．promise | D．doubt |
| A．in | B．up | C．away | D．out |
| A．student | B．woman | C．man | D．mother |
| A．lose | B．pay | C．draw | D．offer |
| A．foreign | B．honest | C．rich | D．local |
| A．friendship | B．trouble | C．concern | D．business |
| A．told | B．warned | C．reminded | D．cured |
| A．easy | B．difficult | C．interesting | D．right |
| A．look for | B．build up | C．get through | D．focus on |
| A．younger | B．clever | C．older | D．taller |
| A．family | B．nation | C．town | D．world |
| A．explain | B．forget | C．regret | D．realize |
| A．rapidly | B．suddenly | C．luckily | D．sadly |
| A．just | B．only | C．still | D．even |
| A．difference | B．decision | C．apology | D．mistake |
| A．locally | B．deeply | C．remotely | D．gradually |
阅读下面短文，从短文后所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
Several years ago, while attending a communication course, I experienced a most unusual process. The instructor asked us to list
This seemed like a very
Then the man next to me raised his hand and volunteered this story: “Making my
After drinking a few beers, we climbed the tall water tank in the middle of the town, and wrote on the tank in bright red paint: Sheriff Brown is a SOB (畜生). The next day, almost the whole town saw our glorious
Nearly 20 years later, Sheriff Brown’s name
“And I want you to know that I did it.” Paused. “I knew it!” he yelled back. We had a good laugh and a
Jimmy inspired me to
| A．something | B．anything | C．somebody | D．anybody |
| A．ashamed | B．afraid | C．sure | D．proud |
| A．private | B．boring | C．interesting | D．funny |
| A．foolish | B．polite | C．simple | D．brave |
| A．expected | B．suggested | C．ordered | D．demanded |
| A．connect with | B．depend on | C．make apologies to | D．get along with |
| A．improve | B．continue | C．realize | D．keep |
| A．notes | B．list | C．plan | D．stories |
| A．any | B．most | C．none | D．all |
| A．part | B．game | C．trick | D．record |
| A．view | B．sign | C．attention | D．remark |
| A．also | B．even | C．still | D．ever |
| A．appears | B．considers | C．presents | D．remembers |
| A．angry | B．happy | C．doubtful | D．alive |
| A．words | B．rings | C．repeats | D．calls |
| A．cold | B．plain | C．nervous | D．lively |
| A．in case | B．so long as | C．unless | D．because |
| A．around | B．out | C．through | D．away |
| A．build up | B．make up | C．clear up | D．give up |
| A．regret | B．forgive | C．right | D．punish |
