1 . Here’re the discovery tours organized by our journal New Scientist. Book now for our October adventures.
Morocco and the science of how to get more from your time
4 October 2023/ 6 days
Experience an adventure in the Atlas Mountains designed to be challenging, educational and transformational. Experience a world where local culture is mixed with African and European influence, as crowds form around storytellers in the square. Breathe in the air on top of the Atlas Mountains as the sun rises.
Ancient caves, human origins: northern Spain
8 October or 15 October 2023/ 7 days
Discover some of the world’s oldest known cave paintings in Spain. Travel back 40,000 years to explore the wonders of caves full of art from before the dawn of civilization in small groups by torchlight, accompanied by New Scientist editor Emily, who will share insight on the dawn of human culture and civilization.
The Rockies and the Badlands
23 October 2023/ 7 days
This tour of the Rocky Mountains in America explores the surprising scenery and geology(地质学) of southern Alberta and brings to life the history of settlements in this remote but beautiful land. You will explore the geographic structure of the Kananaskis valley and visit the Lake Louise area, surrounded by mountains originally formed in ancient warm seas.
Neanderthal origins: southern France
25 October or 27 October 2023/10 days
Step back in time on a journey to the sites of southern France with archaeologist Dr. Rebecca. She shows our understanding of these ancient ancestors. As stone carpenters and inventors, Neanderthals pioneered new technologies, and they lived not just through ice ages but in warm woodland worlds too.
Find out more online at newscientist. com/tours.
1. What can one explore in the Atlas Mountains?| A．Cave paintings before human civilization. |
| B．The geographic structure of a river valley. |
| C．The stone inventions of ancient ancestors. |
| D．European cultural influence on the locals. |
| A．A tour of the Rocky Mountains in America. |
| B．A travel to ancient caves in nor them Spain |
| C．The journey to the sites of southern France. |
| D．The trip to see sunrise in the Atlas Mountains. |
| A．The Rockies and the Badlands. |
| B．Neanderthal origins: southern France. |
| C．Ancient caves, human origins: northern Spain. |
| D．Morocco and the science of how to get more from your time. |
Last October, three fossilized dinosaur eggs,
An excavator driver found several fossils and fragments (碎片) while
“We received a call which claimed they had found something similar to dinosaur egg fossils and we instantly went to
She went there
“After professional research by experts, the egg fossils
In recent years, Chinese scientists
3 . The widely admired Romanian pianist Radu Lupu died at the age of 76. Lupu was frequently
Lupu
When the news of Lupu’s
| A．cited | B．compared | C．ignored | D．misunderstood |
| A．scientific | B．artistic | C．opposite | D．original |
| A．suffering | B．choice | C．devotion | D．regret |
| A．taught | B．disliked | C．changed | D．began |
| A．occasionally | B．scarcely | C．entirely | D．suddenly |
| A．travel | B．experiment | C．compete | D．study |
| A．film | B．record | C．photograph | D．technology |
| A．Summing up | B．Making up | C．Setting up | D．Bringing up |
| A．blocking | B．abandoning | C．forgetting | D．grasping |
| A．remembering | B．describing | C．playing | D．collecting |
| A．indirect | B．unique | C．relevant | D．public |
| A．death | B．performance | C．honor | D．response |
| A．exited | B．annoyed | C．sorry | D．curious |
| A．doctors | B．researchers | C．trainers | D．musicians |
| A．punished | B．missed | C．replaced | D．awarded |
4 . Friction (摩擦力) is a very familiar force in everyday life. It always acts to slow things down. Sometimes we may mistake friction for traction (拉力). Friction is the force felt between two surfaces, while traction is the action that results.
The material a surface is made from affects how much friction it creates. We can see how it works by thinking of everyday objects. If we rub (磨) our fingers along a piece of sandpaper, we can feel how rough it is.
We can also see a huge effect of friction in earthquakes.
| A．Friction is really a result of pressure |
| B．As Earth’s plates try to slide past one another |
| C．Now imagine turning our hand across a piece of wood |
| D．In fact, we are not sliding across the ice but liquid water |
| E．The force of friction doesn’t change if you increase the surface area |
| F．Even though we can feel the forces of friction every day as we walk and play |
| G．The other factor that affects friction is how hard the two surfaces are pressing together |
5 . You don’t have to brave the crowds at the Tidal Basin to enjoy the glories of cherry blossom (樱花), which always runs for one month. The delicate pink and white blooms decorate the district. Washington-based nonprofit Casey Trees has a detailed map of where to find them.
Using the map’s explanation, you can check out a neighborhood’s list of trees. The map is color-coded by a variety of cherry blossom, and there are several: Yoshino, Okame, Oshi-ma, and Sour Cherry, just to name a few.
Michaila Musman, the Geographic Information Systems manager at Casey Trees，suggests tracking down the Sargent Cherry, which develops pinkish white blossoms and is called the “cream” of flowering cherries by the Arbor Day Foundation. “They can also support bird species around the city, which is a wonderful bonus.” says Musman.
The map is an annual tradition at Casey Trees. The organization plans to use it to help protect Washington’s trees. To build the map, staff and volunteers walked into the city’s parks to identify and measure every tree they came across. “We can do better advocacy and tree protection if we know what our trees across the city look like.” said Musman.
Other data points for the map come from DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division and from cherry trees that Casey Trees has planted. Most of the trees on the map are located on public land. So if your yard or your neighbor’s yard is the proud home of a cherry tree, it may not appear (considering it as your own secret garden).
And if you miss the cherries this time around, the organization also maintains a separate map of all the flowering trees in the city. Musman recommends checking out the Eastern Red bud. “They are native to this area and they have very beautiful blossoms.” she says, “It seems as though they came right out of a Dr. Seuss’ book.”
1. What can the map be used to do?| A．Research bird species. | B．Decorate some districts. |
| C．Locate cherry blossom. | D．Identify the type of flowers. |
| A．To know the city better. | B．To protect the local trees. |
| C．To build the city’s parks. | D．To use public land efficiently. |
| A．The map comes out of a Dr. Seuss’ book. |
| B．The map is the only product of Casey Trees. |
| C．Casey Trees has planted many trees across the USA. |
| D．Casey Trees takes individual privacy into consideration. |
| A．Casey Trees likes cherry blossom | B．Casey Trees will introduce a new map |
| C．You should protect the city’s cherry trees | D．You needn’t bother to find cherry blossom |
6 . The study of joint attention (the interaction between the parents and the baby) between a baby and the caregiver revealed that greater joint attention generates greater language development in the child.
A camera was used by Yu and Smith to record the caregiver’s and the baby’s actions. The caregiver talked to the baby about the object the child chose to hold. This study was used to understand if both participants’ gaze mattered when joint attention was happening.
Several years later, Yu and Smith modified their study with Jeffrey to see if the time when the caregiver said the name mattered when the baby was learning words. Having several objects laid out before him, a child chose one and the caregiver would name and talk about the thing. By doing so. that child would develop a greater understanding of objects and their names because the child was hearing and seeing at the same time. This social interconnection led to a greater understanding of words’ meaning, creating a stronger foundation for vocabulary development later in the child’s life.
In contrast, Mundy and Gomes wrote an article that considered whether a child’s individual differences affected the skill of joint attention. Their study had groups of babies go through a series of tests and then made a follow-up visit sixteen weeks later. Each test examined the stability of joint attention and other nonverbal communication measures.
Mundy and Gomes wanted to see if there were differences in receptive and expressive language that would contribute to a child’s individual differences. It was gathered that the aspects (child’s gender. mother’s education level. household income)were not significantly associated with the language or nonverbal communication. By showing that individual factors had no impact on the child’s language development, the testers included that children learn language in a similar manner.
1. What does the author think of the effect joint attention has on language development?| A．It’s important. | B．It’s temporary. | C．It’s slight. | D．It’s uncertain. |
| A．The babies were at the same age. | B．They both needed the babies to choose an object. |
| C．The researchers in both studies were the same. | D．The caregivers knew little about the objects’ names. |
| A．The caregivers’ education level. | B．The patterns of language development. |
| C．The meanings of verbal communication. | D．The children’s individual differences. |
| A．Literature. | B．Science. | C．Economy. | D．Fashion. |
7 . Exploring the Azores Islands in Portugal
Cost(£ 2.999)
Highlights
●The exceptional seabird watching at night
●Talks on land and at sea by a local biologist
●A whale-watching activity guided by an expert
Description
You can explore and learn about wildlife through some talks. You can also get an opportunity to watch the whales at the surface and listen to their sounds as they go into the water. On land, you will visit a seabird habitat and discover the attractive villages on these islands. Besides, you can study the islands’ earth and learn how it supports the unique grape planting.
Attention
●Upon arrival on Faial Island, you will check into a four-star hotel in Horta.
●Depending on your arrival time. you may have some free time to explore the small town that dates back to the 15th century and has many historic buildings.
●Your tour leader will hold a short welcome meeting in the early evening to go through the plans for the week, and then a biologist will give the first of three talks before joining you for dinner.
●During the tour, the biologist will give a brief introduction to the whale species that you will be viewing.
Just click here instead of calling or emailing us to book your tour.
1. What do we know about the tour?| A．It is free of charge. |
| B．It is in support of foreign biologists. |
| C．It offers bird feeding during the day. |
| D．It offers an expert guide during the whale viewing. |
| A．Explore old cities. | B．Plant unique grapes. |
| C．Listen to the talks on wildlife. | D．Spend a night in a villager’s house. |
| A．By entering the website. | B．By sending an email. |
| C．By contacting the biologist. | D．By making a telephone call. |
8 . Betty Sandison was having lunch with some friends when the subject of wish lists came up. Although she had spent more than 30 years working as a registered nurse, Betty told her friends that she regretted never finishing the bachelor’s degree she’d started more than 67 years earlier.
Betty was the first person in her family to pursue higher education. With a dream of becoming a nurse, Betty enrolled at the University of Minnesota. But when she was just 25 credits short of getting her degree, for some reason, Betty dropped out of school and soon got married. Her career was put on hold as the couple moved around for her husband’s job, spending time living in different places.
Many years later, Betty returned to community college to become a registered nurse. She worked as a nurse for more than 30 years before retiring in 2013.
But in 2018, she still felt regretful over her unfinished degree. Encouraged by her friends, Betty decided to return to university to complete her bachelor’s degree. She chose to live in the dormitory and got on well with her roommates. She enrolled in classes and started working on those last 25 credits. However, she was discouraged by the new technology used when taking online courses during the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, Betty persevered.
At age 84, Betty got her bachelor’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from the College of Continuing and Professional Studies. She described the accomplishment as “pure joy, pure satisfaction”. Betty may even audit (旁听) college classes now that her degree is complete. She is not sure what’s next, but there’s one thing she does know: Life’s too short to live with regrets!
1. Why didn’t Betty get her bachelor’s degree?| A．Because she decided to marry her beloved one. |
| B．Because she didn’t achieve the required credits. |
| C．Because she dropped out of school to work as a nurse. |
| D．Because she volunteered to fight the coronavirus pandemic. |
| A．The difficult courses. | B．The new technology. |
| C．The coronavirus pandemic. | D．The interpersonal relationship. |
| A．Accomplished and friendly. | B．Popular and caring. |
| C．Determined and hard-working. | D．Ambitious and responsible. |
| A．Genius is nothing but labor and diligence. |
| B．Not matter of the today will drag tomorrow. |
| C．Be the change you want to see in the world. |
| D．It is never too late to cross items off the wish list. |
9 . Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen, particularly a phone screen, tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. So online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game-changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information, rather than skills developed by deeper reading, like critical analysis.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. Skimming is the skill we acquire as children as we learn to read more skillfully. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention span lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. If you time travelled just a few decades into the past, you would wonder at how little writing was happening outside a classroom. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. An online article starts forming a comment string underneath as soon as it is published. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic”, “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption.
To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought. The slow reader is like a swimmer who stops counting the number of pool laps he has done and just enjoys how his body feels and moves in water.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Selvin Brown’s opinion?| A．Favorable. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．advocacy of passionate reading helps promote slow reading |
| B．digital writing leads to too much speaking and not enough reflection |
| C．the public should be aware of the impact skimming has on neuronal circuits |
| D．the number of Internet readers is declining due to the advances of technology |
| A．Comprehensive. | B．Complicated. | C．Determined. | D．Apparent. |
| A．Slow Reading Is Here to Stay |
| B．Digital Technology Prevents Slow Reading |
| C．Screen vs. Print: Which Requires Deep Reading? |
| D．Reading Is Not a Race: The Wonder of Deep Reading |
10 . My quest started when I was on the New York subway. Some children were whining. Four trains came screaming into the station at once. I put my hands over my ears and cowered (蜷缩) — the noise was deafening. In cities, the ever-present dull background roar of planes, cars, machinery and voices is a fact of life. There is no escape from it and it was beginning to drive me mad.
In an attempt to recapture some peace, I decided to go on a mission to find the quietest place on Earth to discover whether absolute silence exists. The one place I was most excited about visiting was an anechoic chamber (消声室) in Minnesota.
Ironically, far from being peaceful, most people find its perfect quiet upsetting. And yet I booked a 45-minute session—no one had managed to stay in for that long before. When the heavy door shut behind me, I was plunged into darkness — all lights were turned off because they could also make a noise.
For the first few seconds, being in such a quiet place felt like heaven, a remedy for my unsettled nerves. Then, after a minute or two, I became aware of the sound of my breathing. As the minutes ticked by, the beat of my heart became apparent. Then I heard a strange, metallic scraping noise. Was I hallucinating? The feeling of peace was spoiled by a sensation of disappointment — this place wasn’t quiet at all.
Then I stopped obsessing about what bodily functions I could hear and began to enjoy it. I didn’t feel afraid and came out only because my time was up. Everyone was impressed that I’d beaten the record, but having spent so long searching for quiet, I was comfortable with the feeling of absolute stillness. Afterward, I felt wonderfully rested and calm.
My desire for silence changed my life. I found making space for moments of quiet in my day is the key to happiness. If you can occasionally become master of your own sound environment — from turning off the phone to taking a trip to the countryside, you’ll become a lot more accepting of the noises of everyday life.
1. What pushed the author to seek a change?| A．The annoying kids. | B．Loud chats in stations. |
| C．The roar of subway. | D．Endless noises in daily life. |
| A．It might give perfect silence. | B．It launched a time challenge. |
| C．It offered professional guidance. | D．It was the only one of its kind. |
| A．He started talking to himself. | B．He heard sounds from the outside. |
| C．He made some mental adjustments. | D．He felt scared in the first few minutes. |
| A．Noises stop us from making progress. | B．Moments of inner quiet better our lives. |
| C．We should bravely overcome our fears. | D．A state of peace and calm is hard to attain. |
