1 . There was a time not long ago when new science Ph.D.s in the United States were expected to pursue a career path in academia (学术界). But today, most graduates end up working outside academia, not only in industry but also in careers such as science policy, communications, and patent law. Partly this is a result of how bleak the academic job market is, but there’s also a rising awareness of career options that Ph.D. scientists haven’t trained for directly—but for which they have useful knowledge, skills, and experience. Still, there’s a huge disconnect between the way we currently train scientists and the actual employment opportunities available for them, and an urgent need for dramatic improvements in training programs to help close the gap. One critical step that could help to drive change would be to require Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scientists to follow an individual development plan (IDP).

In 2002, the U.S. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology recommended that every postdoctoral researcher put together an IDP in consultation with an adviser. Since then, several academic institutions have begun to require IDPs for postdocs. And in June, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biomedical Research Workforce Working Group recommended that the NIH require IDPs for the approximately 32,000 postdoctoral researchers they support. Other funding agencies, public and private, are moving in a similar direction.

IDPs have long been used by government agencies and the private sector to achieve specific goals for the employee and the organization. The aim is to ensure that employees have an explicit tool to help them understand their own abilities and aspirations, determine career possibilities, and set (usually short-term) goals. In science, graduate students and new Ph.D. scientists can use an IDP to identify and navigate an effective career path.

A free Web application for this purpose, called myIDP, has become available this week. It’s designed to guide early-career scientists through a confidential, rigorous process of introspection（内省）to create a customized career plan. Guided by expert knowledge from a panel of science-focused career advisers, each trainee’s self-assessment is used to rank a set of career trajectories（轨迹）. After the user has identified a long-term career goal, myIDP walks her or him through the process of setting short-term goals directed toward accumulating new skills and experiences important for that career choice.

Although surveys reveal the IDP process to be useful, trainees report a need for additional resources to help them identify a long-term career path and complete an IDP. Thus, myIDP will be most effective when it’s embedded in larger career-development efforts. For example, universities could incorporate IDPs into their graduate curricula to help students discuss, plan, prepare for, and achieve their long-term career goals.

1. What do we learn about new science in the United States Ph.D.s today?

A．They lack the skills and expertise needed for their jobs.

B．They can choose from a wider range of well-paying jobs.

C．They often have to seek jobs outside the academic circle.

D．They are regarded as the nation’s driving force of change.

2. What does the author say about America’s Ph.D. training?

A．It includes a great variety of practical courses.

B．It is closely linked to future career requirements.

C．It should be re-oriented to careers outside academia.

D．It should be improved to better suit the job market.

3. Government agencies and the private sector often use IDPs to        .

A．bring into full play the expertise of their postdoctoral researchers

B．help employees capitalize on their abilities to achieve career goals

C．place employees in the most appropriate positions

D．recruit the most suitable candidates to work for them

4. What do me know about myIDP?

A．It is an effective tool for self-assessment for better career plans.

B．It enables people to look into various possibilities.

C．It is an integral part of the graduate curricula.

D．It can promise a long-term career path.

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．efficiency             B．employ             C．effective             D．chemicals             E．accelerating F．existing             G．projected             H．trapped             I．power                    J．simultaneously K．artificially

This past July was the hottest recorded month in human history. Heat waves smashed temperature records worldwide and even brought summer temperatures to Chile and Argentina during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. It’s more than just a matter of sweaty discomfort. In the U.S. alone, it kills more people each year than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined. As climate change worsens, access to     1     cooled spaces is rapidly becoming a health necessity.

Yet standard air-conditioning systems have     2     us in a vicious cycle: the hotter it is, the more people use the AC—and the more energy is used as a result. Nicole Miranda, an engineer researching sustainable cooling at the University of Oxford says: “it’s not only a vicious cycle, but it’s a(n)     3     one.” According to 2018 data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide annual energy demand from cooling is     4     to more than triple by 2050.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that humans cannot outrun climate change with the same air-conditioning technology we’ve been using. One well-known problem with current AC systems is their reliance on refrigerant     5    , many of which are potential greenhouse gases. About 80 percent of a standard AC unit’s climate-warming emissions currently come from the energy used to     6     it, says Nihar Shah, director of the Global Cooling Efficiency Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Standard air-conditioning systems     7     cool and dehumidify through a relatively inefficient mechanism: in order to condense water out of the air, they overcool that air past the point of comfort. Many new designs therefore separate the dehumidification and cooling processes, which avoids the need to overcool.

Even with some of the best technologies available, the gains in     8     alone might not be enough to offset the widely expected increase in air-conditioning use. It will not work to simply replace every     9     air conditioner with a better model and call it a day. Instead, a truly cooler future will have to     10     other strategies that rely on urban planning and building design to minimize the need for cooling in the first place.

4 . Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, anxiety disorders, defined by extreme fear, restlessness, and muscle tension, can increase the risk for ______ and self-murder.

They are some of the most common mental health conditions around the world, ______ around four out of every 100 people and costing the health care system and job employers over US $42 billion each year.

People with anxiety are more likely to miss days from work and are less ______. Young people with anxiety are also less likely to enter school and complete it, leading to fewer life ______. Even though this evidence points to anxiety disorders as being important mental health issues, insufficient ______ is being given to them by researchers, clinicians, and policy makers.

My team and I at the University of Cambridge wanted to find out who is most affected by anxiety disorders. To do this, we conducted a systematic ______ of studies that reported on the proportion of people with anxiety in a variety of contexts around the world, and used accurate methods to keep the highest quality studies.

Our results showed women are almost twice as likely to ______ anxiety as men, and people living in Europe and North America are disproportionately affected.

So why are women more ______? It could be because of differences in brain chemistry and hormone (荷尔蒙) variations. Reproductive events across a woman’s life are ______ with hormonal changes, which have been linked to anxiety. The rise in oestrogen (雌激素) that occurs during pregnancy can ______ the risk for uncontrollable disorder.

This is ______ by disturbing and repetitive thoughts, impulses and addictions that are upsetting and less effective. But in addition to biological mechanisms, women and men seem to experience and react to events in their life ______. Women tend to be more likely to stress, which can increase their anxiety. Also, when faced with stressful situations, women and men tend to use different coping ______. Women faced with life stressors are more likely to think about them seriously, which can increase their anxiety, ______ men engage more in active problem-focused coping.

Other studies suggest that women are more likely to ______ physical and mental mistreatment than men, and this behavior has been linked to the development of anxiety disorders.

1.

A．symptom

B．depression

C．misery

D．frightening

2.

A．infecting

B．stimulating

C．capturing

D．affecting

3.

A．productive

B．progressive

C．positive

D．passive

4.

A．adventures

B．insurances

C．chances

D．programs

5.

A．conclusion

B．attention

C．solution

D．contribution

6.

A．ignorance

B．outlook

C．discovery

D．review

7.

A．suffer from

B．deal with

C．fight against

D．result from

8.

A．superior

B．inferior

C．vulnerable

D．enormous

9.

A．interacted

B．associated

C．disconnected

D．inherited

10.

A．challenge

B．decline

C．eliminate

D．increase

11.

A．characterized

B．confused

C．performed

D．offended

12.

A．equally

B．similarly

C．differently

D．terribly

13.

A．shortcuts

B．strategies

C．standards

D．samples

14.

A．because

B．unless

C．if

D．while

15.

A．experience

B．accept

C．ignore

D．persist

5 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Robot Chef Learns to Twirl (旋转) Pizza Like a Pro

Pizza has a proud history of fueling late-night lab work, and scientists in Naples—an Italian city famous for its pizza—have easy access to some of the world’s tastiest take-out. But what inspires engineer Bruno Siciliano is not that first bite     1     much as how the dish is made.

“Preparing a pizza involves an extraordinary level of agility and dexterity (敏捷和灵巧),” says Siciliano, who directs a robotics research group at the University of Naples Federico Ⅱ. Stretching a deformable object like a lump of dough (面团) requires an accurate and gentle touch. It is one of the few things humans can handle, but robots cannot—yet.

Siciliano’s team     2     (develop) a robot able to make a pizza pie. RoDyMan (short for Robotic Dynamic Manipulation) is a five-year project     3     (support) by a €2.5-million grant from the European Research Council. Like a human chef, RoDyMan must throw the dough into the air to stretch it,     4     (follow) it as it spins and anticipating how it will change shape.

RoDyMan has been working this spring toward a milestone: stretching the dough     5     tearing it. To guide the robot, Siciliano’s team asked master pizza chef Enzo Coccia to wear a suit of movement-tracking sensors. “We learn [Coccia’s] motions, and we copy them with RoDyMan,” Sciliano says.

RoDyMan uses visual sensors in its head to track the dough in real time. Using software, it can train     6     to handle the pizza like a chef would. The robot     7     (map) the dough’s position and tracks how it moves. Through practice, the robot     8     get better—much like humans develop “muscle memory.” Researchers hope RoDyMan’s technology can lead to a new generation of robots that will perform tasks in ways     9     are accurate and responsive, if not more lifelike.

Yet Siciliano admits that     10     compares with a traditional chef. “I would never eat a pizza made by a robot,” he says. “It would not have the taste a real pizzaiolo, with his soul, would put in it.”

7 . College rankings are misleading. So why do we still use them?

Many high school seniors have been opening emails over the past weeks that tell them whether they got into the colleges of their choice.     1    

A math professor at Columbia University is challenging the data that the Ivy League school reported to U. S. News & World Report , which earned it the No. 2 ranking this year. A couple of weeks ago, in what must be the granddaddy of fake-data scandals, the fired dean of Temple University’s business school received a 14-month sentence after he was convicted in federal court of sending fake information to U. S. News & World Report to boost the school’s prestige. Claremont McKenna College, The George Washington University and many other schools have also tweaked data to boost rankings.

    2     The problem is the rankings themselves. They can be a counterproductive way for families to pick schools. Probably few college applicants are aware that the single biggest factor U. S. News uses to rank schools is their reputation among officials at other colleges, who might or might not have deep knowledge of the schools. That accounts for 20% of the score.

The second biggest factor is six-year graduation rates. But since low-income students are far less likely to graduate within that time period - or ever - than middle-class students, this is more an indication of student affluence than academic excellence.     3    

U. S. News had made some positive changes in recent years. It dropped student acceptance rate as one of the criteria, which had led colleges to heavily market to students even if they had almost no chance of acceptance.     4     The rankings use alumni donations as a proxy (指标) for students’ happiness with their school. That’s a pretty meager way to measure satisfaction.

What most high school students and parents really need to know is whether a college offers a rich choice of courses with good instructors; whether graduates will leave with a load of debt; whether students will feel comfortable and engaged on campus; and whether they’ll be prepared for a fulfilling career.

A．But the ultimate issue with the rankings doesn’t lie with the cheaters.

B．In fact, it can have the unacceptable effect of discouraging college from accepting more low-income students, lest it worsen their graduation rates.

C．For example, a much less expensive school might offer an equal or better education than a more highly ranked but costlier one.

D．But many other factors used in ranking the schools still have little meaning to a student’s experience.

E．The most selective schools - Princeton, MIT and so forth - don’t need rankings to boost their reputation or applicant pool.

F．Even as they do so, the criticisms of published college rankings that may have guided their preferences are increasing.

8 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. including            B. urgent             C. features             D. targets          E. lengths          F. chasing      G. accused        H. commands            I. fed             J. restock             K. collecting

Pokemon Stickers Are Back for Koreans Nostalgic (怀旧的) for Childhood

Small pastries include a surprise sticker, and the goal is to find all 159 varieties — just like a trend more than 20 years ago.

Jeong Bo-ram’s new fascination has him     1     mass-produced pastries(糕点), delivery trucks and his childhood memories. His     2     are $1.20 bakery items sold with random Pokemon stickers that fly off store shelves in South Korea.

Just a few short of a full 159-sticker collection, 29-year-old Mr. Jeong has gone to more than 10 convenience stores and supermarkets a day, often leaving empty-handed. He has paid hundreds of dollars. He has learned the evening     3     times throughout his neighborhood to know when fresh drop-offs occur.

More than two decades ago, the Pokemon sticker-treat duo caught on with a generation of South Korean children, before the craze passed after a few years and the products were discontinued. Now the goodies are back just in time for the country’s broader retro boom,     4     by adults nostaglic for simpler times.

South Koreans are going to great     5     to live out the Pokemon tagline of “Gotta catch ’em all,” with some     6     the stickers in display booklets. Pokemon, originally a Japanese game for the Nintendo Game Boy that     7     hundreds of monster characters, has expanded into globally popular animated series, toys and video-games,     8     the recent hit Pokemon Go for smartphones.

Retailers have posted signs on their entrances that read, “We have no Pokemon bread,” while some store owners are     9     of bundling the in-demand pastries with unpopular items. Hunters camp outside supermarkets early in the morning. The rarest of stickers, such as that of the legendary characters Mew (梦幻) and Mewtwo (超梦), fetch $40 online. A full collection     10     more than $700, the listings show. Actual children also try to find the stickers, but adults are using their greater resources for the hunt.

Ko Hyo-jin shrieked when she ripped open a package of “Diglett Strawberry Custard Bread” recently and discovered inside a sticker of Mewtwo - a two-legged monster shown extending its paw. She immediately dialed up her husband. “It felt like winning the lottery,” said the 39-year-old homemaker in the Seoul Suburbs.

The nostalgic chase has been embraced by young adults facing Korea’s stagnant economy, soaring real-estate prices and a tight labor market.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passages by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A．award             B．house             C．hit                    D．namely             E．specifically             F．grabbed G．traded             H．gang                    I．bar                    J．principled             K．transmission

American authorities arrested Masphal Kry, an official in Cambodia’s forestry administration, last November when he was heading to an international meeting about trade regulations for endangered species in Panama. Prosecutors accused him of conspiring with a smuggling ring. The contraband (违禁品): monkeys,     1     long-tailed macaques. His     2     allegedly grabbed wild macaques in Cambodia’s national parks and bribed officials to label them as captive-bred. Fake papers allowed Vanny Bio Research, a Cambodian pharma company, to ship these unfortunate primates (灵长类动物) to America for use in research. Mr Kry is facing trial in Florida’s Southern District Court. The federal government funds seven National Primate Research Centres (NPRCs), which     3     in total around 20,000 primates, not only macaques but also baboons and marmosets. These centres then     4     primates to labs across America. NPRCs have fulfilled only a third of requests for untested-on macaques in 2021 and prices have soared. Before the covid-19 pandemic a rhesus macaque cost $8,000; by 2022 they had     5     $24,000. Another species, long-tail macaques, is probably per pound currently the most expensive     6     wildlife, says Lisa Jones-Engel, a science adviser at PETA, an animal-rights group.

Getting lab monkeys from abroad became harder during the pandemic. Chinese authorities banned the export of all primates in early 2020. The Chinese government wanted to     7     the country’s wildlife trade, which is thought to encourage the     8     of pathogens—like sars-cov-2—from animals to humans.

That forced American companies to rely on less     9     South-East Asian suppliers. Many scientists believe poaching is prevalent across Cambodia. In February, the Department of Justice subpoenaed Charles River over 1,000 juvenile macaques the pharmaceutical company had bought from Cambodia; the DoJ suspected they were     10     in the wild then exported. These primates are now in Texas and Maryland but also in dilemma: they cannot be tested on, nor can they be flown back to Cambodia.

10 . Directions: Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given verbs.

Talking to your therapist over Zoom is as helpful for anxiety and depression as going to in-person therapy. The virtual session, moreover, can be delivered at lower costs, according to a new study conducted in the U.K.

Online therapy has become more and more prevalent since the COVID pandemic,     1     lockdowns forced lots of therapists online. The new study suggests that one of the biggest benefits of virtual therapy     2     be that it can allow people to get treatment faster, which increases their quality of life and reduces the amount of additional medical care they require.

“The actual cost of mental health care doesn’t come from treating these conditions     3     from not treating them,” says co-author Ana Catarino.

Questions emerge about     4     to deliver mental health interventions online best. Catarino and her team compared ieso’s Internet-delivered CBT, which featured a therapist working one-on-one with patients through a text chat,     5     the other services for anxiety and depression offered by the NHS, which covered a variety of therapies.

The findings showed that online therapy was     6     (effective) than the other forms of care. What was most interesting was why. The researchers found that patients who were offered the therapist-guided CBT program got treatment faster. As a result, their quality of life improved more quickly, and they used fewer other medical services.

The paper is likely to “make a big splash” because the authors showed that the success of the virtual CBT program was linked to the fact that it provided patients with a therapist’s guidance every step of the way.

It’s not surprising that virtual therapy works well, says Haim Weinberg, a licensed psychologist. Studies outside the U.K. have found the same, he says. But there is still some bias     7     virtual therapy as somehow second-best, and there are not yet many     8     (establish) training programs to get mental health professionals comfortable with providing care online.

Virtual care won’t be right for every person, but the new study’s results suggest the need to expand access     9     patients aren’t left waiting for help. These findings stress the importance of developing clinical interventions that     10     (prove) to be effective and that can be used at scale to match the demand we know.