1 . Do you have a younger brother? Does he always get in trouble? Well, there might be some science behind that.
According to a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second-borns are more likely than first-borns to behave badly, which could be why you from time to time consider your younger brother or sister sprites.
Researchers, who explored data from tens of thousands of sibling (兄弟姐妹) pairs from Denmark and
Florida, found second-borns are 20% to 40% more likely to have behavioral problems. If you’re the second-born child you may want to have a little chat with your parents. The reason why second-born siblings may be worse behaved than first-born is that parents tend to pay less attention to them.
“Second-born children tend to have less attention from the mother than their older siblings because first-born children experience their mother’s maternity leave (产假). First-borns enjoy the rewards of not only their own time with Mum following their birth, but the time Mum takes off with younger siblings, too.” the authors explain.
It’s not just about the parents, however. Speaking to NRP, co-author Joseph Doyle said, “The first-born has role models, who are adults. And the second, later-born children have role models who are slightly unreasonable 2-year-olds, you know, their older siblings. The difference of parental investments and the sibling influences probably contribute to these differences we see in the labor market and what we find in behaviors against rules, even against laws. It’s just very difficult to separate those two things because they happen at the same time”
The results, the authors argue, have an important effect on social policy.
1. What does the underlined word “sprites” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Losers. | B．Troublemakers. | C．Close companions. | D．Parents’ pets. |
| A．Challenges of their elder siblings. |
| B．The amount of attention they receive from parents. |
| C．More family problems they are faced with. |
| D．Fewer chances of talking with others. |
| A．Parents Prefer First-Born Kids |
| B．How Parents Improve Family Relationships |
| C．Social Policy Guides Family Education |
| D．Why the Second-Born Tend to be Misbehaved |
2 . The best podcasts for people learning to cook
The Kitchen Counter
This show is designed to help new cooks on their way to greatness. While important topics such as healthy eating, the cost of good food and cooking meals suitable for the whole family are covered on the podcast, the great strength of The Kitchen Counter is in its recipes (食谱). This is home cooking done right, with both the host and guests sharing with listeners a variety of global dishes, from their origins to their variations and most importantly, how to make them.
Recipe Club
The recipe is at the heart of everything the Recipe Club podcast dedicates itself to. Each episode (一集) presents new themes, recipes and members of the club to debate and analyze these critical cooking instructions. Listeners will hear how the presenters have cooked the meal themselves and can learn how a good recipe can be made even better.
The Splendid Table
Why do we cook? Why do we eat what we eat? The host, Francis Lam, touches upon great recipes and killer cooking tips in his conversations, but they also focus on the impact food has on our lives and the personal connections it allows us to build. New cooks looking to get caught up in this cooking world will find the podcast helpful, inspiring and very relatable.
BBC Good Food podcast with Tom Kerridge
The episodes cover a set of bases, including spices (香料), food trends, recipes, crucial kitchen equipment and even barbecuing. This is a one-stop shop for all the essentials and the host and guests offer up insights that simply aren’t available anywhere else. Plus, as a limited series, there’s not a never-ending run of episodes to keep up with.
1. What do The Kitchen Counter and Recipe Club have in common?| A．They present different global dishes. | B．They share various recipes. |
| C．They focus on food experimentation. | D．They center around food trends. |
| A．Recipe Club. | B．The Kitchen Counter. |
| C．The Splendid Table. | D．BBC Good Food podcast with Tom Kerridge. |
| A．It has limited episodes. | B．It invites well-known guests. |
| C．It educates people on healthy eating. | D．It is designed for those new to cooking. |
3 . Besides being a lovely and important part of marine ecosystems, baby seals might have an unusual ability. They can change the pitch (音高) of their voices to be better understood, like humans do, a new study found. A person or animal using this skill is being what’s called “vocally plastic”, or adjusting their vocal (声音的) signals in response to environmental changes that overlap or cover up their voices, according to the study published Monday in the journal Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society.
The researchers had a number of reasons for wanting to test the vocal changes of baby harbor seals. The rare ability to copy new sounds — vocal learning — had been seen previously among adult harbor seals and a few other mammal species (哺乳动物), according to the authors. And very few mammals have the ability to change their vocal pitch to sound higher or lower, which is important for human communication. “By looking at one of the few other mammals who may be capable of learning sounds, we can better understand how we, humans, acquire speech, and finally why we are such chatty animals,” said Andrea Ravignani.
As the seals heard a speaker play a 45-minute recording consisting of high noise, low noise or no playback over several days, they naturally called out. When the baby seals heard louder sea noises, they lowered their vocal pitch. During more intense noise levels, the pups used a steadier pitch — and one seal raised its voice. This behavior, called the Lombard Effect, is typical for human speech when people talk louder to be more understandable, the authors said.
“The findings showed that seal pups have a more advanced control over their vocalisations than assumed up until now,” Ravignani said in a statement. “This control seems to be already present at only a few weeks of age. This is astonishing, as few other mammals seem capable of that.”
1. What does paragraph 1 tell us about baby seals?| A．They are cute but rare. |
| B．They can change vocal pitch. |
| C．They can understand human words. |
| D．They can be harmed by environmental changes. |
| A．To better understand adult harbor seals. |
| B．To show their rare ability of vocal learning. |
| C．To know more about human communication. |
| D．To find out how to protect them from extinction. |
| A．Baby seals can control their vocalisations when born. |
| B．Baby seals’ vocal ability is out of scientists’ expectation. |
| C．Scientists have long understood the vocal ability of baby seals. |
| D．Many other baby mammals are better at vocalisations than baby seals. |
| A．A surprising fact about baby seals |
| B．Baby seals are cuter than assumed |
| C．Harbor seals are in danger of extinction |
| D．The amazing survival ability of baby seals |
4 . Have you ever heard someone say, “breakfast is the most important meal of the day”, or give you advice about why it’s vital to start the day with a healthy breakfast?
Energy restoration
The word “breakfast” comes from “breaking the fast” — the idea of ending the period in which we didn’t eat during the night. The regeneration process that takes place while we sleep consumes some of our natural food reserves to heal our bodies.
Weight management
There are also many often-quoted studies which seem to link a state of obesity with skipping breakfast.
Better brain function
What’s most important is what we eat for breakfast. High-protein breakfasts have been found particularly effective in reducing food cravings and consumption later in the day. However, studies found that there is no agreement on what type of breakfast is healthier.
| A．Breakfast helps us refill the exhausted stores. |
| B．Weight-loss is likely to cause them health problems. |
| C．Breakfast has been found to affect more than just weight. |
| D．Breakfast types don’t matter as much as simply eating something. |
| E．Thus, it is suggested that a healthy breakfast can regulate and lose weight. |
| F．Many people are recommended to manage their weight by skipping meals. |
| G．It seems that this feast, for many of us, is necessary for our day to start well. |
5 . Many people around me make a difference to the world on a daily basis — being kind in unexpected ways and sharing the generosity of their lives with others. I, like many of them, volunteer some of my time in order to give back just a little of what I am so blessed to have. I volunteered to go to Guatemala with an eyeglass team from International Relief Teams — an organization I have supported in other ways for many years.
Our team went to a small town in Guatemala, San Augustin. We set up our tables and packages of pre-made glasses in the dirty courtyard of a clinic, put up the Snellen chart (an eye chart) on a wall, and began our work.
Young and old people came from many of the surrounding towns. Most had never received an eye exam before. They waited for hours patiently in the sun, never complaining. If we could help them out, their thankfulness for a simple pair of glasses was overwhelming. Some only left with eye drops or sunglasses, and even these people expressed their gratitude sincerely. All of them were very generous with blessings and smiles. We heard over and over from people who knew their eyes needed help but they had not gone to a doctor because it was too expensive, or had not got the glasses they needed for the same reason.
It’s so easy to overlook how much difference the volunteers’ small actions can make to the lives of people in Guatemala. The glasses in my country are so easily available, but to people in Guatemala, they are not.
As those who could give them a hand, we watched their lives change. What a gift sight is — and what a difference being able to see clearly makes! Here, we’d like you to join us and take action to help people in need. And every day, those actions change lives. No action is too small; no action is ever wasted.
1. According to Paragraph 1, the author is probably ________.| A．a major host of good deeds |
| B．a sponsor of an eyeglass team |
| C．a generous neighbor in his community |
| D．a supporter of International Relief Teams |
| A．Their working environment is simple. |
| B．They are medical experts nationwide. |
| C．Their initial preparation is inadequate. |
| D．They have served people in Guatemala for years. |
| A．Kind and helpful. | B．Poor but grateful. |
| C．Considerate and patient. | D．Knowledgeable but unhealthy. |
| A．To urge people to protect their eyes. |
| B．To ask people to volunteer in Guatemala. |
| C．To call on people to do good deeds in daily life. |
| D．To show the difficult life of people in Guatemala. |
6 . Most children now chat daily either online or through their mobile phones.
Sometimes the online world, just like the real world, can cause problems, such as bullying (恃强凌弱) or arguments.
| A．Going online is great fun. |
| B．Computer studies are part of schoolwork now. |
| C．The language of chat is strange to many parents, too. |
| D．There are some websites that are not suitable for the children. |
| E．To keep children safe, your management must cover the family computer. |
| F．They are connecting to a huge number of other children all over the world. |
| G．Surfing the Internet takes up too much of the time that should be spent on lessons. |
7 . Have you ever seen your cat or dog eating grass? They do so because it can help their digestion, and many wild species use natural substances to prevent and control diseases. This is called “zoo pharmacognosy” or, more commonly, animal self-medication.
Scientists have discovered that tamarin monkeys use a specific tree resin (树脂) as medicine. In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, scientists followed several groups of them to collect data. During one of these daily studies, tamarin monkeys were observed rubbing their bodies on the trunk of a tree. At first, researchers thought that they were marking their territory, a common behaviour in this species. Botanical experts later confirmed that the tree was a species of cabreuva, which is well known for its medical properties.
Researchers decided to place camera-traps in different sites at the foot of the tree to record future visits by tamarin monkeys. The records surprisingly showed that many animals living in the forest visited it. Totally, ten species were observed. For many of them, it was the first time that behaviors similar to self-medication had been observed. More surprisingly, one species spread resin on each other’s fur in pairs. In general, the species seemed to specifically visit the tree to acquire the resin and seemingly benefit from it, either healing their wounds or fighting back parasites (寄生虫).
While further studies are needed to identify the properties of the resin and thus confirm that this is indeed self-medication, the use of it suggests that cabreuva represents a common and universal drugstore for the residents of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. It is likely to be a valuable resource helping the species maintain their magnitude by improving their health.
This discovery could have an important protection influence, as the disappearance of some trees could potentially affect the survival of some animals.
1. Why do tamarin monkeys rub themselves against the tree?| A．They would like to digest what they eat. |
| B．They are trying to cure diseases. |
| C．They are attracting companions’ attention. |
| D．They feel like occupying the land. |
| A．Animals can help each other clean the fur. |
| B．Many animals copy monkeys’ behaviors. |
| C．Resin can be used as medicine for some animals |
| D．The cabreduva is the habitat of tamarin monkeys. |
| A．Characteristics. | B．Populations. |
| C．Flexibilities. | D．Similarities. |
| A．Increasing the production of resin. |
| B．Promoting evolution of creatures. |
| C．Motivating the study of monkeys’ diet. |
| D．Contributing to forest conservation. |
8 . “Anxiety.” The very word causes discomfort. Its effects—shortness of breath, pounding heart, muscle tension—are upsetting. Research shows that in and of itself, anxiety is not deadly, and it certainly is not a disease.
It can build your emotional strength and toughness
Working out at the gym is supposed to be hard and uncomfortable, since it involves pushing our physical strength past what you can easily do.
Humans are social creatures. The number one predictor of happiness is not financial success, or fame. It’s the quality of our relationships. In the same way, sharing our anxieties with our loved ones is one of the most effective strategies to build connection.
It can help you readjust and rebalance
Often, all of us find ourselves at the end of our rope. Our responsibilities pile up, our resources break down, and we just don’t have enough time to get everything done. We feel uncomfortably anxious most of the time. In such cases, what we’re experiencing is called stress.
Therefore, anxiety can be a healthy, helpful emotion that is a constructive aspect of human life.
| A．Anxiety can have a more specific meaning |
| B．It’s about time we start to put it to good use |
| C．It’s no wonder that anxiety is causing us much concern |
| D．It can increase your emotional relationship and connection |
| E．Similarly, you need to face some degree of mental hardship |
| F．Quite the contrary: it is an indicator of brain and sensory health |
| G．Simply put, the demands placed upon us outweigh our available resources |
9 . I have some important information. The average American... Oh, wait.〈ding!〉New notification. CNN: something about Taylor and Travis. Hmmm.〈ding!〉And our dog food is out for delivery.〈ding!〉A winter sales promotion of soap and socks. Whew....
The average American reportedly gets about 70 smartphone notifications a day. And according to a new study, the number is far higher for teenagers, whose phones ding hundreds or even thousands of times. This constant sound puts us off from work, life, and each other.
“The simple ding of a notification is enough to pull our attention elsewhere,” Kosta Kushlev, a behavioral scientist at Georgetown University, told us. “Even if we don’t check them. This can have obvious effects on productivity, but also our own well-being and of those around us. Humans are not good at multitasking. It takes extra time and effort to switch our attention. We get interrupted so many times a day that these effects can add up to meaningful decreases in our well-being and social connection,” he added.
I am grateful to learn that the Bears have won. I’m eager for messages from my family. But I wonder why The New York Times feels it is urgent to inform me, as they did this week, about “The 6 Best Men’s and Women’s Sweaters”.
This is, of course, a circumstance mostly of our own creation, constructed click by click. We can choose to check notifications just a couple of times a day. But does that risk delay, real or imagined, in seeing something we really need to see? Or that would simply delight us?
The promise of instant communication has grown into information congestion (拥堵). So many urgent notifications, not many of which are truly urgent; and only a few are even interesting. So many hours spent staring at the small screen, and searching for news, gossip, opportunity, and direction, while so often being unaware of the world all around us.
1. What phenomenon is described in the first paragraph?| A．Americans favor new notifications. | B．Smartphones can promote products. |
| C．New notifications constantly interrupt. | D．Push notification technology is advanced. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Favorable. | C．Doubtful. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．The prospect of push notifications looks promising. |
| B．Push notifications help users understand the world a lot. |
| C．Most of the instant notifications are unimportant. |
| D．Smartphone users should search for information directly. |
| A．Fewer Dings, Please! | B．Times Have Changed! |
| C．Information Era Is Approaching. | D．Smartphone Addiction Has Increased. |
10 . Scientists have been experimenting with playing sounds to plants since at least the 1960s, during which time they have been exposed to everything from Beethoven to Michael Jackson. Over the years, evidence that this sort of thing can have an effect has been growing. One paper, published in 2018, claimed that an Asian shrub known as the telegraph plant grew substantially larger leaves when exposed to 56 days of Buddhist music — but not if it was exposed to Western pop music or silence. Another, published last year, found that marigolds and sage plants exposed to the noise of traffic from a busy motorway suffered growth difficulty.
Plants have been evolving (进化) alongside the insects that eat them for hundreds of millions of years. With that in mind, Heidi Appel, a botanist now at the University of Houston, and Reginald Cocroft, a biologist at the University of Missouri, wondered if plants might be sensitive to the sounds made by the animals with which they most often interact. They recorded the vibrations made by certain species of caterpillars (毛毛虫) as they chewed on leaves. These vibrations are not powerful enough to produce sound waves in the air. But they are able to travel across leaves and branches, and even to neighbouring plants if their leaves touch.
They then exposed tobacco plant — the plant biologist’s version of the laboratory mouse — to the recorded vibrations while no caterpillars were actually present. Later, they put real caterpillars on the plants to see if exposure had led them to prepare for an insect attack. The results were striking. Leaves that had been exposed had significantly higher levels of defensive chemicals, making them much harder for the caterpillars to eat. Leaves that had not been exposed to vibrations showed no such response. Other sorts of vibration — caused by the wind, for instance, or other insects that do not eat leaves — had no effect.
“Now speakers with the right audio files are more often being used to warn crops to act when insects are detected but not yet widespread,” says Dr. Cocroft. “Unlike chemical pesticides, sound waves leave no dangerous chemicals.”
1. What can we learn about plants from the first paragraph?| A．They may enjoy Western music. | B．They can’t stand Buddhist music. |
| C．They can react to different sounds. | D．They can make different sounds. |
| A．Plants can make a cry for help. | B．Plants evolve alongside insects. |
| C．Plants are sensitive to the sounds. | D．Plants have been studied for years. |
| A．They can recongnize harmful vibrations. | B．They look like laboratory mice. |
| C．They can threaten the caterpillars. | D．They can release poisonous chemicals. |
| A．Disadvantages of chemical pesticides. | B．Application of the experimental results. |
| C．Interaction between plants and insects. | D．Warning system of widespread insects. |
