1 . NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 2020 PHOTO COMPETITION!
Woo-hoo! Get your cameras and smartphones at the ready, because it’s time for this year’s NG KIDS photography competition.
What you need to know
Competition is open only to legal residents (居民) of the UK and Ireland who are between the ages of 7 and 14.
We have THREE categories (类别) in the competition — animals, people and environment (a new category started this year). You can enter as many categories as you like but just ONE photo per category, please!
All photos should be sent through our website. If you’ve not already registered, you or your parent will need to do so at natgeokids. com/uk/ photocomp — it will only take a minute to do!
You can submit (提交) ONE photo for each of the three categories. Photos should be in JPEG format, between 1MB and 5MB in size. Enter at natgeokids. com/uk/photocomp.
Before you submit your photo, make sure you rename it with your full name and the category you are entering. For example, Joe-Bloggs-Animals. jpg.
Don’t forget to tell us your full name, date of birth and the title of your photo!
The prizes
Our Star Prize is a family holiday in Morocco!
And that’s not all! Each category winner will win a number of prizes too, including an amazing Nikon COOLPIX W150 camera, which is built to go anywhere.
The closing date is 23:59 (GMT) on 21 October 2020. Winners will be notified (通知) before 18 November 2020.
1. How is this year’s competition different from that of last year?| A．It has a new category. |
| B．It lasts about one month longer. |
| C．It is open to kids from around the world. |
| D．It will give more than one prize to winners. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．five. |
| A．be 14 years old or older |
| B．submit their photos on its website |
| C．get their parents agreement |
| D．Give their photos an amazing name. |
| A．The photos can be submitted on 18 November 2020. |
| B．All the winners can go for a family holiday in UK. |
| C．It will take a long time to register. |
| D．One must rename the photo with full name and the category. |
| A．A research plan. | B．A science report. |
| C．A nature magazine. | D．A tourist guidebook. |
After her father caught the coronavirus (新冠病毒), Sumoma Khnom managed to find a bed for him at Dhaka Medial College Hospital. The hospital was already crowded with too many patients. This was not her only problem. Her family did not have enough money to buy food. And she was extremely tired. But then, some comfort came.
Volunteers working for the Bidyanondo Foundation, social organization, brought her family a gift basket. It was filled with fruit —oranges, apples, and lemons —as well as other food. There was also a get-well card for her father. It read,"We are here to stand by you."
The Bidyanondo Foundation, established in 2013, is known for its food assistance (援助) programs for street children and the poor. Now it is also famed for building awareness (意识) of COVID-19 in the community. Its name, Bidyanondo, means"learn for fun".
Since June 1, the group has given out about 1.400 gift baskets In March. the Dhaka Tribune reported that the foundation was giving out protective things such as face masks (口罩) and hand cleaner. Yeasin said that the first responsibility of the foundation is to support patients and build awareness. However, it does not want doctors and other health workers to be forgotten "Many health workers are saying outside home, away from their families to provide health care,"he said"We wanted to thank them. They also need mental(精神上的) support.
So, the foundation has sent health care workers thank you cards. One reads, “We become brave to do more (for people) seeing your effort, we know you will continue [to] fight to save our lives if we become ill tomorrow. ” Many support Biyanondo’s efforts. Sumona Khanom said she was thankful that the foundation has come forward to help her father "I hope, "she said, "They would offer to help all other fathers."
1. Why did Sumona Khanom have difficulty in finding a bed for her father?(no more than 10 words)2. What did the Bidyanondo Foundation bring to Sumona Khanom's family?(no more than 10 words)
3. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 3 probably mean? (1 word)
4. Whom may Bidyanondo Foundation serve for? (no more than 10 words)
5. If there is a similar foundation in your school, will you take part in it as a volunteer? And why? ( no more than 25 words)
In the workplace, at home, in all areas of life, looking for a reason to laugh is necessary. A sense of humor helps us to get through the dull times, deal with the difficult times, enjoy the good times and manage the scary times.
Six-year old Hannah experienced one of the most frightening times of her life when she discovered she had cancer. And if she was to give life a shot, Hannah would have to suffer painful, almost endless medical treatments. At one point she lost all her hair due to chemicals pumped into her tiny body. On days when she felt strong enough to get out, she often covered her head.
One day while shopping with her mother, Hannah donned a ball cap with a fake small ponytail(马尾辫)sewn into the back. Unless one looked closely, she looked as if she had a full head of hair. Before long Hannah noticed a small boy staring at her as if he were trying to figure out what had happened to the girl. She tried to ignore him, but he followed her around the store. Finally, she took off her cap showing her shiny, hairless head. In a firm voice she warned, "This is what happens when you don't eat your vegetables!"
I don't know what became of the boy. As for Hannah, her sense of humor helped her get through one of life's scariest times.
As entertainer Bob Hope once said, "I've seen what a good laugh can do. It can transform tears into hope." And sometimes, a little more hope is all we need.
1. What did Hannah suffer when she had cancer? (no more than 10 words)2. Why did Hannah cover her head when she went out? (no more than 10 words)
3. What does the underlined word "donned" mean? (1 word)
4. What would the boy probably do after he heard Hannah's words? (no more than 10 words)
5. What can we learn from Hannah when we meet with difficulties in life? (no more than 20 words)
4 . Most humans are able to recognize about 1 million different colors, but some people can't recognize this many because of something called colorblindness(色盲). In rare cases, some people can't see any colors at all.
There are three cone-shaped(锥形的)cells at the back of our eyes that allow us to see colors. These cells absorb tight waves and send a message to the brain, where the image is processed.
If something is wrong with these cone-shaped cells, this can result in colorblindness.
Thankfully, special color-correcting glasses have already been made to help fix some types or colorblindness. Now, according to research published in Optics Letters, scientists have provided another choice.
Sharon Karepov and Tal Ellenbogen, engineers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, have found a way to apply this technology to contact lenses(隐形眼镜). This is good news for the millions of people worldwide who suffer from colorblindness.
One of the most common types of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. People who have this specific type have difficulty telling the colors red and green apart. "Problems with distinguishing red from green stop simple daily routines such as deciding whether a banana is ripe," Karepov explained.
Karepov also stressed the importance of applying this finding to create special contact lenses instead of relying on color-correcting glasses.
"Glasses based on this correction concept are commercially available. However, they are too big than contact lenses." Karepov said. "Our contact lenses create a customized, compact and durable(耐用的)way to deal with these shortcomings."
This new research is groundbreaking. In addition to offering those who are colorblind another option, it may lead to solutions for other visual damage.
1. What can cause colorblindness, according to the article?| A．Only one type of cone-shaped cell exists in the eyes. |
| B．Cone-shaped cells cannot process images received. |
| C．The brain fails to absorb and process light waves. |
| D．Cone-shaped cells probably don't work properly. |
| A．They can recognize 1 million different colors. |
| B．They are not interested in colorful stuff. |
| C．They may find daily tasks more difficult. |
| D．They have fewer cone-shaped cells than other people. |
| A．Three cone-shaped cells. | B．Special color-correcting glasses. |
| C．Processed image. | D．Red-green colorblindness type. |
| A．They are much smaller. | B．They are easier to make. |
| C．They are much cheaper. | D．They can help correct colorblindness. |
| A．It has led to a cure for colorblindness. |
| B．It has found causes of visual damage. |
| C．It could lead to solutions for other visual damage. |
| D．It has helped to develop glasses to fix visual damage. |
5 . Those with closed minds refused to consider any contradictory facts, and they proceed with their planned course of action, full speed ahead, with their “minds made up” and tightly shut. As an illustration, consider the situation in 1986, prior to the space shuttle Challenger’s disatrous launch that killed all seven astronauts aboard, there was a heated telephone debate between two engineers from the company that produced the shuttle booster rockets and the top officials of NASA (the federal government’s space agency). The engineers insisted that the flight was too risky because of freezing temperature at the Florida launch site. They explained that some of the seals on the fuel tanks were not designed to withstand such low temperatures and might leak under pressure, thus endangering the craft and crew.
Despite the pleas to stop the flight, officials at NASA overruled the engineers, who were best qualified to make judgments about the complex technical problems of space flight. What caused the officials to ignore the engineers? Several flights had already been postponed, and it would not look good to postpone another. It would be bad public relations to disappoint the crowds of people and news reporters waiting for the launch. Top government officials were ready to appear on the national television and take the credit for another safe flight. As a result, with their minds absolutely closed to the facts presented by the engineers, NASA officials ordered the Challenger to take off. Seventy-three seconds later, the spacecraft was enveloped in flame.
Incredibly, seventeen years later, the lesson of the Challenger disaster was repeated. In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, killing another crew of seven. During the shuttle’s liftoff, a piece of foam insulation(泡沫隔热材料) had broken off, hitting the shuttle's wing at five hundred miles per hour. Lower-level engineers at NASA begged for photographs of the Columbia in orbit, which might have shown the extent of the damage, but their closed-minded superiors ignored their requests. It was the damage caused by the 1.7 pound chunk of insulation that doomed the Columbia.
There is no virtue in ignoring contradictory facts and “sticking to your guns” when the course taken shows all the signs of being the wrong one. Closed minds are especially noticeable in political campaigns and debates. Many people line up to support one candidate or another and won’t listen to any facts presented by the opposing candidate.
All those with an open mind say is this: “I don’t know everything, so I’d better keep my mind, eyes, and ears open to any new facts that may come along.” The world would be a much better and safer place if everyone had this attitude.
1. Which of the following brought about the disastrous launch of the Challenger?| A．Its crew | B．The engineers |
| C．The fuel tanks’ seals | D．The size of its rocket |
| A．postponed the flight at once. |
| B．made judgments about the complex technical problems. |
| C．announced the news on national television. |
| D．ordered to launch the Challenger as scheduled. |
| A．The Columbia disaster was impossible to foresee. |
| B．Engineers were to blame for the Columbia’s explosion. |
| C．The Columbia disaster could have been avoided. |
| D．The Columbia was deliberately damaged. |
| A．Holding firm to your own opinion. |
| B．Remaining and firing your gun at enemies. |
| C．Strengthening your status. |
| D．Keeping an open mind. |
| A．To inform readers about what an open mind is. |
| B．To entertain readers with two stories of tragedies in space. |
| C．To persuade readers to keep an open mind. |
| D．To criticize what NASA officials had done in aerospace history. |
| A．By stating arguments. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By explaining statistical data. | D．By providing research result. |
6 . Adrian’s “Amazing Race” started early, when his parents realize that he, as a baby, couldn’t hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearing-impaired (听觉受损的), he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.
Later on, Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school. But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular schools couldn’t take care of a special-needs student. His parents were determined to take the risk and push him hard to go through his work every day because they want to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge the pace was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn’t always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.
The effort made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race 05/06 — being the first hearing-impaired Asian to do so.
But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother. “If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great result,” she often said.
1. How did Adrian communicate with other disabled children in the special school?| A．By speaking. | B．By using sign language. |
| C．By writing letters. | D．By making loud noises. |
| A．they wanted him to live a normal life |
| B．they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong |
| C．he wouldn’t mix with other disabled children |
| D．he wasn’t taken good care of in the special school |
| A．He did a lot of outdoor activities. |
| B．He studied in a regular school. |
| C．He attended private classes after school. |
| D．He worked very hard both in and after class. |
| A．He did very well in his study. |
| B．He succeeded in entering a regular school. |
| C．He reached his goals in spite of his disability. |
| D．He took part in the world Yacht Race 05/06. |
| A．Knowledge is power. |
| B．If winter comes, can spring be far behind? |
| C．Rome was not built in one day. |
| D．Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. |
7 . Spanish River Park
Location: 3001 Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton.
Admission: $16 per vehicle on weekdays, $18 on weekends and major holidays.
Special Comments: About 95 acres, more than a half-mile of beach with lifeguards. No pets.1,680-foot nature path and large playground area.
Food/Dining: Picnic areas with barbecue grills. Phone: (561)393-7811
Restores: Restrooms and showers available.
Red Reef Park
Location: 1400 N.Ocean Blvd., Boo2 Raton.
Admission: $16 per vehicle on weekdays,$18 on weekends and major holidays.
Special Comments: Developed beach (67 acres) with lifeguards. No alcohol or pets permitted. It offers grills and a small playground area.
Food/Dining: Picnic areas available. Phone: (561) 393-7812
Restrooms: Restrooms and showers available.
South Beach Park
Location: 400 N.Ocean Blvd., Boca Raton.
Admission: $15 per vehicle on weekdays,$17 on weekends and major holidays.
Special Comments: 1,670 feet of beach, 25 acres, lifeguards, 955 feet of developed beach south of Boca Inlet with lifeguards.
Food/Dining: Picnic areas available. Phone: (561) 393-7813
Restrooms: Restrooms and showers available.
Coconut Cove Waterpark
Location: 11200 Park Access Road, Boca Raton.
Admission: Adult $7; Children(4~12)$5; 3 and under free.
Special Comments: The waterpark offers Sea Monster walk pool, Meandering River,
a waterslide and a waterfall. No alcohol or pets permitted.
Food/Dining: Concessions. Phone: (561) 274-1140
Restrooms: Restrooms and showers available.
1. Which of the following can not be done in Spanish River Park?| A．Play with your dog. | B．Walk on the path. |
| C．Go for a picnic. | D．Have a shower. |
| A．(561) 393-7811 | B．(561) 393-7812 |
| C．(561) 393-7813 | D．(561) 274-1140 |
| A．In a notebook. | B．In a newspaper. |
| C．In a report. | D．In a science book. |
| A．$22 | B．$19 |
| C．$29 | D．$24 |
| A．South Beach Park | B．Coconut Cove Waterpark |
| C．Spanish River Park | D．Red Reef Park |
8 . Young sunflowers turn and swing every day. New findings add to evidence that the plants are animal-like.
Harmer, a professor in the University of California at Davis’ Department of Plant Biology, carried out a series of experiments on sunflowers in the field, in pots outdoors and in indoor growth chambers.
By staking plants so that they could not move, Harmer showed that he could destroy their ability to track the sun. He also noticed that sunflowers prevented from moving were not as tough and leafy as those that were free to move. When plants were moved indoor with a settled overhead light, they continued to swing back and forth for a few days.
The indoor plants did start tracking the “sun” again when the apparent source of lighting was moved across the room. The plants could reliably track the movement and return at night when the artificial day was close to a 24-hour cycle, but not when it was closer to 30 hours.
When sunflowers track the sun, the east sides of their stems grew more rapidly than the west sides. At night, the west sides grew faster as the stem swung the other way. The team identified a number of genes that were expressed at higher levels on the sunward side of the plant during the day, or on the other side at night. A plant growth-regulating hormone, called auxin, appears to be a key driver.
The “dance” to the sun cycle obviously slows when the sunflower matures and its flowers open up. At that point, the plants stop moving during the day and settle down facing the sun in the east.
“Bees like warm flowers.” Harmer said, adding that the bees are cold-blooded, so landing on a warm flower saves them energy and perhaps feels really good.
“The morning warmth changes the flowers in a way to make them more appealing to insects, perhaps causing them to release more attractive scents earlier in the day.” he said. “We’re currently testing this idea.”
1. Why did Harmer do the experiment on sunflowers?| A．To see how sunflowers grow up. |
| B．To show what sunflowers’ genes are. |
| C．To study why sunflowers track the sun. |
| D．To check if sunflowers swing in cloudy days. |
| A．Tracking. | B．Fastening. |
| C．Preserving. | D．Presenting. |
| A．They won’t grow well. |
| B．They will grow faster than usual. |
| C．They won’t swing back though set free. |
| D．They will produce a number of new genes. |
| A．They would swing as usual. |
| B．They would move back and forth. |
| C．They would stop turning. |
| D．They would track the sun. |
| A．on cold sunflowers | B．in the circle of flowers |
| C．on warm sunflowers | D．on the mature sunflowers |
9 . Participants in an online forum were asked whether space exploration was worthwhile. Here are some of the comments they posted:
Planet Girl 7.17 pm
Our world is damaged by war, hunger and poverty. Billions of people struggle just to survive from day to day. Meanwhile the US space agency has US $16 billion to play with every year. We must deal with the world’s urgent problems. Space exploration is a luxury we cannot afford.
Dragon 7.18 pm
That $16 billion spent on space is nothing compared to the $370 billion spent on the military.
JJ 7.20 pm
Exploring space is investing in the future. Everyone knows we’re running out of resources. There’s massive over-population too. The solar system has heaps of resources we can use for mining, and maybe we can explore other planets. If we don’t do it now, it might be too late.
Planet Girl 7.22 pm
We have to settle problems of over-population and resource consuming here on Earth, instead of chasing science fiction dreams. Otherwise we will just export our unsustainable lifestyle to another planet. We might consume the whole universe!!
JJ 7.23 pm
Space explorers rock! They know what they are in for, and they still do it anyway. That’s what I call courage! We humans have always struggled to expand our horizons. We want to know what else is out there. Who knows, maybe we’ll discover the solution to all our problems out there!
Switched-on 7.25 pm
Space exploration has had a huge effect on our lives. Want to talk to someone halfway around the world? Sure. Get the weather forecast? Coming right up. Check exactly where you are? Absolutely. It’s all possible, thanks to satellite technology, global positioning systems, and the rest. If there was no space exploration, we’d be sitting around in the dark, not talking online!
Penny 7.50 pm
Satellites are launched by private companies — for profit. Planet Earth doesn’t always benefit. Exploring remote planets certainly does not contribute to life on Earth.
1. The underlined sentence (Par.2) means that space exploration is_________.| A．expensive but necessary |
| B．expensive and unnecessary |
| C．very important but too expensive |
| D．not very important but affordable |
| A．The cost of space exploration is too much. |
| B．Planet Girl’s idea is acceptable. |
| C．Space exploration is worthwhile. |
| D．The military is more useful than space exploration. |
| A．He agrees that space exploration costs too much. |
| B．He does not know how much space exploration costs. |
| C．He thinks space exploration is worthwhile, whatever the cost. |
| D．He knows Planet Girl is wrong about the cost of space exploration. |
| A．Its cost to the community. |
| B．Its effect on environment. |
| C．Its contribution to technology in everyday life. |
| D．Its capacity to serve people in their everyday life. |
| A．Living on other planets is a real possibility. |
| B．Spending money on war is unnecessary. |
| C．Space exploration encourages creativity. |
| D．Earth’s resources are fast disappearing. |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology. With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cell, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometimes between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs (The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones).
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.
1. What are the present major killers according to the writer? (No more than 10 words)2. What does the underlined word in the 1st paragraph “revolution” mean? (No more than 5 words)
3. How can human live longer in the future? (No more than 10 words)
4. Why are scientists sure that the life of cells can not go much beyond 120 years?(No more than 20 words)
5. If human can live longer in the future, do you think it is bad or good for the society?(No more than 20 words)
