1 . The Upside to Being Outside

Research shows that being in nature makes people feel good, whether they’re roughing it in the wilderness for days or just hanging out at a local park for a while. One study was conducted in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Researchers found that most participants’ mood and well-being improved significantly when they spent time in urban parks, even though the average visit was only around half an hour.

    1     For example, scientists in the United Kingdom studied the impact of the “30 Days Wild” campaign. It challenged people to interact with nature for 30 days by enjoying earthy activities like feeding birds and planting flowers. Participants were measurably happier and healthier throughout the challenge…and for months afterwards, too.

How does nature boost people’s happiness? Scientists say that spending time in natural settings reduces stress and anxiety, which benefits mental and physical health. Research shows our brains are more relaxed in natural settings. So, kicking back in a park is a bit like treating your mind to a restful mini vacation.

To most people, it’s not news that nature can be calming. But multiple studies have found that spending time in nature also has some more surprising benefits, like improving creativity and problem-solving.     2     Another found that exposure to nature helped people score better on tests. That’s more proof that going outside is a smart move!

What accounts for the connection with cognition and creativity? It could be that a good dose of nature acts as a cure to information overload. Everyday life involves a lot of multitasking. Some scientists theorize that spending time in nature enables our brains to rest and recover from mental tiredness.     3    

Naturally, scientific studies don’t cover everything that’s great about the great outdoors.     4     From recreation and exercise to happiness and creativity, there are lots of upsides to getting outside.

A．One study revealed that people were better at figuring out puzzles after a four-day camping trip.

B．According to many scientific studies, there’s a good chance it’ll make you happier, healthier, and more creative.

C．What’s more, the lift people get from nature is long lasting.

D．Lots of people enjoy fun activities outside, like swimming, riding bikes, or climbing trees.

E．When the only light you’ve seen all day is the glow of a screen, it might be a good idea to switch it off.

F．This means that whether you’re studying or playing video games, heading outside to give your brain a break might help you get to the next level.

2 . Whether it’s a jungle hut or a high-rise apartment, your home is covered in bacteria. Now, new research from the Amazon suggests city residents might want to open a window.

Scientists traveled from remote villages in Peru to a large Brazilian city to begin tracking the effects of urbanization on the diversity of bacteria in people’s homes. It’s a small first step —understanding how different environmental bugs help shape what is called our microbiome, the trillions of bacteria that share our bodies and play a critical role in our health.

“Very little is known about the microbes of the built environment,” said microbiologist Dominguez-Bello, who led the pilot study. Her team found that as people living in the Amazon rainforest become more urbanized, the kinds of bacteria in their homes change from the bugs mostly found in nature to those that typically live on people.

In fact, in city residence, the researchers could tell just by the microbial（ 微生物的） fingerprints of the walls that “this is a kitchen or this is a bathroom or this is a living room. That’s amazing,” Dominguez-Bello said. As she puts it, “the walls talk.”

Despite fewer occupants, the more urbanized a residence, the more human bacteria lived on its walls and floors, the researchers reported. In Manaus, the contemporary Brazilian city, a collection of microbes normally found in the mouth and in the gut (肠) were the most important in telling rooms apart. The more crowded jungle and rural homes nonetheless were filled with more bacteria commonly found in soil and water than with human microbes.

Walls were acting as traps as people drop bacteria, compared with the less urban homes open to air circulation, the team reported. Dominguez-Bello was so struck by the findings that she insisted the windows in her New York office be unsealed so she could open them.

She next will compare the microbiomes of the residents with their homes. There’s a balancing act, she acknowledged: Microbiome theories aside, these rural populations are exposed to their own set of infectious threats, including no screens to keep out disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Still, the findings reflect research in U.S. homes and hospitals about the role of air circulation, said microbiologist Jack Gilbert of Chicago, who wasn’t involved in the study. His own housing study was able to match which family lived in different locations by the bacteria they get rid of inside. “Our modern homes are set up perfectly for studying microbes,” he said.

1. What did Dominguez-Bello mean by “That’s amazing. The walls talk.”?

A．Bacteria live in the residence and play a critical role in our health.

B．Rooms could be identified based on the human bacteria on the walls.

C．Families could be matched with their houses with the bacteria living on them.

D．Various species of bacteria are most common on the walls of bathrooms.

2. We can infer from the passage that __________.

A．Dominguez-Bello’s study may influence the way homes are designed and built

B．urbanization may be delayed due to the newly-discovered microbial communities

C．microbes from urban house may be introduced into the Amazon rainforest

D．a fund will be created for the rural homes in Peru and Brazil to be rebuilt

3. Which of the following is a statement of opinion?

A．Regular inspection of the air circulation system is the most important task within a hospital.

B．Urban homes have more human bacteria on the walls and floors than those in rural settings.

C．The balance of good and harmful bacteria depends on things like environmental exposure.

D．Jungle huts were found to contain bacteria typically found in water and soil.

4. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?

A．Village Homes Becoming More Popular

B．New York Windows Opened at Last

C．Walls of a Home May Affect Your Health

D．The Microscopic Residents in Your Home

3 . Of Special Interest to Freshman

Freshman Seminars are small classes just for freshmen, with some of York’s most distinguished faculty members. Some seminars provide an introduction to a particular field of study; others take an interdisciplinary (跨学科的) approach to a variety of topics. All seminars provided a friendly environment for developing relationships with faculty members and peers.	STARS (Science, Technology, and Research Scholars) provides undergraduates of every year with an opportunity to combine research, course-based study, and development of mentorship skills. The program offers research opportunities and support to students historically underrepresented in the fields of natural science and quantitative reasoning, such as racial and ethnic minorities, women, and the physically challenged. More than 100 students each year participate in STARS, during the academic year or over the summer months.
Directed Studies is a selective freshman interdisciplinary program focusing on Western civilization that includes three yearlong courses —literature, philosophy, and historical and political thought — in which students read the foundational works of the Western tradition.	Perspectives on Science and Engineering is a lecture and discussion course for about 75 selected freshmen who have exceptionally strong backgrounds in science or mathematics. The yearlong course explores a broad range of topics, exposes students to questions at the frontiers of science, and connects the first-year students to York’s Scientific community.
Academic Advising is a collective effort by the residential colleges, academic departments and various offices connected to York University Dean’s office. Students’ primary academic advisors are their residential college deans, to whom they may always turn for academic and personal advice. The deans live in residential colleges and supervise the advising networks in the college. Students also have a freshman advisor who is a York faculty member or administrator affiliated with their advisees’ residential college. Each academic department has a director of undergraduate studies (DUS) who can discuss with students the department’s course offerings and requirements for majors.	Science and Engineering Undergraduate Research York is one of the world’s foremost research universities. Independent engineering research and design projects and scientific research are an essential part of undergraduate science education at York. Science students can begin conducting original research as early as the freshman year. Ninety-five percent of undergraduate science majors engaged in research with faculty mentors.

1. An African female freshman seeking opportunities of research is most likely to choose _____.

A．Freshman Seminars	B．Directed Studies
C．STARS	D．Perspectives on Science and Engineering

2. In which program may the science majors be guided to read Shakespeare’s works?

A．Academic Advising.

B．Directed Studies.

C．STARS.

D．Freshman Seminars.

3. Which freshman may have priority to attend Perspectives on Science and Engineering?

A．The one who has already got a novel published.

B．A medalist of the International Mathematical Olympiad.

C．The one who has designed an original engineering project.

D．An applicant for York’s Scientific Community.

4. Which of the following is TRUE about the residential colleges?

A．Deans of most academic departments live with students there.

B．Directors of undergraduate studies of most majors work together there.

C．The college deans serve as the principal figures in an advising network.

D．The college deans engage in scientific research with selected freshmen.

4 . A Day in My Wheel Chair

Alex Johnson was born with a rare disorder and got his first wheelchair when he was 7 years old. When he was 11, he arranged to get a bunch of borrowed wheelchairs and then invited his teachers and fellow students to spend a day in them.

Dozens of volunteers quickly learned how complicated it was for Alex to get around the school. Balancing a lunch tray while also rolling down the cafeteria line? Super tricky. Those who participated also learned about the aches and pains Alex struggles with daily. There’s also the arduous, if not impossible, task of rolling a manual wheelchair up and down slopes.

Doors are the worst, they said, because they’re heavy and difficult to pull open from a rolling chair. And although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifies that doorways need to be wide enough to allow a wheelchair and the person’s hands to pass through safely, but many doors in older buildings are just too narrow.

But making the world more accessible for wheelchair users is a public policy issue controlled by government officials, so Alex recently challenged the Tennessee House of Representatives to spend a day in wheelchairs. And 10 men and women took him up on it! For a full day, they worked at their desks and attended all their regular meetings in wheelchairs. The lawmakers had the same eye-opening experiences that Alex’s school pals had.

State Representative Clark Boyd said, “I expected it to be difficult, but I had no idea how frustrating it could be to just simply get around.”

Thanks to comparable wheelchair challenges around the world, more lawmakers are getting the opportunity to learn more about what it’s like for the millions of people living with a mobility disability. “My hope is that through my challenge we can make the world more accessible,” Alex said. “Together, we can change the world, one challenge at a time.”

1. In what way were the students’ experiences of spending a day in wheelchairs and the lawmakers’ experiences similar?

A．Gaining a better understanding of what life is like for disabled people.

B．Learning that making the world more accessible is government officials’ work.

C．Learning how tiring it is to roll a wheelchair to move around the school building.

D．Understanding what it’s like for Alex to balance a lunch tray while in a wheelchair.

2. In paragraph 3, the word “arduous” is closest in the meaning to “_________”.

A．compulsory

B．fruitless

C．ridiculous

D．challenging

3. Why did the writer quote Clark Boyd’s remark?

A．To criticize the ADA for the narrow doors in buildings.

B．To show that Clark felt sympathy for wheelchair users.

C．To demonstrate that he had decided to change the public policy issues.

D．To convince the reader that lawmakers can make the world more accessible.

5 . Many people learn at an early age to associate the color red with danger. So might it make sense to print medication   ________ in red ink? And since the color blue is known to call to mind the freedom of open skies, might it help artists to   ________ in a studio painted in that color? According to new research into how the brain reacts to ________ , the answer to both of these questions is yes. The study revealed that the color red seems to improve a subject’s attention to ________ , while blue appears to stimulate creativity—all without the subject realizing that his or her brain is being influenced.

“People are not ________ this effect at all,” marveled the study’s lead researcher Juliet Zhu, who studies the effects of environmental cues on behavior. To study the brain’s response to specific colors, Zhu’s team administered a series of   ________ tests to college students. For most of the tests, the students were placed in front of a computer screen that was colored either red or blue.

The researchers found that when the screen was red, subjects performed better on detail-oriented tasks. In one test,   ________ , students were asked to memorize a list of words. Zhu found that students who studied the list displayed on a red screen were able to recall more words than students who studied the list on a ________ screen.

In other tests, creative abilities seemed to be ________ by looking at the color blue. For instance, the students were asked to brainstorm potential uses for bricks. Students sitting in front of blue screens tended to come up with ideas that were   ________ , such as “make a paperweight” and “build a pet scratching post.” Students sitting in front of a red screen, on the other hand, were more likely to list ________ uses for bricks, such as “build a house.”

Researchers concluded from the tests that seeing red causes people to take the extra time to think ________ when performing detail-oriented tasks, such as ________ , proofreading— and, of course, reading those all-important warning labels. ________ most people learn early in their development that red signifies potential danger, Zhu said, seeing red perhaps helps people to slow down in order to perform at their best in a potentially risky situation. Seeing blue, on the other hand, produces images of the sky, freedom and peace. Perhaps these images, researchers supposed, ________ feelings. “It’s really this learned association with these colors that drives these different motivations,” Zhu said.

1.

A．instructions

B．symptoms

C．warnings

D．treatments

2.

A．create

B．relax

C．decorate

D．design

3.

A．skies

B．medication

C．colors

D．paint

4.

A．danger

B．detail

C．emotions

D．vigor

5.

A．distracted by

B．aware of

C．content with

D．curious about

6.

A．cognitive

B．intelligence

C．mental

D．memory

7.

A．on one hand

B．at the same time

C．for example

D．that is

8.

A．grey

B．blue

C．green

D．white

9.

A．proven

B．acquired

C．recognized

D．enhanced

10.

A．more abstract

B．more positive

C．more innovative

D．more valuable

11.

A．practical

B．academic

C．economical

D．profitable

12.

A．critically

B．logically

C．carefully

D．independently

13.

A．painting

B．memorizing

C．designing

D．brainstorming

14.

A．Unless

B．When

C．Since

D．Though

15.

A．turn up

B．stir up

C．set off

D．give off

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

A. accessible        B. beats       C. bridges       D. device       E. fundamentally       F. habitually G. kneels            H. partial        I. powerful       J. showcases        K. stage

Feeling the Dance

Lights move in time to the rhythmic beat issuing from a floor speaker as hip-hop performer Shaheem Sanchez gets ready. Sanchez, who is deaf,     1     beside the speaker and places his hand on top of it, allowing the sound waves to course through his body. His head nods as he counts the     2     , catching the rhythm. Then rising, his body moves in so perfect time to the music that dancer and music unite in a single artistic expression. In this moment, art     3     the gap between two worlds: the deaf and the hearing.

Sanchez is one of a growing number of professional dancers with full or     4     hearing loss, working to redefine what it means to experience music and, in a larger sense, communicate with others.

Antoine Hunter is another artist who is inspiring a new generation of dancers to take the     5     . As the director of the Urban Jazz Company in San Francisco, Hunter experienced the way that dance could help people better understand each other, which     6     altered his life.

But there were few opportunities for a black deaf dancer when Hunter was first finding his feet. He had to create a world in which he could perform. Now he’s sharing it with others, both in his studio and through the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. The event     7     the talents of deaf and hard of hearing people from around the world.

To get more people moving, Hunter ensures that his dance company is fully     8     to students of all abilities. There are interpreters for deaf and blind students, and a(n)     9     that turns sound waves into vibrations (震动). These vibrations travel across the floor so dancers can feel the music in their feet.

All around the world, deaf dancers are turning in     10     performances. Digital media is not only making these performances more visible, but also providing deaf dancers more opportunities to show off their talents. Artists like Sanchez upload performances to online platforms, where they get thousands of views. This allows deaf artists to express themselves to a larger audience.

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The Last Generation

Rising sea levels threaten the very existence of the Pacific island nations. And young people     1     families have deep roots on the islands are starting to wonder if they will be the last generation. But the islanders’ determination is as strong as their connection to their home.

The nations of the Pacific Islands recognize that     2     it comes to climate change, they are all in the same boat. Working together, they set about     3     (look) for ways to take charge and address the problem. There’s one feature of island life that gives these small nations an opportunity to make a big difference. People on islands rely on most of the things     4     (deliver) by ships, and the environmental impact     5     the marine transportation is enormous.

    6     (realize) it was up to them to come up with solutions in their own backyards (bays and harbors), Pacific islanders came up with a plan. At the United Nations Climate Action Summit in 2019, the governments of Fiji and the Marshall Islands announced the Pacific Blue Shipping Partnership, which promises a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions from shipping by 2030     7     wants to achieve zero-carbon shipping by 2050.

They plan to adopt some really cool, environmentally friendly, carbon-free technologies, including solar-powered ships and hydrogen fuel cells. Through the partnership and their efforts     8     (assemble) a fleet (舰队) of these greener ships, Pacific island nations are leading the world by example. They’re hoping their move     9     start a wave of change in the shipping industry.

Sea levels are rising, but hopes aren’t sinking in the Pacific islands, where people are fighting for life and land. The citizens of these island nations     10     (inspire) to work together so they all can survive and develop in their homelands for generations to come.

8 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。1.

A．“Internet of Everything” enables smarter food labels.

B．Milk bottles will be installed with computer smarts.

C．Computers and smartphones are equipped with smart chips.

D．Flexible chips for everything have been developed currently.

2.

A．The way they are produced will be traced.

B．The user’s physical health will be monitored.

C．The use-by date will be changed remotely.

D．Their prices will be raised accordingly.

3.

A．Lack of profits.	B．Technological problem.
C．Protection of data.	D．Lack of enthusiasm.

9 . 听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。1.

A．The reason why the alligator ( 短吻鳄 ) was called Saturn.

B．The delivery of Saturn to Berlin as a gift.

C．The death of a popular alligator.

D．The mysterious survival of Saturn.

2.

A．3 years.

B．10 years.

C．74 years.

D．84 years.

3.

A．He was once part of Hitler’s personal collection.

B．He loved being massaged with a brush by his keepers.

C．He was the only survivor of the Berlin Zoo’s aquarium.

D．He was secretly protected by British soldiers during WWII.

10 .

A．An act of generosity.	B．A charitable organization.
C．A large amount of money.	D．Migrant children’s current situation.