1 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulties than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth.”

According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.

The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion. Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”

In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

1. What does the discovery show about Westerners?

A．They pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth.

B．They consider facial expressions universally reliable.

C．They observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways.

D．They have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions.

2. What were the people asked to do in the study?

A．To get their faces impressive.	B．To make a face at each other.
C．To classify some face pictures.	D．To observe the researchers’ faces.

3. In companion with Westerners, what are Easterners likely to do?

A．They do translation more successfully.	B．They study the mouth more frequently.
C．They examine the eyes more attentively.	D．They read facial expressions more correctly.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul	B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions
C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills	D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding

2 . By now, we are all aware that social media has had a tremendous influence on our culture, in business, on the world-at-large. Social media websites revolutionized the way people communicate and socialize on the Web. However, aside from seeing your friend’s new baby on Facebook, or reading about Justin Bieber’s latest conflict with the law on Twitter, what are some of the real influences?

Social networks offer the opportunity for people to re-connect with their old friends and acquaintances, make new friends, share ideas and pictures, and many other activities. Users can keep pace with the latest global and local developments, and participate in campaigns and activities of their choices. Professionals use social media sites like LinkedIn to enhance their career and business development. Students can work together with their peers to improve their academic and communication skills.

Unfortunately, there are a few downsides too to social networking. If you are not careful, immoral people can target you for cyber bullying and disturbance on social sites. School children, young girls, and women can fall victim to online attacks which can create tension and suffering. If you are a victim of cyber bullying, do not take it lying down, but try to take appropriate legal action against the attacker.

Many companies have blocked social networks as addicted employees can distract themselves on such sites, instead of focusing on work. In fact, studies show that British companies have lost billions of dollars per year in productivity because of social media addiction among employees.

Also, what you carelessly post on the Internet can come back to trouble you. Revealing (泄露) personal information on social sites can make users vulnerable (易受伤害的) to crimes like identity theft, stalking, etc. Many companies perform a background check on the Internet before hiring an employee. If a potential employee has posted something embarrassing on social media, it can greatly affect their chances of getting the job. The same holds true for our relationships too, as our loved ones and friends may get to know if we post something undesirable on social networks.

Social media has its advantages and drawbacks as each coin has two sides. It is up to each user to use social sites wisely to enhance their professional and social life, and exercise caution to ensure they do not fall victim to online dangers.

1. Paragraph 2 mainly shows that social networks ________.

A．help students finish their homework	B．offer professionals good chances
C．benefit users in various ways	D．guide users to make right choices

2. Faced with problems caused by social media, some companies ________.

A．forbid the use of social networks during work time

B．avoid posting embarrassing information

C．refuse to hire potential addicted employees

D．take legal action against the attackers

3. The main purpose of this passage is to ________.

A．share experiences in using social media	B．remind people to wisely use social media
C．provide some advice on social problems	D．raise public awareness of social problems

4. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3 . Painting

The art of creating pictures using colors, shapes and lines is called painting. Museums and galleries show the paintings of professional artists. But painting is also a popular form of entertainment and creative expression.

    1     Experienced painters usually use a brush to apply oil paints to a canvas cloth surface. Young painters usually use watercolors on pieces of paper. Very young children may use finger-paints to create paintings.

Painters can use their art to express devotion to a religion, to tell a story, to express feelings and ideas, or simply to present a pleasing picture. Religious paintings often show a god or a scene from a sacred text. Other common subjects have been famous legends and events in history, as well as scenes from daily life. Artists also paint portraits (肖像), or pictures of people.     2     All of these types of paintings show the human figure in some way.

Some kinds of paintings do not focus on people. In landscape (风景) paintings, the focus is on scenes from nature. Artists also paint still objects such as fruit and vegetables.     3     Some artists communicate their ideas through pictures that do not represent any objects.

    4     Paintings dating back 15,000 years have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain.

    5     Samples of painted pottery (陶器) from at least 5,000 years ago have been found in China and Iran. The ancient Egyptians decorated their temples with beautiful paintings. People in ancient Greece painted on decorative objects such as vases in addition to the walls of temples.

A．These works are called still lives.

B．These works can communicate a special feeling.

C．Humans have been making paintings for thousands of years.

D．People of all ages create pictures using a variety of materials.

E．Cave paintings generally show animals that early humans hunted.

F．The design of a painting is the plan of its lines, shapes and colors.

G．Sometimes artists make portraits of themselves, which are called self-portraits.

4 . Unbelievable Stories of Animals Acting Just Like Humans

Horses are picky eaters

Horses have an even better sense of smell than humans do. When horses raise their noses and open their nostrils (鼻孔), their nervous system allows them to sense smells we can’t sense. This might explain why they refuse dirty water and carefully move around meadows, eating only the tastiest grasses, experts say.

Whale says thanks

In 2018, a whale expert spotted a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net and spent an hour freeing it. Afterward, in an hour-long display of thanks, the whale swam near their boat and leaped into the air about 40 times.

Pandas like to be naughty

Is there anything more lovely than a baby panda, except maybe a human baby? In fact, baby pandas sometimes behave like human babies. They sleep in the same positions and value their thumbs. Pandas are shy by nature for its shy behaviors such as covering its face with a paw or ducking its head when confronted by a stranger.

A cat honors its owner

Paper towels, and a plastic cup are just a few of the gifts that Toldo, a devoted three-year-old gray-and-white cat, has placed on his former owner Iozzelli Renzo’s grave every day since the man died in September 2018. Renzo adopted Toldo from a shelter when the cat was three months old, and the two formed an inseparable bond. After Renzo passed away, Toldo followed the coffin to the cemetery, and now “stands guard” the grave for hours at a time.

1. What can horses do to pick delicious grasses?

A．Feel them.

B．Taste them.

C．Smell them.

D．Observe them.

2. What do the whale and the cat have in common according to the passage?

A．They are clever.

B．They have a grateful heart.

C．They are active and lovely.

D．They have a good sense of smell.

3. Which of the following acts like a human baby according to the passage?

A．The whale

B．The cat.

C．The horse.

D．The panda.

5 . Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick, just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him, his head warm on Bertie’s feet, when Father cleared his throat and began, “You’ll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We’ve found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England.”

His heart filled with a terrible fear, all Bertie could think of was his white lion. “But the lion,” he cried, “What about the lion?”

“I’m afraid there’s something else I have to tell you,” his father said. Looking across at Bertie’s mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus owner from France, who was over in Africa looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.

“No! You can’t send him to a circus!” said Bertie. “He’ll be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never would be. And they will come to see him and laugh at him. He’d rather die. Any animal would!” But as he looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.

Bertie felt completely betrayed. He waited until he heard his father’s deep breathing next door. With his white lion at his heels, he crept downstairs in his pyjamas, took down his father’s rifle from the rack and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion’s neck. The time had come. “Be wild now,” he whispered. “You’ve got to be wild. Don’t ever come home. All my life I’ll think of you, I promise I will.” He buried his head in the lion’s neck. Then, Bertie clambered down off the hill and walked away.

When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then he stood up, yawned, stretched, and sprang down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.

There was only one thing left to do. Tears filling his eyes and his mouth, he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired over the lion’s head.

1. Bertie’s mother was sad probably because she________.

A．had lied about her good health condition	B．had decided to send Bertie to a new school
C．knew selling the lion would upset Bertie	D．knew Bertie would hate to go to England

2. The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to________.

A．some audience

B．other animals

C．Bertie’s friends

D．circus’s owners

3. In the last paragraph, the boy lifted the rifle at the lion to________.

A．kill the lion out of helplessness	B．protect himself from being chased
C．threaten the lion back to the wild	D．show his anger towards his father

4. The passage intends to show that________.

A．circuses are the last places for animals to live

B．animals belonging to the wild should be set free

C．parents are sometimes cruel to their children

D．people and animals can be faithful to each other

6 . Blind Olympic Athletes Show the Universal Nature

Tune into any sports coverage on TV, and you will see many athletes proudly raise their arms and heads in victory, while a much larger number hang their shoulders and necks in defeat. Studies have revealed why—they are universal behaviours, performed by humans in response to success and failure.

The discovery came from Jessica Tracy from the University of British Columbia and David Matsumoto from San Francisco State University, who wanted to see how people showed feelings of pride and shame.     1     They tried to find a large group of people, and it was critically important that some of these subjects had never seen other people reacting to success or failure before.

The answer was Athens, during the 2004 Olympic Games. Its sister competition—the Paralympics—included many athletes who were born blind.     2     Working with a professional photographer, Tracy and Matsumoto compared the body language of 108 competitors, 41 of whom had lost their sight, and 12 of whom were blind from birth. The photographer repeatedly took pictures of these athletes after their competitions, and the researchers carefully recorded the positions of their heads, arms and bodies.     3     The winners tilted their heads up, smiled, lifted their arms and puffed out their chests, while shoulders bent forward and narrowed chests were the marks of losers.

    4     Men and women who have never seen other people behave in these ways still make exactly the same movements. And while it’s possible that parents may have taught their blind children some of these actions, it’s very unlikely that they could have taught them all—particularly the expansion or narrowing of the chest.

These actions were also remarkably consistent between contestants from every part of the world. Tracy and Matsumoto argue that pride and shame deserve a place alongside other primary emotions like happiness, fear and surprise.     5    

A．Analyzing the data, they found that the sighted and sightless athletes behaved in almost exactly the same ways.

B．In fact, the culture was found to have only a very small effect on their body language.

C．In particular, they wanted to know whether these expressions were culturally determined and learned through observation.

D．The athletes’ behaviours give strong evidence that they have had the actions naturally since birth.

E．The result suggested that the athletes were showing their pride based on careful observation.

F．Therefore, they could not have witnessed how other people reacted to winning and losing.

G．They are inborn behaviours and are accompanied by their own distinct sets of actions.

7 . Love the way you walk

Listen carefully to the footsteps in the family home, and you can probably work out who is walking about. The features most commonly used to identify people are faces, voices and fingerprints. But the way they walk is also a giveaway.

Researchers have used video cameras and computers to analyze people’s gaits, and are now quite good at it. But translating such knowledge into a practical identification system can be tricky.   Cameras are often visible, are difficult to set up, require good lighting and may have their view blocked by other people. A team led by Dr. Ozanyan and Dr. Scully have been looking for a better way to recognize gait. Their answer: pressure-sensitive mats.

Such mats are nothing new. They have been a part of security system. But Ozanyan and Scully use a complicated version that can record the amount of pressure applied in different paces as someone walks across it. These measurements form a pattern unique to the walker. The researchers turned to an artificial-intelligence system to recognize such patterns, and it seemed to work. In a study in 2018, they tested the system on a database of footsteps of 127 people. They found its error rate in identifying who was a mere 0. 7%. And Scully says even without a database of footsteps to work with, the system can determine some’s sex and, with reasonable accuracy, a subject’s age.

One application of the mat-based gait-recognition system might be in health care, particularly for the elderly. A mat placed in a nursing home or an old person’s own residence could monitor changes in an individual’s gait that indicate certain illnesses. That would provide early warning of someone being at greater risk of falling over.

Gait analysis might also be used as a security measure in the workplace, monitoring access to restricted areas, such as parts of military bases, server farms or laboratories dealing with dangerous materials.

Perhaps the most interesting use of the mats, though, would be in public places, such as airports. For that to work, the footsteps of those to be recognized would need to have been stores in a database, which would be harder to arrange than the collection of photographs and fingerprints that existing airport security systems rely on. Many aircrew or preregistered frequent flyers would welcome anything that speeded up one of the most tiresome modern travel.

1. What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?

A．Research equipment	B．Research findings.
C．Research assumptions(假设)	D．Research background.

2. According to Paragraph 3, the mat is used to ________ .

A．collect data

B．ensure safety

C．determine age

D．analyse pressure

3. The gait-recognition system might be applied to________.

A．monitor security work progress	B．find potential health problems
C．keep track of travelling frequency	D．warn passengers of possible dangers

4. The main purpose of the passage is to ________.

A．compare and educate	B．examine and assess(评估)
C．discuss and persuade	D．explain and inform

8 . If you’ve ever taken a class in drawing, painting or pottery and in spite of your best effort, couldn’t make the final result look anything like the model shown, you may have thought, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”

According to some scientists, who for the past 20 years have put the elusive (难以解释的) subject of creativity through the rigors (严谨) of research, you are underestimating yourself. Da Vinci you may never be, but when it comes to creativity, we are all somewhat blessed (享有). It’s learning to encourage this unique tool of extraordinary productivity, and then applying it in everything you do, that counts to tell you from figures like Da Vinci.

“Even if we don’t have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story, the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all,” says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention.

Most people believe the area of creativity has been awarded to those thought to have special talent. We look upon these “creative geniuses,” as we often call them, with great respect and a bit of envy. Their abilities, most people believe, ore bestowed (给予) by good genes, or, as if in Greek mythology (神话), from some kind of divine (天赐的) inspiration.

There is no doubt that the world is never short of highly talented and creative people. They are masters of their trades and stand heads-and-shoulders above commoners, making new pathways for others to follow, and providing greater context and understanding of our world. It could be said that without creativity humanity would not evolve so rapidly.

But like a publicly recognized creative baseball player who improves his skill through years of continuous training, foregoing other pursuits for the only passion, people who show the slightest unwillingness for tough labor may finally find their boasted (自夸的) ability disappear.

After closely studying 91 creative and influential people, including novelists, playwrights, composers, musicians and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that no one would ignore the sweat they shed (流淌) and their almost crazy willingness to follow their creative efforts to the very end, wherever that may be. These are the very things we all can master, so long as we’d like to.

1. It’s widely believed that creativity comes from ______.

A．good training people receive from artistic classes	B．the inborn genes or relevant gifts.
C．the tool we learn from masters like Da Vinci	D．certain Greek historical textbooks

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Common people rather than creative ones lead in various professions.

B．People’s admiration of geniuses makes humanity develop quickly.

C．The field of baseball requires more gifts than hard work.

D．The building of creativity lies in devotion and effort.

3. The underlined word foregoing is closest in meaning to ______.

A．giving up

B．counting on

C．referring to

D．turning to

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．How ordinary people and scientists view things differently.

B．The reasons for the development of various trades and humanity.

C．People’s misunderstanding of creativity and its true nature.

D．Ordinary people’s unwillingness to follow the examples of creative ones.

9 . It’s a warm June afternoon, and in a group of bushes and trees, a bird sings. A small insect climbs over a leaf. The Muziekplein forest, next to an 18-story building and a railway line, is about the size of a basketball court; before it was planted in 2018, the area was a parking place. The forest is one of seven such extremely small forests in the Dutch city of Utrecht, and 144 across the Netherlands. By the end of this year, according to IVN Nature Education, the organization proposing the country’s initiative, there will be 200.

Since the first forest was planted in the Netherlands in 2015, the concept has become popular. Daan Bleichrodt, who launched IVN’s Tiny Forest initiative with the goal of making it easier for children to get into and connect with nature, said that he thinks it is popular because people are becoming more aware of major environmental challenges. It’s a very practical way to do something positive in the light of climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Jeroen Schenkels, a senior adviser for the city of Utrecht on green planning, said he sees the mini-forests as nature-based approaches that are able to help the city weather heat waves and improve water retention (保持). But one of the biggest interests is social. “One of the most important things is that they give people the opportunity to be involved in nature in the neighbourhood,” Schenkels said.

Between 2018 and 2020, 40 different plant and animal groups and 121 total animal species were found in the Muziekplein forest alone. According to Wageningen University researchers, across the 11 tiny forests in their study, volunteers observed 636 animal species. They also identified 298 plant species in addition to the original species planted in the plots. Maintenance of the forests occasionally involves removing aggressive weeds, but in general new plant species, such as wildflowers that appear, are allowed to grow.

1. What is special about the Muziekplein forest?

A．It is newly planted.	B．It sits in an urban area.
C．It grows along a railway.	D．It is shaped like a basketball court.

2. What’s the purpose of the Tiny Forest initiative?

A．To make people realize environmental challenges.

B．To make nature more accessible to children.

C．To increase the Netherlands’ biodiversity.

D．To call for action on climate change.

3. What does paragraph 3 focus on?

A．Benefits of mini-forests in cities.	B．Ways to keep neighborhoods green.
C．Inspiration for planting forests in cities.	D．Importance of being exposed to nature.

4. How does the author state the forests’ effect on biodiversity?

A．By listing data.	B．By giving examples.
C．By doing experiments.	D．By making comparisons.

10 .

NASA will crash a spacecraft into an asteroid (小行星) to try to change its orbit, attempting to prevent humans going the same way as the dinosaurs.

Earth is constantly being disturbed by small pieces of debris (碎片), but they usually burn up or break up long before they hit the ground. Once in a while, however, something large enough to do significant damage makes impact. About 66 million years ago, one such crash is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Someday, something similar could end human beings-unless we can find a way to tackle it.

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission is the first attempt to test if such asteroid redirection is a realistic strategy: investigating whether a spacecraft can autonomously reach a target asteroid and intentionally crash into it, as well as measuring the amount of redirection. “If it works, it would be a big deal, because it would prove that we have the technical capability of protecting ourselves,” said Jay Tate, the director of the National Near Earth Object Information Center.

The 610kg Dart spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at the target—the Didymos system-a harmless pair of asteroids consisting of a 163-metre “moonlet” asteroid called Dimorphos that orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos (Greek for “twin”). The plan is to crash the spacecraft into Dimorphos when the asteroid system is at its closest to Earth-about 6.8 million miles away.

About 10 days before the impact, a miniaturized satellite called LiciaCube will separate from the main spacecraft, enabling images of the impact to be relayed back to Earth. Combined with observations from ground-based telescopes, and an onboard camera that will record the final moments before the crash, these recordings will enable scientists to calculate the degree to which the impact has changed Dimorphos’s orbit. The expectation is that it will change the speed of the smaller asteroid by approximately 1% and reduce its orbit around the larger asteroid.

Then, in November 2024, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will visit the Didymos system and conduct a further close-up analysis of the consequences of this snooker (斯诺克) game, recording details such as the precise makeup and internal structure of Dimorphos, and the size and shape of the hole left by Dart. Such details are vital for transforming asteroid redirection into a repeatable technique.

Even then, it is impossible that any single redirection strategy would be enough. “The problem is that no two asteroids or comets are alike, and how you redirect one depends on a huge number of variables. There is no silver bullet in this game. What you need is a whole folder of different redirection methods for different types of targets,” said Tate.

So, while this may be one small step towards planetary protection, many more are likely to be necessary to avoid destruction.

1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?

A．To examine the impact of dinosaurs’ extinction.

B．To explain the necessity of NASA’s Dart mission.

C．To show the damage caused by small pieces of debris.

D．To highlight the crisis threatening human beings at present.

2. Which of the following pictures illustrates the mission?

A．	B．
C．	D．

3. What is the function of LiciaCube?

A．Sending impact data back to Earth.

B．Calculating the length of Dimorphos’s orbit.

C．Helping the satellite separate from the spacecraft.

D．Recording the scientists’ ground-based observations.

4. What does the underlined sentence “There is no silver bullet in this game” mean?

A．There is no challenge too big to overcome.

B．There is no possibility to satisfy NASA’s needs.

C．There is no single solution to the complex problem.

D．There is no strategy to help make an obvious decision.