What made my childhood truly special was our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Greene, who was a retired schoolteacher then. Every weekend, I would
2 . The Ultimate Guide to STEM Competitions & Events
STEM competitions allow individuals or student teams to solve a specific challenge or problem through science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. The followings are different events at this time.
Congressional App Challenge
What: Students must code and build an app by themselves. The apps are judged in district-wide competitions.
Who: High school students.
When: From June 15 to November 1, 2023.
Where: Online.
Prize: Winners receive a free trip to display their work in the Capitol Building.
Regeneron Science Talent Search
What: Entrants must conduct an original independent research project. Besides application letters, recommendation letters and transcripts(成绩单) are also needed.
Who: Any student in their senior year of high school.
When: From June 1 to November 8, 2023.
Where: Selected finalists will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D. C. for in-depth judging.
Prize: Over $2 million in awards are given; first-place prize is $ 250,000.
THINK Challenges
What: This competition is for high school students who are in the early stages of an original research project, rather than being fully completed.
Who: High school students.
When: 2023 registration is closed; 2024 details are to be decided and will likely open in November 2023.
Where: Online.
Prize: Selected finalists are invited to a 4-day all-expenses-paid trip to MIT’s campus to meet professors in their field of research! $1000 will be given.
Source America Design Challenge
What: Student teams are to use STEM concepts to create a totally new product that empowers people with disabilities.
Who: High school and collegiate-level students.
When: Registration for Design Challenge 2022 is still live!
Where: The finals take place in Washington D. C.
Prize: Grand prize is $ 8,000 per team and $ 6,000 to the affiliated school.
1. In the STEM competitions, participants can ________.
| A．design an app based on judges’ choices | B．create an invention to help the disabled |
| C．present a fully completed research project | D．get recommendation letters from professors |
| A．THINK Challenges | B．Congressional App Challenge |
| C．Regeneron Science Talent Search | D．Source America Design Challenge |
| A．They must be available for an outing trip. | B．They must register 2023 competitions. |
| C．They must be high school seniors. | D．They must submit original works. |
1.正反双方的观点及理由；
2.你的看法。
注意: 1.词数 100 左右；
2.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
How’s everything going?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What’s your idea about the topic? Look forward to your reply.
Yours,
Li Hua
The eight-day-long holiday of 2023 began with the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday and included the Oct 1 National Day. It was
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Alle Pierce knows how to plan a holiday. A few months ahead of time, she constructs a spreadsheet of what she wants to do and see. She examines the menus of restaurants she is planning to visit. She uses a picture of the destination as her phone’s locked screen image and downloads a countdown app. “What’s so exciting about a trip is the anticipation before it,” says Pierce, founder of a luxury travel company.
Experts stay she is right. Recent studies suggest that hoping for something boosts your mood and lowers your stress. “Imagining good things ahead of us can increase motivation, optimism and patience,” says Simon Rego, a psychologist from New York.
Of course we can’t just book a flight every time we need a little cheering up or feel low. But there are ways to incorporate the power of anticipation into your everyday life.
Get excited about little things. Write down one thing you’re excited for tomorrow. Maybe it’s a new book, or a package you’re expecting. The collection of these mini thrills means you will still gain the benefits of looking forward to something. Plus, with the nearer stuff, there’s more of a sense that it’s going to happen for sure.
Remember that anxiety and anticipation can coexist. “The dark side of positive anticipation is anticipatory anxiety. Anxiety and excitement are sister emotions,” says Christian Waugh, a psychology professor from North Carolina. But it is harmful only when you just focus on the anxiety part and ignore the excitement part. The key is acknowledging the happy, positive aspect of what you are doing, along with the nervous feelings. When you consider anxious things as exciting, it actually makes you feel better about them.
Connect with your future self. Research has shown feeling as if you are on a path to your future self can have a positive effect on your well-being by getting you out of short-term thinking. Thinking ahead may help you prioritize your goal and move toward it. As you start seeing progress, you will look forward to doing the things that get you closer to your future self.
In short, to enjoy life more, embrace anticipation. It’s worth waiting for.
1. What makes a trip exciting according to Alle Pierce?2. How does hoping for something benefit us?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
According to the research, connecting with your future self can have a negative effect on your well-being.
4. Please give an example to show how you can incorporate the power of anticipation into your daily life. (In about 40 words)
8 . An AI model can be used to detect stress in office workers based on how they use their mouse and keyboard. A new study suggests that a machine-learning model using these two elements was more accurate at detecting stress in people than a model that tracked their heart-rate data.
“We saw that the models that just used the mouse and keyboard data performed better than the models that had the heart-rate data in it,” says Mart Naegelin. a Ph. D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and one of the study’s authors.
Naegelin and her fellow researchers used machine-learning models to analyze data on keyboard-typing activity, mouse movements and heart-rate data. They also studied the data of a combination of two or all three of these elements to determine which performed best in terms of measuring stress. They found that the model trained on mouse and keyboard data performed better than the model that used mouse, keyboard and heart rates. Of the single-modality (形态) models, the heart-rate data performed the worst. “The test was conducted in an environment that simulated an office environment, so the results still need to be confirmed in real-life scenarios (情况),” Naegelin says.
In the experiment, participants were divided into three groups. A control group carried out assigned tasks, such as planning meetings and collecting data, with no additional work. A second group at times answered questions from managers in person in a mock interview scenario while completing other assigned tasks. And members of a third group were, at certain points, interrupted with additional questions sent through an online chat on top of tasks assigned to other groups. At regular intervals during the experiment, participants were asked to rate their stress levels through a computer questionnaire.
Researchers learned that workers made longer, less accurate movements with their mouse, as well as more typing errors, when they were stressed. Shorter, more direct movements with the mouse were tied to lower stress levels. The study didn’t focus on why increased levels of stress are thought to affect muscle activity.
The researchers say they believe a stress-detection system that logs keyboard and mouse movements might be beneficial as a self-help tool for employees alongside other initiatives to improve workplace mental health. But employee participation would need to be optional and based on informed consent (同意), and companies would need to commit to protecting user privacy.
It remains to be seen how this technology will evolve and be adopted in practice, but the potential for AI to contribute positively to employee well-being is an appealing avenue for future exploration.
1. What do we know from Naegelin’s study?| A．Heart-rate data has little connection with stress. |
| B．Mouse and keyboard data proves effective in stress detection. |
| C．Mouse data performs worst in measuring stress among all models. |
| D．Using more elements in a model increases accuracy in stress detection. |
| A．The research process. | B．The research findings. |
| C．The research purpose. | D．The research background. |
| A．AI models based on mouse and keyboard data have been widely applied. |
| B．Naegelin’s study explains why muscle activity can affect stress levels. |
| C．Employers need to respect employees’ privacy while detecting stress. |
| D．A stress-detection system improves physical health at the workplace. |
| A．To introduce a new model to detect stress. |
| B．To compare different models in stress detection. |
| C．To show the disadvantages of being overstressed. |
| D．To state the importance of a stress-detection system. |
When I was an undergraduate student studying ecology, I was used to discovering overall trends in large amounts of data. The thought of getting my hands dirty in the field never seemed interesting to me. I saw it as a boring and repetitive task. But I knew potential graduate schools would likely view my lack of field experience as a hole in my application letter. My mother also thought I should work for a few years to explore my interests before pursuing further education. So I decided to apply for field-based summer positions after graduation.
After landing a job assessing the sage grouse habitat in Utah, I found myself in the company of Sherel, a 75-year-old botanist and the leader of our field crew. On the very first day of the fieldwork, I noticed a special plant on the field. “Wonderful! Looks like you’ve got a Mahonia repens,” Sherel shouted excitedly. I gently touched the plant with yellow flowers by my feet, “This one here? How can you tell it’s a Mahonia?” He paused briefly to admire the plant and then began his energetic description of the plant’s typical features. That evening, while we were watching the sunset together, I texted my childhood friend. “Day I was actually kind of fun,” I started, “but we’ll see how long it takes before I get bored from just identifying plants in the field all day.”
But as the weeks of fieldwork rolled by, the boredom I had expected never arrived. I came home from the field each night with sore legs and a sunburned neck, excited by the day’s finds. By picking Sherel’s brain about different species of animals and plants, I discovered field days are about much more than identification. Each day is an opportunity to learn a little bit more. When the summer was over, I found myself in another field job, this time surveying forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
I’m now a third-year Ph. D. student in ecology. Fieldwork may be buggy, wet, and physically demanding, but working with others helps keep spirits high and the physical activity helps me stay sharp. And it constantly reminds me that any task can present an opportunity to learn — as long as I am open to it.
1. Why did the author join the fieldwork in Utah?| A．To find out overall trends in data. | B．To assess the sage grouse habitat. |
| C．To improve his application letter. | D．To realize his mother’s dream. |
| A．argued with Sherel | B．complained to his friend |
| C．became a leader of his group | D．discovered a Mahonia repens |
| A．Easy but interesting. | B．Boring but fruitful. |
| C．Tiring but meaningful. | D．Repetitive but demanding. |
| A．We should explore fun in daily tasks. | B．We should be open to new experiences. |
| C．We should respect the people around us. | D．We should be determined about our goals. |
10 . Microgreen Farming
Microgreens have been used in cooking since the 1980s.
As with most vegetables, it all starts with seeds. But instead of allowing the plant to grow to its full potential, microgreens are created when the plant is harvested shortly after it starts to grow. The result is a strong flavor and an ingredient that packs a variety of nutrients and health benefits in a tiny, delicious package. The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry states that microgreens have increased levels of vitamins E, C and K.
One of the most significant benefits of using microgreens in dishes is that they provide an intense experience that will improve the overall flavor of any dish. Many chefs use them to add depth of flavor and to create complex flavor. Another benefit of microgreens is the convenience factor — they are incredibly easy to cook with!
Traditional plants require an extended amount of time and large amounts of land.
| A．Microgreens, on the other hand, are easy! |
| B．They were initially used as a form of decoration. |
| C．There is no prep and cutting work as with most vegetables. |
| D．They have as much as 40 times more nutrients than a mature plant. |
| E．One popular form of microgreens is a mix of purple and green radish. |
| F．Some beginners like to start with a familiar plant, such as radish, cabbage, or peas. |
| G．Mature traditional vegetables are generally harvested 2 to 4 months after they are planted. |
