1 . You might easily gain access to fresh fruit and vegetables, but this isn’t the case in some parts of America. The U. S. has many areas that are considered as food deserts, which are defined as parts of the country short of fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy food, usually found in poor areas.
Food deserts are urban areas where the nearest grocery store is more than 1 mile away, and rural areas where the nearest grocery store is more than 10 miles away. According to the USDA, 19 million Americans — or 6.2% of the population — live in places that can be considered as food deserts.
The issue isn’t necessarily about the difference in cost between healthy and unhealthy foods in these areas but it’s about a lack of access to healthy choices at all. And, with the lack of healthy food choices, these areas typically have a large supply of unhealthy foods sold at fast-food companies and convenience stores.
Eating unhealthy foods can lead to overweight, which puts people at risk for all kinds of major health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and some cancers.
But some people, especially those who cannot afford a car, are stuck with eating what’s readily available. In the case of food deserts, it’s usually the type of food that can lead to overweight. Studies have shown that this is likely to be a problem in low-income areas. When money is not enough, people tend to buy foods that last longer and remove food waste, which is a waste of their limited income.
Lack of access is only one part of the problem, however. The bigger issue was likely the lack of education and nutritional knowledge in these communities, which prevents people with lower incomes from understanding the benefits of healthy eating.
While overweight is a significant issue in these communities, the cost of unhealthy eating isn’t just physical. A study found that 71 billion dollars in healthcare costs due to chronic (慢性的) diseases could be saved through healthier eating.
1. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?| A．6.2% of the Americans live in poor areas. |
| B．Some parts of the USA lack fresh vegetables. |
| C．Some people in America don’t need fresh fruit. |
| D．People in the food deserts buy fresh vegetables easily |
| A．These areas are rich in unhealthy food materials. |
| B．The fast food sold in the food deserts are of lower cost. |
| C．Healthy food choices are unavailable in these areas. |
| D．People in these areas prefer unhealthy food to healthy food. |
| A．are less likely to have overweight problems |
| B．are not delighted to prepare food for themselves |
| C．have to buy food that can be preserved longer |
| D．are used to eating food donated by food companies |
| A．Their high healthcare cost due to the chronic diseases. |
| B．Their long established eating habits. |
| C．The government’s lack of financial support. |
| D．Their lack of education and knowledge in nutrition. |
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3 . Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.
Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel ignored or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to improve this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson.
Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn’t too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students’ questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.
The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence.
1. What problem did Professor Goel meet with?| A．Students’ questions were too many to deal with. |
| B．Teaching assistants were not professional at all. |
| C．Many students were lack of interest in his class. |
| D．He felt confused about how to teach online. |
| A．grow dramatically | B．increase sharply |
| C．decrease gradually | D．decline unreasonably |
| A．She could answer all questions without mistakes. |
| B．She turned out to be a great success. |
| C．Her performance was remarkable all the way. |
| D．Her true identity was still a secret to students. |
| A．A robot gives an online course. |
| B．Virtual assistant is getting popular in school. |
| C．Robots will replace humans in online classes. |
| D．One Georgia Tech’s teaching assistant isn’t human. |
4 . Humans really do have a sixth sense that lets us detect magnetic fields (磁场), but we’re not aware we have it. It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen. But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense-that lets them detect magnetic fields. Tests have shown that mankind may have the same inborn sense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.
By putting a protein from the human retina (视网膜) into fruit flies, researchers noticed that the insect adjusted its flight path just as if its eye had not been changed. This suggests that the “sixth sense” does exist in humans but we might not be aware of it. Animals use such sight to navigate long distances during migration or, in the case of birds, to “see” where they are going. The complex tests involved examining the process by which light goes through a bird’s eye, which has interested the scientific community for more than 30 years. In the late 1970s, the physicist Klaus Schulten concluded that birds fly by relying on geomagnetically (地磁) sensitive biochemical reactions in their eyes.
Tests have shown that the special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome (蛋白隐色素). Professor Reppert’s team used wild fruit flies, replacing their version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent (等价物), and then put them in a maze (迷宫) with each wing wrapped in a metal coil (金属圈). They then sent electricity through it so that the coil was magnetised in a way which is just like Earth’s electromagnetic field (电磁场). The flies responded in exactly the same way as if they had their own cryptochrome, by either avoiding the magnetic fields or moving towards them if the researchers had placed sugar nearby.
The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
1. What do we know about humans’ sixth sense?| A．Humans have been aware of it since ancient times. |
| B．It is quite different from the animals’. |
| C．It is the ability to predict what will happen. |
| D．It is also a sense developed after birth. |
| A．To change fruit flies’ flight path. |
| B．To test if humans have a sixth sense. |
| C．To examine the process of birds’ flying. |
| D．To allow researchers detect magnetic fields. |
| A．the maze | B．each wing |
| C．cryptochrome | D．the metal coil |
| A．They responded normally as if there had been nothing changed. |
| B．They couldn’t avoid the magnetic fields like before. |
| C．They lost the sense of direction completely. |
| D．They couldn’t find the sugar the researchers had placed nearby. |
5 . I joined the army as an infantryman (步兵) instead of as a helicopter pilot because I only had the literacy (读写) level of an 11-year-old. I had no idea that I had a reading level that
It was just before I turned 19 that I
I learned in those days at the
For me, improving my literacy level had another more surprising
I have spent quite a bit of time over the past few years
| A．high | B．new | C．low | D．senior |
| A．gone over | B．made up | C．put down | D．taken back |
| A．wrote | B．received | C．bought | D．read |
| A．pride | B．beauty | C．duty | D．security |
| A．panic | B．care | C．doubt | D．agree |
| A．depressed | B．puzzled | C．trapped | D．hooked |
| A．wealth | B．knowledge. | C．support | D．freedom |
| A．community | B．nursery | C．army | D．health |
| A．showing | B．selling | C．lending | D．teaching |
| A．unless | B．until | C．though | D．since |
| A．expenses | B．backgrounds | C．opportunities | D．requirements |
| A．trouble | B．burden | C．outcome | D．challenge |
| A．email | B．diary | C．scheme | D．account |
| A．athlete | B．typist | C．author | D．reporter |
| A．visiting | B．attending | C．constructing | D．inspecting |
| A．permitting | B．encouraging | C．commanding | D．preferring |
| A．message | B．story | C．impression | D．influence |
| A．changes | B．uses | C．questions | D．ignores |
| A．controversial | B．arbitrary | C．ridiculous | D．worthwhile |
| A．library | B．credit | C．business | D．fitness |
6 . Australia and New Zealand’s health organizations have given their advice on when to use sunscreen (防晒霜), suggesting Australians apply it every day to avoid bad health effects.
A Sunscreen Summit took place in the Australian State of Queensland. During the summit, representatives from some of Australia’s leading research, medical and public health organizations examined the evidence on sunscreen use the determined that in most parts of the country it is beneficial to apply sunscreen every day.
“Up until now, public health organizations have recommended applying sunscreen ahead of planned outdoor activities but haven’t recommended applying it every day as part of a morning routine (惯例),” professor Rachel Neale from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute said. “In recent years, it has become clear that the DNA damage causes skin cancer and melanoma (黑色素瘤), which is caused by repeated small exposure to sunlight over a period of time,” Neale said. “In Australia, we get a lot of sun exposure from everyday activities such as walking to the bus stop or train station,” Neale said.
A study showed that one in two Australians believed it was unhealthy and potentially dangerous to use sunscreen every day. However, Terry Slevin from the Public Health Association of Australia says it is wrong. “There is consistent and compelling evidence that sunscreens are safe,” Slevin said. “Importantly, medical trials have found that people who use sunscreen daily have the same levels of vitamin D as those who don’t,” Slevin added.
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, which is made worse by the country’s close to Antarctica where there is a hole in the ozone layer (臭氧层), letting in higher numbers of UV rays.
1. What made Australian health organizations advise Australians to use sunscreen?| A．The makers of sunscreen. |
| B．Australian government. |
| C．The Sunscreen Summit. |
| D．New Zealand’s researchers. |
| A．Using sunscreen as a morning routine. |
| B．Using sunscreen before outdoor activities. |
| C．Reducing the use of sunscreen. |
| D．Reducing outdoor activities. |
| A．Sunscreen will never take effect. |
| B．Sunscreen is bad for people’s health. |
| C．People using sunscreen have the same levels of vitamin. |
| D．D. People using sunscreen won’t have skin cancer. |
| A．Interesting. | B．Disappointing. |
| C．Boring. | D．Convincing. |
7 . I sat at my table, signing my name to the most difficult letter I'd ever written. The letter was
I adopted Luke when he was less than one. A gene from his birth parents had
Then, the doctor told us there was a chance that Luke's disease
I was at a loss.
“Do I have the
“Luke is your child. You have the right to do whatever it
And so I penned the letter describing Luke's
Two weeks later, the doctor called that Luke's birth mother had her children tested, and one of them was a 100 percent
In another letter I shared the happy
| A．of | B．to | C．about | D．on |
| A．dream | B．work | C．marriage | D．life |
| A．understood | B．complained | C．contacted | D．touched |
| A．letters | B．photos | C．books | D．clothes |
| A．but | B．so | C．and | D．or |
| A．smiled | B．sighed | C．prayed | D．cried |
| A．helped | B．allowed | C．forbidden | D．caused |
| A．hopeful | B．wonderful | C．thankful | D．peaceful |
| A．must | B．could | C．need | D．should |
| A．lifted | B．loaded | C．landed | D．locked |
| A．right | B．duty | C．chance | D．time |
| A．asks | B．gets | C．brings | D．takes |
| A．progress | B．condition | C．change | D．worry |
| A．possible | B．necessary | C．important | D．special |
| A．cast | B．laid | C．dropped | D．delivered |
| A．discovery | B．company | C．choice | D．match |
| A．went on | B．took on | C．put on | D．got on |
| A．story | B．operation | C．news | D．message |
| A．confidence | B．courage | C．patience | D．determination |
| A．who | B．what | C．when | D．where |
8 . Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. “I was a clothes addict（有瘾的人)” he jokes.“I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled.” Today David wears casual clothes—khaki pants and a sports shirt—to the office. He hardly ever wears a necktie. “I am working harder than ever.”David says, “and I need to feel comfortable.”
More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work. In the United States, the change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday（but only on Friday.This became known as “dress-down Friday” or “casual Friday”.“What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing.” said business consultant Maisly Jones.
Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? One reason is that it’s easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code.” “A lot of young people don’t want to dress up for work,” says the owner of a software company, “so it’s hard to hire people if you have a conservative（保守的）dress code.”Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Strauss and Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale（心境, 士气）. Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative influence on productivity. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. “Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day,” one person said. “For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes.”
1. David Smith refers to himself as having been “a clothes addict,” because .| A．he often wore khaki pants and a sports shirt |
| B．he couldn’t stand a clean appearance |
| C．he wanted his clothes to look neat all the time |
| D．he didn’t want to spend much money on clothes |
| A．he cannot afford to buy expensive clothes |
| B．they make him feel at ease when working |
| C．he looks handsome in casual clothes |
| D．he no longer works for any company |
| A．Many employees don’t like a conservative dress code. |
| B．Comfortable clothes make employees more productive. |
| C．A casual clothes code is welcomed by young employees. |
| D．All the employers in the U. S. are for casual office wear. |
| A．Company workers started to dress down about twenty years ago. |
| B．“Dress-down Friday” was first given as a favor from employers. |
| C．Dress-down has become an everyday phenomenon since the early 90s. |
| D．Many workers want to wear casual clothes to impress people. |
9 . Many kids start humming tunes like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” as their first songs, but Nygel Witherspoon was an exception. He preferred Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor.
So when Nygel Witherspoon began to hum the very difficult concerto(协奏曲), his family guessed that he should have music lessons. He was, however, just 3 years old.
“He was calm, with an ability to focus.” recalled David Holmes, Witherspoon’s cello(大提琴) teacher from age 3 to l6.
Witherspoon is a familiar name in his hometown. He has inherited his talent from both sides of his family, including his aunt, the late jazz vocalist Shirley Witherspoon.
The 17-year-old doesn’t see himself as competitive. “I think it’s more important for students to have a supportive environment than a competitive one;” he said. “It’s great to have a support system, where you can be yourself and improve right along with others doing the same thing.”
Witherspoon’s love of music blossomed as he attended viola(中提琴) lessons with older siblings. Their teacher, David France, noticed that the little boy was a sponge(海绵).
“He’d absorb everything they did.” France said. Witherspoon was given a box violin, but he wanted to play “the big one”— the cello. He loved its size and tone. That’s when he was matched with his teacher Holmes.
Witherspoon’s drive is inspired by the connection music provides. He recalled that he and his siblings performed as a chambertrio(室内乐三重奏) at their grandmother’s nursing home. The positive reaction from residents gave him motivation.
“It’s so important, whether it’s hip-hop or classical,” he said. “Music is the universal language. It connects all of us.”
1. How was Witherspoon different from other kids when he was 3?| A．He began to teach himself music. |
| B．He was able to hum very difficult tunes |
| C．He had already made up his mind to learn violin |
| D．He could already play the songs he’d heard. |
| A．Practicing hard. |
| B．Being very competitive. |
| C．Being in a supportive environment. |
| D．Having a good teacher from an early age. |
| A．He is a fast learner. | B．He is a creative player. |
| C．He works very hard. | D．He is open-minded. |
| A．To compare Witherspoon’s performance with his siblings. |
| B．To show that motivation plays a big role in music studies. |
| C．To stress that music connects people. |
| D．To show how studying music helped Witherspoon overcome difficulties. |
10 . According to new research from the University of Cambridge in England, sheep are able to recognize human faces from photographs. The farm animals, who are social and have large brains, were previously known to be able to recognize one another, as well as familiar humans. However, their ability to recognize human faces from photos alone is novel.
The recent study shows the woolly creatures could be trained to recognize still images of human faces, including those of former President Barack Obama and actress Emma Watson.
Initially, the sheep were trained to approach certain images by being given food rewards. Later, they were able to recognize the images for which they had been rewarded. The sheep could even recognize images of faces shown at an angle, though their ability to do so declined by about 15 percent—the same rate at which a humans ability to perform the same task declines.
“Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent, individual animals who are able to recognize their handlers,” said Professor Jenny Morton, who led the Cambridge study. “We’ve shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys.”
Recognizing faces is one of the most important social skills for human beings, and some disorders of the brain, including Huntington’s disease, affect this ability. “Sheep are long-lived and have brains that are similar in size and complexity to those of some monkeys. That means they can be useful models to help us understand disorders of the brain, such as Huntington’s disease, which develop over a long time and affect cognitive abilities. Our study gives us another way to monitor how these abilities change,” Morton said.
1. According to the new research, what’s unusual about sheep?| A．They have large brains. |
| B．They can recognize their owners. |
| C．They can tell animals from humans. |
| D．They can recognize human faces from photographs. |
| A．By giving food rewards. |
| B．By showing photos of famous people. |
| C．By guiding them to follow their handlers. |
| D．By showing photos of humans and monkeys by turns. |
| A．Sheep have a higher face-recognition ability than monkeys. |
| B．Sheep recognize faces same well when shown photos at any angle. |
| C．The new discovery is beneficial to the study of cognitive ability changes. |
| D．The sheep’s face-recognition ability may prevent some disorders of the brain. |
| A．A Wonderful Scientist |
| B．The Life of Sheep |
| C．The Sheep’s Recognition of Each Other |
| D．A New Discovery about Sheep |
