1 . I used to be anorexic (厌食的). I was skeletal, each of my rib bones jutted out, like ridges on my body; my head, which looked abnormally huge, was barely supported by my backbone.
It would take an hour for me to eat a spoon of food. Should I attempt to eat to please my parents on teachers, I would lock myself in the toilet and throw up the food. I looked pale and weak all the time because of the lack of food. My family members were distressed. They cried a lot.
It all started when a boy in my class called me “fat” I was devastated. I adopted an extremely strict diet and exercise routine. I lost 10kg within three months and continued to lose more weight. I was absolutely obsessed about losing even more weight. One day, my heart rate dropped and I was breathless. I almost lost my life. That was when I decided to turn my life around.
Looking good is extremely important to a teenager. We want to look a certain way so we can be popular and accepted. We are attracted by well-toned and sculpted bodies. Now, with social media, we have access to a pool of photographs of people, whose bodies and appearances we admire. Those images make us envious. We long to be like them.
We're in danger when we start to hate the way we look and take drastic measures to attain the body we dream of having. These measures can lead to eating disorders, unrealistic and unhealthy exercise habits, low self-esteem and depression. Besides affecting the physical health, teenagers who are body conscious can also suffer from mental instability. They may plunge into despair, guilt and hopelessness if they are unable to keep up with their rigid exercise routines or eating habits. They can be emotionally fragile too. They become sensitive to comments made by others. They are ashamed of the way they look. If you are currently experiencing these feelings, seek help before itis too late.
It is important to feel confident and positive about your image and not subscribe to man-made standards of beauty, which will change with time. You are unique.
1. What can we infer about the author from the first two paragraphs?| A．He developed a deadly disease. |
| B．He was on an exceptionally strict diet. |
| C．He was upset because of not achieving the goal. |
| D．He was in bad condition due to food shortage. |
| A．To look good. | B．To stay healthy. |
| C．To satisfy his parents. | D．To disappoint the boy. |
| A．Extreme. | B．Immediate. | C．Temporary. | D．Preventive. |
| A．Be unique. | B．Seek beauty. |
| C．Build your body. | D．Accept your body. |
2 . Medicine is not exclusively a human invention. Many other animals, from insects to birds to nonhuman primates, have been known to self-medicate with plants and minerals for infections and other conditions.
Behavioral ecologist Helen Morrogh-Bernard of the Borneo Nature Foundation has spent decades studying the island’s orangutans (猩猩) and says she has now found evidence they use plants in a previously unseen medicinal way.
During more than 20, 000 hours of formal observation, Morrogh-Bernard and her colleagues watched 10 orangutans occasionally chew a particular plant (which is not part of their normal diet) into a foamy lather (泡沫) and then rub it into their fur. The apes spent up to 45 minutes at a time massaging the mixture onto their upper arms or legs. The researchers believe this behavior is the first known example of a nonhuman animal using a topical painkiller.
Local people use the same plant Dracaena cantleyi, an unremarkable-looking plant with stalked leaves-to treat aches and pains. Morrogh-Bernard’s co-authors studied its chemistry. They added extracts (提出物) from the plant to human cells that had been grown in a dish and had been artificially stimulated to produce cytokines, an immune system response that causes inflammation (炎症) and discomfort. The plant extract reduced the production of several types of cytokines, the scientists reported the finding in a study published last November in Scientific Reports.
The results suggest that orangutans use the plant to reduce inflammation and treat pam. Such findings could help identify plants and chemicals that might be useful for human medications.
In creatures such as insects, the ability to self-medicate is almost certainly innate: woolly bear caterpillars infected with flies seek out and eat plant substances that are poisonous to the flies. But more complex animals may learn such tricks after an initial discovery by one member of their group.
For example, an orangutan may have rubbed the plant on its skin to try to treat parasites and realized that it also had a pleasant pain-killing effect. That behavior may then have been passed on to other orangutans. Because this type of-self-medication is seen only in south-central Borneo, Morrogh-Bernard says, it was probably learned locally.
1. What do we know about Dracaena cantleyi?| A．It can serve as a pain killer. | B．It is orangutans normal diet. |
| C．It is a plant with a foamy lather. | D．L can function as building materials. |
| A．By studying the plant’s chemistry. | B．By observing apes eating the plant. |
| C．By extracting cytokines from the plant. | D．By watching local people using the plant. |
| A．Botanists can better understand plants. |
| B．Scientists can find a new way to study apes. |
| C．Doctors may have the power to cure more diseases. |
| D．Drug companies may find new materials for medicine. |
| A．Medicine is a human unique invention. | B．Plant extracts are the best to treat-pain. |
| C．Humans and animals have a lot in common. | D．Insects have the natural ability to self medication. |
3 . All of us want to strive for perfection, don’t we? It could be submitting the perfect assignment or performing a flawless musical.
When people work as a team, the end product is more likely to be of better quality than if an individual produces it alone. There is a name for this-synergy (增效) . Now, how does synergy work?
In teamwork, there is much creativity.
| A．Let’s turn to nature for inspiration. |
| B．Let’s not wave away the chance to work in teams. |
| C．Each member will contribute his expertise to benefit the team. |
| D．However, this ideal circumstance is not always accomplished alone. |
| E．The clownfish and sea anemone make a clever team in surviving the wild. |
| F．Team members also offer unique perspectives before reaching an agreement. |
| G．The clownfish and sea anemone make the ocean bed beautiful, don’t you agree? |
4 . Scientists have found a way to decode (解码) a stream of words in the brain using MRI scans and artificial intelligence. The system reconstructs the main point of what a person hears or imagines, rather than trying to copy each word, a team reports.“It’s getting at the ideas behind the words, the meaning, says Alexander Huth, an author of the study.”
Previous efforts to decode language have relied on sensors placed directly on the surface of the brain. The sensors detect signals in areas involved in expressing words. But the Texas team’s approach is an attempt to “decode more freeform thought,” says Marcel Just, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.
The new study came about as part of an effort to understand how the brain processes language. Researchers had three people spend up to 16 hours each in a functional MRI scanner which detects signs of activity across the brain. Participants wore headphones that streamed audio from the Internet. Those streams of words produced activity all over the brain, not just in areas associated with speech and language. After participants listened to hours of stories in the scanner, the MRI data was sent to a computer. It learned to match specific patterns of brain activity with certain streams of words. Then came a paraphrased version of what a participant heard.
The MRI approach is currently slower and less accurate than an experimental communication system being developed for paralyzed people, where people get a sheet of electrical sensors implanted directly on the surface of the brain. With an MRI-based system, no one has to get surgery.
But future versions of MRI scans could raise moral questions. “What if you can read out the word that somebody is just thinking in their head? That’s potentially a harmful thing.” Huth says. This technology can’t really read minds uncontrollably, though. It only works when a participant is actively cooperating with scientists. Still, systems that decode language could someday support people who are unable to speak because of a brain injury or disease. They are also assisting scientists in understanding how the brain processes words and thoughts.
1. What is special about the Texas team’s study?| A．Brain can be reconstructed. | B．Expression can be perfected. |
| C．Meanings can be comprehended. | D．Sensor signals can be improved. |
| A．The process of an experiment. | B．Patterns of brain activity. |
| C．Steps of word matching. | D．The way of speech decoding. |
| A．They are a double-edged sword. | B．They are potentially harmful to life. |
| C．They are helpful to treat brain disease. | D．They are well worth researching. |
| A．A Decoder That Can Read Your Mind | B．MRI Scanner: Raise a moral question |
| C．MRI Scanner: Still a Long Way to Go | D．A Decoder That Can Convey Meaning |
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Incense (香) boasts a long history,
Since the Tang and Song dynasties, burning incense, hanging paintings, making tea, and enjoying music have been known as the “four arts for literati (文人) ”
Moreover medical incense is an essential part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which considers preventative healthcare as
7 . By the late 1960s, abstract painter Harold Cohen had represented Britain at important festivals with his oil paintings and was seeking a new challenge. “Maybe there are more interesting things going on outside my studio than inside it,” he thought. Cohen turned from the canvas (画布) to the screen, using computers to find new ways of creating art. In the late 1960s, he created a program that he named Aaron. It was the first artificial intelligence software in the world of fine art, and Cohen first presented Aaron in 1974 at the University of California, Berkeley. Aaron’s work has since graced museums from the Tate Gallery in London to the Sand Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Now, with AI dominating the headlines, a new exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art,“Harold Cohen: Aaron,” running through June 2024, draws attention to Cohen’s pioneering work. The Whitney is offering something deeper than most previous Aaron exhibits: a real-time experience, in which visitors can watch the software produce art.
Cohen seeded Aaron with all sorts of knowledge: about basic objects, physics, and fundamental techniques of drawing. Aaron uses this knowledge to follow instructions, complete tasks, and make decisions like human beings - a very different approach from today’s generative AI art programs, which don’t draw from scratch (从头开始) but rather rely on databases of images. Versions of Aaron still generate output, but anything done after Cohen’s death in 2016 is not considered genuine.
The Whitney is showcasing two versions of Cohen’s software, along with the art that each produced before Cohen died. The 2001 version, Aaron KCAT, generates images of figures and plants and projects them onto a wall more than ten feet high, while the 2007 version produces jungle-like scenes. The software will also create art physically, on paper, for the first time since the 1990s. “It is absolutely thrilling,” said Christiane Paul, the museum’s director of digital art, “to have one of those remarkable treasures of digital art in the collection.”
1. What was Aaron born out of?| A．Harold’s curiosity. | B．The museum’s donation. |
| C．Cohen’s imagination. | D．The university’s support. |
| A．Its ability to assign tasks. | B．Its use of modern techniques. |
| C．Its capability to make choices. | D．Its dependence on existing database. |
| A．See the original 1960s version of Aaron. | B．Generate images with the help of Aaron. |
| C．Learn about the physical rules in art. | D．Observe Aaron creating art on the spot. |
| A．The masterpieces of digital art. | B．A new show of the art world’s first AI. |
| C．The latest technologies in the Whitney. | D．Harold Cohen’s impact on generative AI. |
8 . The high intelligence levels of orangutans (红毛猩猩) have long been recognised, partly due to their practical skills such as using tools to crack nuts and search for insects. But new research suggests the primate (灵长动物) has another handy skill: applying medicinal herbs intentionally to an open wound.
A male Sumatran orangutan known as Rakus was observed by the research team with a fresh facial wound in June 2022. Three days later, Rakus was witnessed feeding on the stem and leaves of a plant. Thirteen minutes after Rakus had started feeding on it, he began chewing the leaves without swallowing them, then used his fingers to apply the resulting juice directly on to his facial wound. He repeated this behavior for seven minutes and at last fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves. He then continued feeding on the plant for 30 minutes. Over the following days, there were no signs of infection. The wound closed within five days and was healed, with only a faint scar remaining after one month.
It is not the first time wild primate species have been spotted self-medicating: among other examples, Bornean orangutans have been seen rubbing their arms and legs with chewed leaves from a plant used by humans to treat sore muscles, while chimpanzees have been recorded chewing plants known to treat worm infections and applying insects to wounds. However, the new discovery is the first time a wild animal has been observed treating open wounds with a substance known to have medicinal properties. “In the chimpanzee case they used insects and unfortunately it was never found out whether these insects really promote wound healing. Whereas in our case, the orangutan used the plant, and this plant has known medical properties,” said Dr Caroline Schuppli, senior author of the research.
Rakus’s goal-oriented behavior and the medicinal properties of his chosen treatment offer insight into the origins of human wound care-the treatment of which was first mentioned in a medical manuscript dating to 2200BC. “It definitely shows that these basic cognitive capacities that you need to come up with a behaviour like this were present at the time of our last common ancestor most likely,” said Schuppli.
It remains unclear whether Rakus figured the process out for himself or learned it from another orangutan, although it has not been seen in any other individual.
1. How did the team conduct their research?| A．By analyzing previous records. | B．By tracking the research object. |
| C．By quoting others’ findings. | D．By categorizing qualities of primates. |
| A．The primate’s awareness of herb selection. | B．The locations of the wild primates. |
| C．The sizes of the application range. | D．The outcome of the treatment. |
| A．Supporting evidence for the research results. |
| B．Potential significance of the research findings. |
| C．A further explanation of the research summary. |
| D．A reasonable doubt about the research process. |
| A．The origin of Rakus’ intentional self-medication. |
| B．Different medicinal plants used by wild primates. |
| C．Active wound treatment s shared by humans and primates |
| D．The possible influence from Rakus’ family. |
9 . Packaging can play a greater role in keeping produce and other foods fresh, therefore minimizing food waste — especially if consumers can better understand those packaging technologies. That’s among the takeaways of research led by Michigan State University (MSU)’s School of Packaging, detailed in a recently released white paper.
In the United States, food waste in landfills doubled from 1990 to 2020, according to data shared by the US Environmental Protection Agency this year. Researchers cited data showing 40% of the food supply is wasted each year, with 43% of that happening at the consumer or household level.
Ameripen, the only organization exclusively focused on US public policy for the entire packaging industry, and the Environmental Research & Education Foundation funded research that included a survey of more than 1,000 people in the United States. Ameripen said it wanted to know what role packaging could play in reducing household food waste as well as understand consumer awareness of food packaging’s value and functions.
The survey asked consumers about their understanding of packaging forms and willingness to pay more for packaging designed to reduce food waste, among other areas.
The study found that whole fruits and vegetables, particularly bananas and lettuce, are the foods most wasted by households, with dairy products, prepared packaged foods and leftovers also common culprits (罪魁祸首). “Half-eaten packaged food products and food without packaging that went bad before it was eaten are the two primary reasons for food waste in American households, indicating there is opportunity for improved packaging design to help consumers with extending shelf life, reuse and size,” the white paper states.
Researchers reported that while consumers’ current understanding of packaging technologies was “limited”, they indicated “they would pay more for food contained in packaging that extends freshness and shelf life.”
“There’s a need to design packaging for produce that is currently not packaged; that most of the produce in this study was wasted is because there is no packaging at all,” MSU’s Korey Fennel said during the webinar (网络研讨会), also noting the importance of “intelligent packaging” that could indicate the shelf life of food products.
1. What does the underlined word “minimizing” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Showing. | B．Continuing. | C．Recovering. | D．Reducing. |
| A．Summarize the previous paragraph. | B．Provide some advice for the readers. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Introduce a new topic for discussion. |
| A．By making observations. | B．By asking questions. |
| C．By carrying out experiments. | D．By referring to former studies. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unclear. | C．Critical. | D．Favorable. |
10 . Estefanía Rebellón was once a migrant (流动的) child. She was 10 when her family fled Cali, Colombia, because of death threats to her father, who had been forced into hiding. They settled in Miami. Despite the challenges she faced as a migrant child, she was lucky to have teachers who advocated for her and guided her along the way.
Rebellón moved from Miami to Los Angeles when she was 21 to pursue an acting career. In 2018, she was so moved after volunteering in migrant camps in Tijuana that she put her career on hold. “There were no schools set up to help these kids. They were walking around the camps barefoot,” she said.
Rebellón and her partner Kyle Schmidt used about $1,000 of their savings to buy tents and supplies and set up a makeshift (临时的) school at the border. They enlisted volunteer teachers to provide learning opportunities in the camps. In the months that followed, when those families living in the camps were moved to shelters, Rebellón and Schmidt wanted to continue offering educational services.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we turn a bus into a mobile classroom, and we could take it to all the different shelters?’” Rebellón said. Over the next year, Rebellón and Schmidt bought and transformed a bus, partnered with shelters, and drove the bus over the border.
In 2019, she co-founded the Yes We Can World Foundation, a nonprofit organization that believes every child has the right to education and safe spaces regardless of their location, current legal status or economic background.
Rebellón’s organization hires professional teachers and tailors their curriculum (课程) to the specific needs of each student. “The program has been officially approved by the education secretary in Mexico and serves children aged 3 to 15 — a crucial period for education,” Rebellón said.
Today, the Yes We Can World Foundation educates 250 — 300 kids a day through its four school locations along the border and three mobile school buses. “Since 2019, the group has served more than 3,100 migrant children from 10 countries,” Rebellón said.
1. What can be learned about Rebellón from the first paragraph?| A．She received death threats. | B．Her teachers helped her a lot. |
| C．She was forced into hiding. | D．Her acting career began early. |
| A．She should value her hard-won life. |
| B．Children could be happy in any environment. |
| C．Migrant kids lacked opportunities for schooling. |
| D．She was lucky to have the ability to help others. |
| A．To set the scene for her show. |
| B．To realize her childhood dream. |
| C．To give full play to the value of a bus. |
| D．To offer children convenient access to education. |
| A．It’s far-reaching. | B．It’s predictable. |
| C．It’s short-lived. | D．It’s unidentifiable. |
