1 . The brain might be the place where memories are stored, and its health and efficiency depend a lot on the general health of the body. Put simply, what’s good for the body is good for the brain.
Regular physical exercise doesn’t just build muscles and keep weight in check. It also protects memory and thinking skills. Research at the University of British Columbia found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that increases your heart rate, also increases the size of the brain’s hippocampus (海马体). And a University of Maryland study found that memory improved in older adults after a 12-week exercise program.
If you’re not into running or even fast walking, how about dancing? It turns out that taking a dance class may be one of the best activities you can do for your brain. A research team at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine looked at the effects of physical activity on preventing memory loss, and found that ballroom dancing was particularly effective, leading to enhancements in memory, attention and focus.
“Dancing combines physical activity, learning something new, and social engagement,” says Dr. Salinas, a neurologist at NYU Langone Health. “The more of these factors an activity has, the better off you will be.”
Sleep is also important for memory formation, especially long-term memory formation. When you’re asleep, the brain runs the tape of what it recorded during the day, gets rid of information that isn’t relevant and then stores other information for the long term.
Besides, doing those mentally engaging activities, such as playing crossword puzzles, can also help keep our minds active. Learning a new language is often regarded as an ideal activity for brain health. “Doing something new and challenging contributes to forming new pathways in the brain, helping information go from one part of the brain to another,” says Dr. Salinas.
While genetics (基因学) and family history play some roles in the risk of memory problems, so do plenty of other factors. Addressing any of these may make your memory sharper.
1. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?(①—Paragraph 1; ②—Paragraph 2; ③—Paragraph 3; ④—Paragraph 4; ⑤—Paragraph 5; ⑥—paragraph 6; ⑦—Paragraph 7)
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Improvements. | B．Effects. | C．Troubles. | D．Skills. |
| A．To explain why dancing is one of the best activities for brain. |
| B．To show which activity is likely to bring us the most benefits. |
| C．To suggest that we should dance instead of doing other exercise. |
| D．To conclude that the more activities we do, the healthier we will be. |
| A．Because it helps store information. | B．Because it is not very challenging. |
| C．Because it makes use of pathways. | D．Because it keeps our minds active. |
China tends to be
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After several months’ research, the committee
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6 . Battling with cancer at the point of becoming a teenager was painful, but I chose to help and encourage those less fortunate children to build up confidence.
As I entered adolescence, a time when I should have been pushing boundaries and becoming increasingly
My own experiences
| A．happy | B．realistic | C．independent | D．elegant |
| A．display | B．attack | C．vitality | D．liberty |
| A．Luckily | B．Hopefully | C．Ultimately | D．Gratefully |
| A．settled into | B．wrestled with | C．mounted up | D．withdrew from |
| A．perspective | B．channel | C．priority | D．motivation |
| A．restrict | B．manage | C．interpret | D．predict |
| A．forced | B．threatened | C．invited | D．inspired |
| A．journey | B．reality | C．legend | D．barrier |
| A．before | B．since | C．after | D．until |
| A．preparing | B．supporting | C．educating | D．organizing |
| A．physical | B．social | C．moral | D．mental |
| A．Moreover | B．Otherwise | C．However | D．Meanwhile |
| A．disabled | B．young | C．unselfish | D．distinct |
| A．hesitate | B．arrange | C．volunteer | D．decline |
| A．position | B．organization | C．direction | D．mind |
7 . For the Greek philosopher Celsus, red wine could be used to treat endless diseases, from tiredness to fever and coughs. But despite its convenient healing powers, the grape, he told his faithful readers, could bring about headaches. Now, researchers believe they have found the reason why red wine causes such headaches.
“We think we are finally on the right track toward explaining this old mystery,” said Morris Levin, the director of the Headache Center at the University of California, San Francisco. “The next step is to test it scientifically on people who develop these headaches.” Red wine headaches are different from hangover (宿醉) the morning after the night before. Rather than coming on after a long session, they can strike 30 minutes after drinking only one small glass.
The researchers ran lab tests on more than a dozen chemicals in red wine. One stood out. Quercetin (槲皮素), found almost only in red wine, turned out to be particularly effective at blocking the enzyme (酶) that breaks down alcohol. This could be key to solving the mystery. With the important enzyme suppressed, alcohol builds up in the bloodstream. At high levels, this causes headaches, red faces and sweating.
According to the researchers, when some people drink red wine with even small amounts of quercetin they can develop a headache. Why some are more affected than others is unclear. The team now hopes to find out the effects of red wines with different quercetin levels.
Grapes make quercetin in response to sunlight, so grapes grown in plenty of sunlight can have five times more quercetin than other reds. Processes like fining and ageing also affect quercetin levels. “It will be potentially very helpful for people who drink red wine to be able to choose wines less likely to cause headaches,” Levin said. “Also, winemakers may use our findings to reduce quercetin in their wines.”
1. In what way are red wine headaches different from those of hangover?| A．They come on after a long time. | B．They affect wine drinkers equally. |
| C．They occur within a short time. | D．They produce different symptoms. |
| A．Blocked. | B．Supplied. | C．Increased. | D．Supported. |
| A．The cure for wine headaches. | B．The reduction of quercetin. |
| C．The effects of quercetin amount. | D．The way to solve hangover. |
| A．The background of the research. | B．The importance of processes. |
| C．The way to produce quercetin. | D．The applications of the findings. |
8 . Generally speaking, the single most important thing you can do to keep your computer safe is make sure your operating system and apps are up-to-date. Because though it looks like nothing has changed afterwards, below the surface every update is fixing bugs and holes that can be taken advantage of by hackers. Modern computer systems are so wildly complicated that it is basically impossible for developers to build a completely secure system. However much you test and try, hackers and people with bad intentions will comb through and look for a bug or a hole they can use to access your private data.
The most simple attack is a Bruteforce attack of simply going through and trying every single combination of letters and numbers to, for example, guess a password. This is why you can only get the passcode on your phone wrong three times before it locks up. Phishing isn’t so much clever technology, but is a psychological trick to persuade you to hand over your details. If you browse a website that has http and not https, and you’re on a public WiFi, anyone on the same network could read every word being sent to your phone or computer. This is called A Man In The Middle attack. Finally there is Malware. This is software through which hackers can run their own code on your computer, then they can do whatever they like.
This used to be a really, really bad problem. But today, both Windows and Mac are more locked down than they used to be. So though the threat of hackers is real and scary, the good news is that the good guys are getting better at fighting them. But that doesn’t mean we should be contented. The best way to keep your data safe is to remain careful where you click. And, of course, make sure all of your apps are up-to-date, so they have all of the latest safeguards to keep you safe.
1. What happens after your operating system and apps are updated?| A．Nothing happens to them. | B．They become locked up. |
| C．Data in them are stolen. | D．Bugs and holes are fixed. |
| A．To keep other people from working out the passcode. |
| B．To prevent you from falling for a psychological trick. |
| C．To pick up the information being sent to other devices. |
| D．To stop hackers from installing software on your phone. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．To inform people of different approaches to hacking the Internet. |
| B．To remind people of the significance of updating apps and systems. |
| C．To appeal to developers to build an entirely secure computer system. |
| D．To blame hackers and those who have the intention to do damage. |
9 . In 2019, Air Company gained public attention when it produced vodka (伏特加) from carbon in the air, in order to reduce the amount of the harmful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Today, the company has begun using the same process to make fuel (燃料) for airplanes.
Air Company’s clean aircraft fuel, which was recently tested, could some day help the airline industry achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions (排放) by 2050. Currently, the airline industry accounts for about 3% of total global carbon emissions each year, and mainly uses traditional, fossil-based fuels.
A number of producers of clean aircraft fuel have come out in recent years, many of whom use something like plant material and cooking oil. But Air Company’s production process starts by pulling harmful carbon emissions out of the air.
The company first harvests carbon, mostly from industrial settings. It then takes water, separates the hydrogen from the oxygen, and puts the carbon together with the hydrogen and other mixtures. After that, it distills (蒸馏) that solution down. The final products are ethyl alcohol (乙醇) to make the company’s vodka and other products such as perfume, as well as paraffin, which forms the basis of its aircraft fuel.
By the time a plane has flown using Air Company’s fuel, it will have given off the same amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) back into the atmosphere as was acquired to make the fuel.
“Already, some of the world’s biggest airlines are supporting Air Company’s dream. They have agreed to buy millions of gallons of its fuel in the coming years.” The company manager says, “However, to get to those large industrial markets like aircraft fuel, traditionally known as the hottest industry to get green, is a long way to go. It’s going to take time, money and effort.”
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．Air Company is famous for producing vodka. |
| B．Air Company no longer uses traditional fuels. |
| C．Air Company’s fuel is likely to be environmentally friendly. |
| D．Air Company accounts for 3% of total global carbon emissions. |
| A．Ethyl alcohol forming the aircraft fuel. |
| B．Hydrogen that is separated from water. |
| C．Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and ethyl alcohol. |
| D．Mix of carbon, hydrogen and other mixtures. |
| A．Major Airlines have already put Air Company’s fuel into use. |
| B．It takes time for Air Company’s fuel to be used on regular flights. |
| C．The fuel produced by Air Company is sure to be very expensive. |
| D．Air company alone will be able to occupy the aircraft fuel markets. |
| A．Air Company: Make Air Travel Green |
| B．Air Company’s Carbon Production Dream |
| C．Air Company’s Environmental Supporters |
| D．Air Company: Make Traditional Fuels Available |
10 . When Jean-Philippe Michel, a career coach, works with secondary school students, he doesn’t use the word “profession”. Rather than encouraging his young clients to choose a profession, say, architect or engineer, he works backwards from the skills that each student wants to acquire.
Deciding the skills you want to use leads to a career that’s more targeted — and thus more likely to bring you satisfaction. “They need to shift from thinking about jobs and careers to thinking about challenges and problems,” Michel says.
“The purpose is to help teenagers plan for a “portfolio career”, which is made up of numerous micro-jobs and will be better received in the next decade, ”says Michel. “Instead of identifying your job role or description, you will be constantly adding skills based on what is going to make you more employable,” says Jeanne Meister.co-author of The Future Workplace Experience.
More traditional companies are offering various project opportunities to their own employees. Workers are encouraged to choose their next projects based on their skills, or skills they want to develop, which can mean working in different parts of the company. For companies, the payoff for experimenting with internal project-based opportunities means workers are less likely to jump from one company to the next. Micro-jobs can inspire a sense of belonging and autonomy within a company, which in turn might keep staff from job-hopping (跳槽) to the competition
“But when it comes to building a long-term career, there are disadvantages to creating a portfolio of work,” say experts. If you constantly hop from one project to the next, the change can be jarring and leave you without a clear path to success. “With fewer promotions and changes to job titles, it can be more difficult to feel like you’re succeeding even if you’re regularly completing projects,” says career coach Michel.
Of course, it can take companies years to change from traditional mentality to what boosts professional growth.
1. Why does Michel avoid using the word “profession” with his students?| A．To help them realize what they want to be. |
| B．To encourage them to choose a dream job. |
| C．To enable them to master survival skills. |
| D．To guide them to focus more on challenges |
| A．It will make them more popular with colleagues. |
| B．It will equip them with more competitive skills. |
| C．It will discourage them from switching jobs. |
D, It will help them enjoy a stable working state.
3. What does the underlined word “‘jarring” in paragraph 6 mean?| A．Unpleasant. | B．Significant. | C．Permanent. | D．Unavoidable. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Intolerant. |
