1 . You may think your dog likes you more than it does. Dog owners tend to overestimate the bond they have with their pets, which could have implications for preventing dogs from roaming (walking) far from home or attacking other animals.
“As caregivers, we need to develop better bonds with our dogs, not only for our own well-being and the dogs’ well-being, but also for nature,” says Lorena Saavedra-Aracena at the University of Magallanes, Chile.
Previous research has shown that unsterilized (未杀菌的) male dogs and undernourished dogs tend to roam longer distances, but it isn’t always the case. Saavedra-Aracena wondered if the dogs’ attachment to their caregivers also played a role, so she and her colleagues equipped 41 free-roaming pet dogs with GPS collars, tracking their journeys on Navarino Island in southern Chile for about 3 weeks.
Although most of the dogs stayed within a 200-meter radius (半径) of home, Some travelled up to 28 kilometres away. One even swam in a near-freezing canal for an hour while chasing native water birds, says Saavedra-Aracena. The dogs regularly brought home carcasses (动物的尸体) of native birds, and 80 per cent of them harassed other animals, mainly local cattle and sheep.
The researchers asked owners to complete a standard survey about the dog-human bond. Then, to get the “dog’s point of view”, they ran a behaviour test adapted from evaluations of children’s bonds with their parents.Each dog was reunited with its owner in a new place addressed by strangers, left alone in an unfamiliar room and given free access to a second, empty room. The team found that lower scores on the bonding test correlated with greater roaming distances.The owners of these dogs had assessed their pets’ attachment to them as much stronger than the bonding tests suggested, says Saavedra-Aracena. Is it possible that people place too much weight on their dog’s enthusiastic greetings as a sign of bonding, she says. Dogs that roamed the most often showed the most exuberant (energetic and excited) responses to seeing their owners again. They may have simply become accustomed to carrying out an “evolutionary” ritual (仪式) of bond re-establishment that is typical among pack members after long absences, says Saavedra-Aracena.
Relationships with other humans may have weakened the dog-owner bond in far-roaming dogs, she says. Neighbours sometimes give them food, and tourists hiking on the island offer walks and companionship, potentially reinforcing the roaming problem.
Outside opportunities for food, exercise and socialisation could all affect bonding, says Paul McGreevy at the University of New England in Australia. These aspects are critical to dog welfare and represent needs that must be met by its caregiver, both for building attachment and for controlling roaming behaviour. “If any one of those three key resources is lacking, then the dog can be justified in going elsewhere.” he says.
Although it has become less common to see roaming dogs in industrialised nations, they continue to roam freely in most societies, says Saavedra-Aracena. Even when owners restrain their pets, some dogs can escape their ropes.
“Unlike children who loosen bonds with their parents as they grow older, dogs can become more attached to their caregivers throughout their lives,” she says. “So, it’s never too late to work on building that bond, playing with your dog and just spending time with him, getting to know him better, just like you would with a human partner.”
1. From the research done by Saavedra-Aracena and her colleagues, we can learn that .| A．almost all the dogs were mistreated or didn’t have the ability to breed |
| B．the healthier the dog is, the farther it can escape |
| C．most of the dogs didn’t travel very far away |
| D．the researchers follow the wandering dogs in the flesh |
| A．threatened | B．generated | C．sheltered | D．avoided |
| A．food, sport and company are the three key factors when forming a bond with your dog |
| B．dog owners are more likely to consider their relationship with their dogs as close |
| C．the more energetically a dog responds to you, the closer the relationship you have with it is |
| D．dogs can become attracted by other people, which can result in them raveling farther than they otherwise would |
| A．inform us of the potential risks between dogs and their owners |
| B．remind dog owners to give more attention and time to their pet dogs |
| C．warn us to restrict the activities of dogs |
| D．present us with a piece of research that discuses how a relationship is formed between a dog and its owner |
| establish pick out breathe award strike admire opportunity shelter be curious about apart from make preparations for fight for be regarded as |
2. The mid-exam is coming. All the students are
3. I think they are
4. Beethoven
5. Children always like to ask their parents questions because they
6. In 1969, Tu Youyou
7. Mo Yan
8. A terrible hurricane
9. There will be more
10. All of a sudden, it began to rain heavily and we hurried to seek
11.
12. There were so many cars in the parking lot that I had difficulty in
13. Once we set a goal, we should try our best to
3 . It had been a hard week for Jack. His parents had to cancel the family’s spring vacation to Disney World.
Soft music with long, gentle notes is what many people play to relax. If you want to relax, try listening to nature sounds.
Music can do more than just help them relax. Playing music while studying helps keep your brain in shape. When you listen to a sound, it travels from the ear to the brain by electrical signal and it involves learning, memory, and emotions. Experts suggest playing slow music to help you concentrate while you study. It may even improve your memory.
No matter what style of music you like, you can use it to help you. The right music can add to a good mood or turn around a bad day. Just ask Jack. After listening to his favorite song, he put his tough week behind him and played a great game of basketball with his sister.
| A．Why does music have these powers? |
| B．It may help make people healthy again. |
| C．His basketball team lost an important game. |
| D．Why can music help you stay longer in a place? |
| E．Or look for music with a single instrument you like. |
| F．So try to match the type of music to the type of learning. |
| G．Music can be just what you need when you’re feeling down. |
| furniture, fortune, measure, drop out of, dormitory, guilty, turn one’s back on, be regarded as, charity, make little sense |
Sixteen years ago, Jason was a college professor with a huge six-bed room house and a
5 . Even if we used to know the truth, our brains can start repeating false information that is against the facts.
Our brains are wired to believe information automatically — even if it’s false — because it helps us learn efficiently. “In many instances it’s a useful skill for us to accept what people tell us, because often what people tell us is true,” says David Rapp, PhD, a psychology and education professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, US.
When we hear new information, those fresh facts don’t override what we already knew before. Instead, both the new and old information live together in our minds. A few factors determine which one we’ll draw on when the situation comes up.
Oftentimes, we’ll quote (引用) the information we heard most recently — even if it’s wrong. Because they’re fresher in our minds, short-term memories are easier for our brains to access than facts we heard longer ago. We’d have to think back further to remember previous knowledge, so people will often ignore those facts in favour of new inaccurate information, says Dr Rapp, who recently published an article on recalling inaccurate information in the journal Current Directions in Popular Science. “Previous knowledge isn’t difficult to recall, but it isn’t as readily available,” he says.
We are also used to buying into the facts that seem more believable.Often,this means they fit better with what we want to believe, which could explain why people quote such different facts in political debates. “Both candidates said something that was objectively true or not, but people would ignore that information and go with their hopes, wishes, or preferences because it goes along with what they hope to be true,” says Dr Rapp.
You’re especially unlikely to bother thinking critically about information when you’re reading for pleasure, like with a novel or a We-Chat status, because your brain is in the mindset of relaxing, not keeping an eye out for falsehood, says Dr Rapp.
With all that potentially false information overload, it’s worth putting in the extra effort to double-check information that strikes you as doubtful. Seek out reliable sources that back up what they say with data, quotes and other evidence, says Dr Rapp. “With the ease that we can look things up on the internet, there’s no reason not to,” he says.
1. According to the passage, when we get new information, ________.| A．our mind evaluates its reliability |
| B．our previous knowledge is replaced |
| C．it stays together with previous knowledge |
| D．we still believe in our previous knowledge |
| A．People mind accuracy when they read for pleasure. |
| B．We vote for a candidate because what he says is true. |
| C．Our short-term memory is more reliable when we quote. |
| D．Believing what people tell us often improves learning efficiency. |
| A．The methods of dealing with doubtful information. |
| B．The results of believing in false information. |
| C．The effect of overloaded information. |
| D．The source of right information. |
| A．Where do we find reliable information? |
| B．How do we choose proper information? |
| C．Why do we remember false information? |
| D．Whether should we believe fresh information? |
6 . Preparing for a job interview can be stressful: what do you wear? What questions will they ask you? Not to mention that, no matter how much you prepare, your interviewer’s first impression of you could be tarnished the moment you say a single word.
Surprisingly, the word is not “like” or “honestly” (though you should probably be careful about those, too). The word is “actually.”
Used properly, the word “actually” represents a contradiction. For instance, take the famous movie line “love actually is all around”: the speaker is contradicting those who think that it’s not. It can also be used to justify something: “That movie was awful, huh?” “Actually, I really liked it.”
You may wonder what harm a commonly used word like that could possibly do. However, we often don’t use it that way. When used a certain way, saying “actually” can instantly make you seem less reliable. Dictionary. com says that we use it as a “crutch word,” a word “that we slip into sentences in order to give ourselves more time to think.” Since using it this way adds emphasis rather than meaning, it automatically suggests that whatever you’re saying can’t stand on its own. Southern Living claims that the word makes listeners “subconsciously... question if there’s more unspoken information.”
Take this example: imagine you’re in a job interview, and your interviewer asks, “What was your last full-time job?” You reply, “I actually worked at Reader’s Digest.” The word doesn’t contradict or justify anything in the question, so there’s no reason for you to say it at all.
And it’s not just job interviews: Southern Living suggests that you stay away from this word completely. If you’re not using it to actively contradict something, and it’s just adding meaningless stuff to your sentence, avoid it. No longer relying on a “crutch word”, your statement will have more attraction.
1. The underlined word “tarnished” in paragraph 1 means______.| A．corrected | B．improved | C．damaged | D．ignored |
| A．have no words to say | B．need more time to think |
| C．may be more dependable | D．may hide some information |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Fearful. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．—Why do you choose our company? —Actually because of your good reputation. |
| B．—How do you describe your personality? —Actually I’m responsible and cooperative. |
| C．—What do you expect from the job? —Actually I hope to get more experience. |
| D．—What do you think of being a nurse? —Actually I love it though some think it’s tiring. |
8 . Serving Up Hope
Food allergies have been on the rise. In the US, it is now estimated that over 10 percent of the adult population has an allergy to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food. In the UK, the past three decades have seen hospital admissions for food allergies rise fivefold. Thankfully, we are building up the armory needed to reverse this trend so that, one day, such potentially deadly reactions become a thing of the past.
The most common types of food allergies are triggered by antibodies that we make called immunoglobulin (免疫球蛋白) E or IgE. These antibodies were discovered in the mid-1960s and kick-started an era of allergy research that is still going strong today. The early findings have spawned thousands of studies that paint an intricate (复杂的) picture of how allergies work, suggesting ways in which we can prevent and treat them.
When someone has a food allergy, IgE is involved in triggering a response when the immune system comes into contact with that food. Essentially, the body sees that part of your meal as an enemy, releasing histamine (组织胺) and other inflammatory chemicals in an attempt to deal with it. This causes symptoms ranging from itchiness and sneezes to wheezing (喘气) and anaphylactic shock (过敏性休克). The result can be anything from a mild inconvenience to death.
The old saying "prevention is better than the cure" holds true for food allergies. My colleagues and I use the so-called six Ds as a guide to preventative measures during childhood: diet, dirt, dogs, dry skin, detergents (清洁剂) and vitamin D. Studies have found that people have a lower risk of developing an allergy when, as youngsters, they eat a diverse diet and do so often, have healthy vitamin D levels, live in a home with a dog, avoid dry skin and are exposed to dirt, allowing them to develop a good microbiome (微生物组). The use of harsh detergents has also been associated with an increase in IgE.
Clearly, for many people that have food allergies, such early life prevention is no longer an option. However, other approaches are taking shape.
Most of the interventions we currently use target the immune system in an effort to retrain its response to allergens. One technique, known as allergen immunotherapy (免疫疗法), involves slowly building up exposure to a problem food. By starting in very small doses, the body appears to be able to be retrained to no longer see it as a threat. However, immunotherapy needs regular exposure to allergens, which can cause side effects.
Allergy vaccines are another option. These work by reshaping the body's immune response to a particular food so it doesn't end in illness.
As we gain evidence and experience with each of these approaches, we are moving closer to being able to treat all food allergies.
1. From the first two paragraphs, we can tell that __________.| A．one in ten people in UK is allergic to peanuts, shellfish, dairy or another type of food |
| B．immunoglobulin E only takes effect when we have food allergies |
| C．the research of allergies hasn't been conducted until recent years |
| D．more people in the UK now suffer from food allergies than it was 30 years ago |
| A．arouse readers' curiosity about the food allergies |
| B．assure readers of his unique method in the fight against food allergies |
| C．discuss the effectiveness of this potential method for curing food allergies |
| D．support the belief that the prevention of an allergy is more important than the cure |
| A．people are likely to get rid of food allergies through gradual adaptation to the specific problem food |
| B．some early prevention methods like the six Ds are no longer helpful in the curing of food allergies |
| C．immunotherapy brings more harm than good as it needs regular exposure to the specific problem food |
| D．since our body's immune response can be reshaped, a vaccine can be a very safe method for the curing of food allergies |
| A．objective | B．optimistic |
| C．skeptical | D．critical |
Mental health conditions are an increasing problem in Australia and around the world. Around one in two Australians will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime. Globally, about 1 in 10 people live with a mental health disorder.
Eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables is associated with less stress, according to a new research from Edith Cowan University(ECU). The findings revealed people who ate at least 470 grams of fruit and vegetables daily had 10 percent lower stress levels than those who consumed less than 230 grams. Lead researcher, Simone Radavelli-Bagatini said, “We found that people who have higher fruit and vegetable intakes are less stressed than those with lower intakes, which suggests diet plays a key role in mental health.”
According to Ms Radavelli-Bagatini, some stress is considered normal, but long-term exposure can lead to a range of health problems including heart disease, depression and anxiety, so we need to find ways to prevent and possibly reduce mental health problems in the future.
Previous studies have shown the link between fruit and vegetable consumption and stress in younger adults. But this is the first time we’re seeing similar results across adults of all ages,” said Radavelli-Bagatini. While the mechanisms (机制)behind how fruit and vegetable consumption influences stress are still unclear. Radavelli-Bagatini said key nutrients could be a factor.
“Vegetables and fruits contain important nutrients such as vitamins, minerals andcarotenoids(类胡萝卜素) that can reduce inflammation(发炎) and oxidative (氧化应激) stress which are recognized factors that can lead to increased stress, anxiety and lower mood, and therefore improve mental health,”. she said. These findings encourage more researches into diet and specifically what fruits and vegetables provide the most benefits for mental health.
1. According to the passage, what problems can be caused by long-term stress?2. What might be the reason why eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruits can lead to less stress?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Researches carried out before have shown that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with lower stress level in people of all ages.
4. Besides eating fruit and vegetables, what other ways do you often use to cope with stress to maintain mental health? (about 40 words)
