1 . For Western designers, China and its rich culture have long been an inspiration for Western creative.
“It’s no secret that China has always been a source(来源) of inspiration for designers,” says Amanda Hill, chief creative officer at A+E Networks, a global media company and home to some of the biggest fashion(时尚) shows.
Earlier this year, the China Through A Looking Glass exhibition in New York exhibited 140 pieces of China-inspired fashionable clothing alongside Chinese works of art, with the aim of exploring the influence of Chinese aesthetics(美学) on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. The exhibition had record attendance, showing that there is huge interest in Chinese influences.
“China is impossible to overlook,” says Hill. “Chinese models are the faces of beauty and fashion campaigns that sell dreams to women all over the world, which means Chinese women are not just consumers of fashion — they are central to its movement.” Of course, not only are today’s top Western designers being influenced by China—some of the best designers of contemporary fashion are themselves Chinese. “Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu are taking on Galliano, Albaz, Marc Jacobs—and beating them hands down in design and sales,” adds Hill.
For Hill, it is impossible not to talk about China as the leading player when discussing fashion. “The most famous designers are Chinese, so are the models, and so are the consumers,” she says. “China is no longer just another market; in many senses it has become the market. If you talk about fashion today, you are talking about China—its influences, its direction, its breathtaking clothes, and how young designers and models are finally acknowledging that in many ways.”
1. What can we learn about the exhibition in New York?A.It promoted the sales of artworks. | B.It attracted a large number of visitors. |
C.It showed ancient Chinese clothes. | D.It aimed to introduce Chinese models. |
A.They are setting the fashion. | B.They start many fashion campaigns. |
C.They admire super models. | D.They do business all over the world. |
A.learning from | B.looking down on | C.working with | D.competing against |
A.Young Models Selling Dreams to the World |
B.A Chinese Art Exhibition Held in New York |
C.Differences Between Eastern and Western Aesthetics |
D.Chinese Culture Fueling International Fashion Trends |
2 . History has not yet
Whatever we
Historian Neil Howe sees
A.remarked | B.convinced | C.guaranteed | D.revealed |
A.numbers | B.houses | C.accommodates | D.contains |
A.peers | B.adolescents | C.folks | D.guys |
A.over | B.without | C.besides | D.beyond |
A.diagnosed | B.dismissed | C.labeled | D.coined |
A.end up | B.consider about | C.appeal for | D.approve of |
A.distribution force | B.purchasing power | C.global view | D.unique outlooks |
A.vivid | B.instructive | C.instant | D.profitable |
A.feed up with | B.put up with | C.make up for | D.identify with |
A.faking | B.revising | C.illustrating | D.maintaining |
A.supervising | B.forming | C.representing | D.promoting |
A.parallels | B.contrasts | C.comparisons | D.reservations |
A.because | B.although | C.while | D.when |
A.emphasis | B.generation | C.intensity | D.cultivation |
A.routes | B.schemes | C.names | D.definitions |
3 . By the end of the century, if not sooner, the world’s oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate, according to a new study.
At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物) called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms, these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue, depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas, while reducing it in other spots, leading to changes in the ocean’s appearance.
Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface, where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳) into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die, they bury carbon in the deep ocean, an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.
Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a scientist in MIT’s Center for Global Change Science, built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃, it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters, such as those of the Arctic, a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton, and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ” she said, “but the type of phytoplankton is changing.”
And why does that matter? Phytoplankton are the base of the food web. If certain kinds begin to disappear from the ocean, Dutkiewicz said, “it will change the type of fish that will be able to survive.” Those kinds of changes could affect the food chain.
Whatever colour changes the ocean experiences in the coming decades will probably be too gradual and unnoticeable, but they could mean significant changes. “It’ll be a while before we can statistically show that the changes are happening because of climate change,” Dutkiewicz said, “but the change in the colour of the ocean will be one of the early warning signals that we really have changed our planet.”
1. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?A.The various patterns at the ocean surface. |
B.The cause of the changes in ocean colour. |
C.The way light reflects off marine organisms. |
D.The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton. |
A.Sensitive. | B.Beneficial. | C.Significant. | D.Unnoticeable. |
A.Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem. |
B.Dutkiewicz’s model aims to project phytoplankton changes. |
C.Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate. |
D.Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener. |
A.To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes. |
B.To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain. |
C.To explain the effects of climate change on oceans. |
D.To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton. |
4 . I write this on a spring morning, in the van I have called home for two years now.
From one small window, I have a view of joggers pounding the sunny path by the Oxford Canal, and the other looks onto the busy railway line along which trains travel from Southampton Docks to Birmingham.
The woods where I’ve parked my van have grown up between them. This ancient van, a vehicle designed for freedom and the open road, has proved a stable solution for surviving the current housing crisis.
I became a travel writer after my studies ended, committing to brief “residencies” with museums and art centres—where temporary accommodation is often provided in exchange for producing new work about a community. Over the years that followed, living and working on location in the polar regions or Scandinavia or the Alps, not settling down for very long, meant wherever I landed was always “home”.
During the pandemic it was necessary to adopt a more permanent engagement with locality. Oxford had often drawn me back. It’s a crossroads of reality and the imagination, the perfect city for a writer.
It takes a surprising amount of work to keep a tiny home in order: buying a used van online; ensuring the smooth running of a gas cooker and car batteries; fetching water and emptying the mobile toilet. I began to enjoy taking care of my immediate surroundings. Over the summer, I worked to turn waste-ground into a wild garden, replacing weeds with wild plants.
I made friends with the self-sufficient boaters living nearby, always ready to share knowledge on the low-carbon simplicity of life without electricity. I’ve learnt that comfort can be found away from the bright infrastructure of urban life: in watching the birds that nest in the tree and the foxes playing in the woods at dawn, in making a cup of coffee on a spring morning.
My step away from conventional housing has been a necessary act of personal economy, but the benefits include taking nothing for granted, and unexpected delight.
1. Why did the writer make the van his home?A.Because the feature of the van and that of his occupation are matching. |
B.Because the van is equivalent to a crossroads of reality and the imagination. |
C.Because the views of joggers and trains outside the van can relieve his pressure. |
D.Because living and working on location in the polar regions are appealing to him. |
A.a used van | B.a gas cooker | C.a wild garden | D.a mobile toilet |
A.Joining joggers to do exercise. | B.Keeping a tiny home in order easily. |
C.Improving the economy of Oxford. | D.Embracing delightful surprises. |
A.Cautious. | B.Ironical. | C.Favorable. | D.Neutral. |
5 . Antibiotics, which can destroy or prevent the growth of bacteria and cure infections, are vital to modern medicine. Their ability to kill bacteria without harming the patient has saved billions of lives and made surgical procedures much safer. But after decades of overuse, their powers are fading. Some bacteria have evolved resistance, creating a growing army of superbugs, against which there is little effective treatment. Antimicrobial (抗菌的) resistance, expected to kill 10 million people a year by 2050 up from around 1 million in 2019, has been seen as a crisis by many.
It would be unwise to rely on new antibiotics to solve the problem. The rate at which resistance emerges is increasing. Some new drugs last only two years before bacteria develop resistance. When new antibiotics do arrive, doctors often store them, using them only reluctantly and for short periods when faced with the most persistent infections. That limits sales, making new antibiotics an unappealing idea for most drug firms.
Governments have been trying to fix the problem by channeling cash into research in drug firms. That has produced only limited improvements. But there is a phenomenon worth a look. Microbiologists have known for decades that disease-causing bacteria can suffer from illnesses of their own. They are supersensitive to attacks by phages, specialized viruses that infect bacteria and often kill them. Phages are considered a promising alternative to antibiotics.
Using one disease-causing virus to fight bacteria has several advantages. Like antibiotics, phages only tend to choose particular targets, leaving human cells alone as they infect and destroy bacterial ones. Unlike antibiotics, phages can evolve just as readily as bacteria can, meaning that even if bacteria do develop resistance, phages may be able to evolve around them in turn.
That, at least, is the theory. The trouble with phages is that comparatively little is known about them. After the discovery of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1928, they were largely ignored in the West. Given the severity of the antibiotic-resistance problem, it would be a good idea to find out more about them.
The first step is to run more clinical trials. Interest from Western firms is growing. But it is being held back by the fact that phages are an even less appealing investment than antibiotics. Since they are natural living things, there may be trouble patenting them, making it hard to recover any investment.
Governments can help fun d basic research into phage treatment and clarify the law around exactly what is and is not patentable. In time they can set up phage banks so as to make production cheaper. And they can spread awareness of the risks of overusing antibiotics, and the potential benefits of phages.
1. We can learn from paragraphs 1 and 2 that .A.doctors tend to use new antibiotics when the patients ask for them |
B.antimicrobial resistance is developing more rapidly than predicted |
C.new antibiotics fail to attract drug firms due to limited use of them |
D.previous antibiotics are effective in solving modern health problems |
A.They can increase human cells when fighting bacteria. |
B.They are not particular about which cells to infect and kill. |
C.They can evolve accordingly when bacteria develop resistance. |
D.They are too sensitive to be infected by disease-causing bacteria. |
A.there is little chance of patenting phages in the future |
B.governments provide financial support for other research |
C.the emergence of superbugs holds back drug firms’ interest |
D.over-dependence on antibiotics distracts attention from phages |
A.Governments fail to stop the use of antibiotics. |
B.Phages could help prevent an antibiotics crisis. |
C.Development of antibiotics is limited by phages. |
D.Antimicrobial resistance calls for new antibiotics. |
Japan’s robot revolution in senior care
Japan’s artificial intelligence expertise is transforming the elder care industry, with
The rapidly graying population
The long-standing shortage of professional care workers has encouraged the Japanese government
Buy Now, Pay Later Spending
Buy now, pay later(BNPL) spending is expected to rise to record levels this holiday season. With so many young “buy now, pay later” shoppers already in debt from this short-term financing tool not requiring interest, questions emerge: Why do these shoppers use such a tool? And what risks does it pose to their budgets in the months
The many Generation Z and millennials (typically around 40 years and younger) tend to use this short-term financing,
However, since BNPL
A.He wants to buy the new car | B.He thinks his signature is necessary |
C.He has already signed a contract | D.He doesn’t always say what he means. |
9 . The cultivation of plants by ants is more widespread than previously realized, and has evolved on at least 15 separate occasions.
There are more than 200 species of ant in the Americas that farm fungi (真菌) for food, but this trait evolved just once sometime between 45 million and 65 million years ago. Biologists regard the cultivation of fungi by ants as true agriculture appearing earlier than human agriculture because it meets four criteria: the ants plant the fungus, care for it, harvest it and depend on it for food.
By contrast, while thousands of ant species are known to have a wide variety of interdependent relationships with plants, none were regarded as true agriculture. But in 2016, Guillaume Chomicki and Susanne Renner at the University of Munich, Germany, discovered that an ant in Fungi cultivates several plants in a way that meets the four criteria for true agriculture.
The ants collect the seeds of the plants and place them in cracks in the bark of trees. As the plants grow, they form hollow structures called domain that the ants nest in. The ants defecate (排便) at designated absorptive places in these domain, providing nutrients for the plant. In return, as well as shelter, the plant provides food in the form of fruit juice.
This discovery prompted Chomicki and others to review the literature on ant-plant relationships to see if there are other examples of plant cultivation that have been overlooked. “They have never really been looked at in the framework of agriculture,” says Chomicki, who is now at the University of Sheffield in the UK. “It’s definitely widespread.”
The team identified 37 examples of tree-living ants that cultivate plants that grow on trees, known as epiphytes (附生植物). By looking at the family trees of the ant species, the team was able to determine on how many occasions plant cultivation evolved and roughly when. Fifteen is a conservative estimate, says Campbell. All the systems evolved relatively recently, around 1million to 3 million years ago, she says.
Whether the 37 examples of plant cultivation identified by the team count as true agriculture depends on the definitions used. Not all of the species get food from the plants, but they do rely on them for shelter, which is crucial for ants living in trees, says Campbell. So the team thinks the definition of true agriculture should include shelter as well as food.
1. According to biologists, why is ant-fungus cultivation considered as a form of true agriculture?A.Because it occurred earlier than human agriculture. |
B.Because it fulfills the standards typical of agricultural practices. |
C.Because it redefines the four criteria for true human agriculture. |
D.Because it is less common than previously thought. |
A.They determined on new family trees of the ant species. |
B.They overlooked some tree-living ants that provided nutrients for the plants. |
C.They never studied the ant-plant relationships within the context of agriculture. |
D.They never identified any an t species that engaged in cultivation of fungi. |
A.Ants’ cultivation of plants is limited to a few specific species. |
B.The cultivation of fungi by ants is considered the earliest form of agriculture. |
C.True agriculture in ants involves only food-related interactions with plants. |
D.Ants have independently cultivated plants on at least 15 distinct occasions. |
A.The evolution of ants in the plant kingdom. |
B.The widespread occurrence of ant-plant cultivation. |
C.The discovery of a new ant species engaging in agriculture. |
D.The contrast between ant agriculture and human agriculture. |
10 . Investors probably expect that following the suggestions of stock analysts would make them better off than doing the exact opposite.
Gennaioli and colleagues shed light on this
After observing strong earnings growth—the explanation goes—analysts think that the firm may be the next Google. “Googles” are in fact more frequent among firms experiencing strong growth, which makes them
In related work, the authors also show that the same model can
These works are part of a research project aimed at taking insights from cognitive sciences and at
Representativeness helps describe
A.Consequently | B.Furthermore | C.Nevertheless | D.Meanwhile |
A.curious | B.controversial | C.concerned | D.optimistic |
A.In brief | B.By contrast | C.In addition | D.Without doubt |
A.engagement | B.concentration | C.puzzle | D.definition |
A.memorize | B.prioritize | C.modernize | D.fertilize |
A.representative | B.argumentative | C.executive | D.sensitive |
A.harsh | B.adaptable | C.crucial | D.rare |
A.cheers | B.disappoints | C.stabilizes | D.improves |
A.account for | B.count on | C.suffer from | D.hold up |
A.pouring | B.admitting | C.integrating | D.tempting |
A.pretend | B.afford | C.offer | D.tend |
A.effects | B.delights | C.intervals | D.codes |
A.companions | B.scales | C.expectations | D.findings |
A.necessity | B.involvement | C.perseverance | D.reluctance |
A.equivalent | B.exceptional | C.mysterious | D.distressing |