1 . Bill Sumiel was having a tough Friday. It was October 2020, and the 71-year-old, who was dealing with kidney (肾) failure, found himself at a medical center 30 miles from home.
Sumiel was no stranger to the
Timothy Letts, 31, was driving north to visit a friend when his phone rang with the
When Sumiel got into the car, the pair got to
Sumiel was touched by Letts’s
| A．origins | B．struggles | C．warnings | D．symbols |
| A．adapted to | B．arose from | C．led to | D．took over |
| A．list | B．category | C．class | D．group |
| A．department | B．company | C．arrangement | D．appointment |
| A．application | B．question | C．request | D．intention |
| A．Still | B．Therefore | C．Otherwise | D．Meanwhile |
| A．debating | B．remarking | C．arguing | D．chatting |
| A．instructed | B．revealed | C．wondered | D．announced |
| A．supposed | B．assumed | C．given | D．convinced |
| A．agreed | B．claimed | C．doubted | D．suggested |
| A．sponsor | B．match | C．surgeon | D．model |
| A．demand | B．advice | C．offer | D．mission |
| A．magical | B．joyful | C．anxious | D．emotional |
| A．equal | B．kind | C．true | D．sensitive |
| A．contacted | B．informed | C．persuaded | D．urged |
2 . If you have ever found yourself concluding that intelligence is in short supply in the modern world, perhaps you are looking in the wrong place. There are still plenty of smarts to be found elsewhere.
You will be familiar with the cleverness of dolphins and chimpanzees. But what about wasps (黄蜂)? They can recognize human faces. Or mosquitoes? They can learn to avoid being killed by chemicals after a single taste.
Such an astonishing group of talent is rather unsettling, which raises fundamental questions like what actually is intelligence, how did it develop and how do the abilities of various organisms (生物) compare? Evaluating intelligence in nature is tricky, particularly in life forms that are very different from us. Now a group of neuroscientists, AI researchers and philosophers want to create a periodic table of intelligence similar to the one used to categorize the chemical elements. The chemical version sorts elements by their atomic (原子的) number or atomic mass. For intelligence, researchers are still looking for a criterion that is equally straightforward. But where to begin?
It certainly isn’t brain size, as was long thought. Behavior might be a better way to categorize cleverness. But testing for intelligence through behavior is difficult. Recognizing oneself in a mirror is seen as a sign of advanced cognition (认知). Dolphins and bats can do it — but dogs typically can’t. Does this reflect a lack of intelligence in dogs or perhaps something else, such as their reliance more on smell than vision. Likewise, many organisms live in environments that are obviously different from ours and so might use senses that we don’t even possess.
Nevertheless, the researchers behind the initiative think intelligence might become clearer through a combination of behavioral and neuroanatomical (神经解剖学的) features. “We’re going to ask, are there kinds of intelligence, and can we identify structural features that are organizational of those kinds of intelligence?” says Andrew Barron at Macquarie University. “If we can, then we are starting to identify things that can be thought of as possible dimensions of intelligence.”
1. Why are wasps and mosquitoes mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To make comparisons between them. |
| B．To prove smarts are in short supply. |
| C．To show there are other forms of intelligence. |
| D．To illustrate their similarities with humans. |
| A．It is upsetting to see different talents in natural settings. |
| B．It is hard to compare the abilities of different species. |
| C．Life forms in the natural world are different from humans. |
| D．It requires us to answer some basic questions about intelligence. |
| A．Factors like brain size matter more. |
| B．Other features need to be considered. |
| C．Some organisms possess similar senses. |
| D．All animals show signs of advanced cognition. |
| A．Different Minds | B．Surprising Behaviors |
| C．Unique Senses | D．Diverse Species |
4 . Exposure (暴露) to more light during the day and less light at night is important for healthy sleep because it helps to keep the right body clock, the study team writes in Sleep Heath. The results suggest that in the office environment, being exposed either to daylight or electric lights may be important for the health of workers. “Many office buildings may actually be moving in the direction of reducing light,” said Figueiro. “Much has been done to reduce light levels to promote energy efficiency, which is important, but we may be going too far in this direction. ” She added, “We need to start thinking about how we light our daytime environment. ”
To see whether office workers get enough light to improve their sleep-wake cycle, the study team found participants (参与者) in five government office buildings across the country. A total of 109 people working at the offices wore something that could measure light for one week in summertime, and 81 of these participants repeated the experiment (实验) in winter as well. The office workers wrote down their sleep and wake time and completed a form of questions about their mood and sleep quality at the end of each study period.
Researchers found that people exposed to greater amounts of light during the morning hours, between 8 am and noon, fell asleep more quickly at night compared to those exposed to low light in the morning. People getting more morning light were also less likely to report feelings of stress. Office workers exposed to high levels of light all day, from 8 am to 5 pm, also reported lower levels of sleep disorders.
A lack of good quality sleep has been connected with mental and physical health problems, including those with mood, thinking and the immune system. There are many easy things we can do during the day to increase our exposure to sunlight that could have beneficial effects on mood and sleep, such as looking out of the window, seeking light during the day, especially during the morning, and going out during lunch time.
1. What is Figueiro’s attitude towards light reduction?| A．Worried. | B．Scared. | C．Excited. | D．Interested. |
| A．By changing workers’ sleep-wake cycle. | B．By doing experiments in different seasons. |
| C．By collecting some questions from workers. | D．By designing a new light-measuring method. |
| A．People getting more morning light get tired easily. |
| B．People getting more morning light feel less stressed. |
| C．People exposed to less night light wake up quickly. |
| D．People exposed to less night light have sleep disorders. |
| A．Many office buildings are reducing light. |
| B．Many office workers lack good quality sleep. |
| C．People’s sleep-wake cycle is important for health. |
| D．Enough daylight is of great benefit to office workers. |
Most nights, there was a light coming from the tiny, windswept island on the other side of the lake. I always thought that was strange because, supposedly, no one lived there anymore. That’s why people called it Ghost Island. Stranger still, one night, the light was flashing on and off.
“There’s the light again,” I said to my brother, Dale, who is 16.
“Yeah. Strange,” he replied, looking carefully across the water.
“Take a look, Ben,” Dad said. He had set up his telescope to view the planets, but now it was aimed at Ghost Island. I squinted (眯眼) through the eyepiece. There’s a spotlight, and it’s flickering (闪烁) — like there’s something in front of it.
Dale looked too. “I bet it’s a tree branch, blowing back and forth in the wind.”
“You’re probably right,” Dad said. “Now check this out.” He pointed his telescope toward the sky and showed us the stars. While we took turns looking, I asked Dad what he knew about Ghost Island.
“Mr. Mori has owned it since I was a kid, so he must be quite old by now,” Dad said. “He used to spend summers there, but I wonder if he still comes up at all.”
Later, Dale and Dad lay on the ground watching for meteors (流星). I wasn’t having much luck, so turned my attention to Ghost Island. But it had gone dark. I looked across the lake, which was smooth as glass. “Huh,” I said. “There’s the light again.” And the flashes appeared in a definite pattern. “It’s an SOS distress signal (遇难信号)!” I cried out.
Dale laughed. “Morse code? No one uses that old stuff anymore.”
“No, watch,” I insisted. “It goes dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot. That’s SOS.”
“How do you even know that?” Dale asked.
“Boy Scouts (童子军). When I was in it, I had to send and receive messages using Morse code to get one of my merit badges (功绩徽章).”
“Maybe you two should check on Mr. Mori,” Dad said. “If he’s at his cabin (小屋), that is.”
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右;
2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好。
Dale was skeptical we’d find anyone, but we set out for Ghost Island.
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Mr. Mori gestured to a wall switch and managed a weak smile.
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