Tomatoes: The Real Magical Fruit
“Fresh tomato plants! Straight out of the ground! 50 cents each!” I shouted in the school hall. In my hands, I carried a shoebox with little tomato plants. Their homes were plastic bottles, without the top half. Most people ignored my product, but some handed me 50 cents and picked out a 2-week-old baby tomato plant.
About a month before this, I started gardening. I pulled up grass in my little garden for several days in a row. Satisfied with my work, I continued to the second step — begging my dad to take me to the supermarket. He agreed!
When my dad turned off the engine and opened the door, I practically skipped inside the supermarket. We headed straight for the garden center. I picked up planters, seeds and dirt. My dad helped and showed me the best dirt and tomato plant types to get. We got to the register, and my dad, knowing what would happen, helped me pay.
As soon as I got home, I began to plant them in my garden. The following days witnessed my visits to the garden and my parents were amazed by my devotion to my new-found love.
Then was the part where I met my problem — I planted too many tomato seeds. I realized this all too late, about 10 days later when they all started sprouting (发芽) up and I counted 45 tomato plants. A few days went by and then I ended up with 85 tomato plants.
I did what all high schoolers would do when they messed up — I asked people around. I even got a notebook to write down their suggestions. Sadly, I got the same answer from most people, “Just let them die.” WHAT?! Let my beautiful plants die? They had so much potential! They could make 20 — 30 tomatoes per plant! We were talking about the possibility of around 2,550 tomatoes!
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
So, I decided to solve it in my way.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The result was better than I had thought.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Science Books for Kids of All Ages
To help you choose the perfect education al books for your child, we’ve created this handpicked list of the best science books for kids. The titles featured here spark curiosity, encourage leaning, and are lots of fun, too.
About Time: A First Look at Time and Clocks
Author: Bruce Koscielniak; Price: US $8.55
Long ago people used the sun, the moon, and the water to tell time. Soon after we began using our knowledge about the natural world to build clocks and to create calendars made up of months and years. Centuries later, we have clocks and calendars all around us. This book tells the amazing story of how it all happened!
Animalium: Welcome to the Museum
Author: Katie Scott;Price: US $8.99
This book opens the doors of the natural history museum for your child all year round! It features 200 full-color specimens accompanied by lively, informative text and more. Discover the animal kingdom inglorious detail with unique illustrations that combine science and art.
Bang!: How We Came to Be
Author: Michael Rubino; Price: US $16.00
“Bang! And that was it, the beginning of everything.” So begins this beautifully illustrated story of evolution. This book conveys not only the facts but also the excitement of the scientific explanation of our world, from the origin of the universe to the present reality of our planet.
Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out
Author: Laura Overdeck; Price: US $10.99
This book makes learning about math as fun as dessert after dinner! It combines math and cool facts for one fun and wild adventure. Now kids can discover the science behind all their favorite things: marshmallows, soda, ice cream, and more. With over 100 math problems on a variety of topics, kids will find math isn’t just fun — it can be found everywhere!
1. What can kids learn in the book About Time?| A．The tough life of ancestors. | B．The origin of the sun and the moon. |
| C．The old ways to measure time. | D．The wildlife in the natural world. |
| A．They are children’s novels. | B．They are popular for cheap price. |
| C．They are collected in the museum. | D．They are illustrated stories for kids. |
| A．Bang. | B．Bedtime Math. | C．Animalium. | D．About Time. |
3 . Friendships can hold an exceptional place in our life stories. What is it about the s connections that make them so unique? Before we dive into the science, let’s first observe on in action.
If I could somehow design a best friend, you know, put together all the ideal qualities of my perfect match, that person would pale in comparison to Priya. She’s always there for me. Last year after I failed my important exam, it felt like my whole world was crashing down. Priya was at my door at the news. I was a wreck, but she sat there with me and listened. We were on the same page!
Early childhood, adolescent, and adult friendships are all a little different in part because the brain works in different ways at those stages of life. Adolescence is a unique time when peer relationships take focus, and thanks to the developing brain, there are changes in the way you value, understand, and connect to friends. Teenage friends can seem attached at the hip.
Scientists describe adolescence as a social re adaption as teenagers begin to spend as much or more time with their friends than with their parents. This drive to hang with pals maybe due to changes in the brain’s reward centre. Its activation makes hanging out with others enjoyable and motivates you to spend more time with them. Neuroimaging(神经成像) studies show that this region is highly reactive during your teenage years, which may explain why adolescents seem to place a higher value on social interactions than children or adults.
Teenage friendships can also feel closer than the friendships of your childhood. This deeper connection is possible thanks to improvements in what scientists call Theory-of Mind the ability to understand others’ emotions, thoughts, motivations, and points of view. Babies begin to develop Theory of Mind around 18 months or so. And scientists know that it continues to improve and mature well into your teenage years and beyond. Likewise, regions within the social brain show increased connectivity during adolescence compared with childhood.
As a result, teens can better understand their friend’s perspectives, allowing for deeper connections to develop. The ability to connect with others somewhat depends on the coordination of actions, emotions, physiology, and thoughts. This is what psychologists call interpersonal synchrony.
1. Why did the author mention the exam in paragraph 2?| A．To introduce an exam. | B．To show their close relationship. |
| C．To serve a favorable example. | D．To argue against the opinion. |
| A．Adult friends are attached at the hip. |
| B．Teenagers’ value stay the same. |
| C．The brain is inactive during teenage years. |
| D．Peer relationships play a key role in the life. |
| A．It becomes better developed in adolescence. |
| B．It refers to regions within the social brain. |
| C．Babies begin to develop it around 8 months. |
| D．It refers to the ability to understand our own emotions. |
| A．Are friendships different? |
| B．Are friendships connected with your brain? |
| C．Do friendships matter? |
| D．How do adolescent friendships develop? |
4 . When you think of how much you do with your hands all day, from making yourself fried eggs in the morning to folding laundry in the evening, it becomes clear how vital skillfulness is to daily life.
For some specific tips on improving skillfulness, we turned to a personal trainer Abdias Rojas. He said, “there are so many movements you can do to actually improve not just the strength of your hands but also flexibility in your hands.”
Put rubber bands on your fingers, then expand and contract them. This will contribute to myofascial (肌筋膜的) release and getting your hands to feel more comfortable.
To get a better sense of how much pressure you should apply when touching things, do hand exercise in sand.
Finally, try seated eccentric (偏心的) wrist extension. Sit upright with an arm on a table, holding a dumbbell with your hand hanging off the edge and your palm facing down. Use your other hand to curl your wrist up, lower it, and repeat.
Don’t overlook the value of overall body health when it comes to improving skillfulness, either. Rojas pointed out that without the optimal gross (最佳的粗肌) and fine motor skills, which make up the skillfulness of our hands, we would be unable to perform daily tasks.
| A．It sounds strange. |
| B．Moreover, it helps you have fun, too. |
| C．Here are the ones that he recommended. |
| D．To strengthen your wrists, do wrist mobility drills. |
| E．Do this in sets of two with 20 repetitions each, every day. |
| F．To strengthen your sensation of touch, avoid working out with gloves. |
| G．To start with the basics, flexibility is the skill of performing tasks, particularly with your hands. |
Based on global data, about 25 percent of children have or have had sleeping problems, and the main contributing
One of the most exciting times for 7-year-old Emily during weekdays is at midday,
Enough sleep has a significant impact on students’ physical, psychological and mental growth. It
6 . Nightmares, or bad dreams, are terrible. I’ve dreamt about throwing up, animals swallowing me, and someone breaking into my house―all causing me to wake up in the middle of the night, heart racing, anxiety growing out of control. Sometimes, my bad dreams reflect exactly what I’m feeling anxious about. Other times, they’re about something else, but still seemingly caused by my anxiety levels. To find out if anxiety really can cause bad dreams, I went straight to the experts.
The experts I spoke with agreed that anxiety could contribute to bad dreams. “Thoughts filled with anxiety while someone is asleep can manifest (显现) themselves as bad dreams or stress dreams,” said Alex Dimitriu, a double board-certified physician in psychiatry and sleep medicine. “Stress dreams, such as missing an important event, a test, or a flight, are often quite common in people undergoing stress during their daily lives.”
Although the reasons why we dream are not fully understood, there may be times when your mind is simply trying to work through a challenge from that day — one that can be causing you to feel anxious. “We do know from research that the brain continues to work on solving problems during sleep,” explained Jason Durant, a New York-based licensed clinical psychologist.
In that sense, dreaming can actually be a good thing, even if it feels uncomfortable at the time. “The mind is attempting to prompt (促使) you to use the tools you successfully used before when in a similar life situation, or to remind you what did not work and to try something new,” said Nancy Irwin, a clinical psychologist.
Anyhow, bad dreams may be the last thing you want. You may not be able to prevent bad dreams completely, but you can focus on managing your anxiety during the day, which may help alleviate (减轻) the problem. Dr. Dimitriu suggests going for a walk, talking to friends and journaling to process your feelings throughout the day. Then, in the evenings, step away from your devices, and take some time to plot out a strategy for dealing with the things that are causing you stress.
1. Why does the author mention his/her experiences of bad dreams?| A．To say anxiety is very common. |
| B．To analyze the cause of bad dreams. |
| C．To find anxiety levels in a dream. |
| D．To prove bad dreams are unavoidable. |
| A．Bad dreams. |
| B．Sleeping people. |
| C．Stressful events. |
| D．Anxious thoughts. |
| A．They keep us free of anxiety. |
| B．They help us deal with problems. |
| C．They allow us to recall the past. |
| D．They warn us to remain cautious. |
| A．Advice on how to reduce bad dreams. |
| B．Ways to totally prevent dreaming. |
| C．How to relieve anxiety through exercise. |
| D．How to improve sleep quality at night. |
7 . Head to Flint, Michigan, on a Wednesday night, and you’ll see a blinding display of lights near the river.
The tradition
As he left, Daniel told the boy to
Daniel made it a
The tradition has
| A．developed | B．survived | C．continued | D．started |
| A．negotiated | B．bonded | C．agreed | D．accommodated |
| A．last | B．usual | C．scary | D．challenging |
| A．essential | B．accurate | C．special | D．tolerant |
| A．witness | B．appreciate | C．watch | D．explore |
| A．slid | B．biked | C．drove | D．paced |
| A．signal | B．warn | C．check | D．respond |
| A．evident | B．important | C．probable | D．surprising |
| A．worked | B．changed | C．happened | D．mattered |
| A．duty | B．assignment | C．practice | D．commitment |
| A．casual | B．trendy | C．strange | D．fun |
| A．phenomenon | B．miracle | C．hit | D．celebration |
| A．only | B．even | C．nearly | D．ever |
| A．improves | B．spreads | C．extends | D．accelerates |
| A．light | B．message | C．hope | D．sign |
8 . As waterfowl (水鸟) seasons unfold each year across North America, the question “Where are the ducks?” unavoidably arises somewhere. While that seems like a straightforward, easy question, the answer is actually very complex. There are many factors that influence distribution of waterfowl in fall and winter.
Most waterfowl hunters understand the effect weather has on waterfowl migration (迁徙). Except for the few species that are hardwired for more dependable long-distance migrations, such as blue-winged teal (水鸭), waterfowl are adapted to migrating only as far as is necessary for them to find food and places to rest. Waterfowl like to wander at places without freezing temperatures and snow to cover food sources. It is advantageous for them to reduce risk of death from migration. Some birds that arrive earliest on breeding areas have access to the best regions, which results in a higher probability of nesting successfully.
Snow and ice cover and their influence on waterfowl migration are easy to understand to most duck hunters. However, what may be less understood is the trend toward warmer winters. If current climate trends continue in North America, northern regions will have less frequent ice and snow cover in future winters. So waterfowl that are adapted to staying as close to breeding areas are likely to be influenced, meaning significantly delayed fall migrations and shorter periods on southern areas.
In the past 200 years the landscapes that are most important to waterfowl have suffered huge habitat loss, with some states losing more than 90 percent of wetlands, and nearly all losing over 50 percent. Perhaps the most discouraging loss of wetlands important to wintering waterfowl has been in coastal Louisiana, where more than 40 percent of the states, approximately 3 million acres of wetlands have disappeared over the past several decades.
Changes in the number of wetlands and the trend toward warmer winters are likely enabling waterfowl to winter farther north or, at least, delaying fall migration. Unsurprisingly across most of the eastern United States’ many waterfowl hunters saw reduced harvest as a result.
1. What does the author want to tell us in paragraph 1?| A．Not all people know where migrating birds fly. |
| B．The reasons for waterfowl distribution are puzzling. |
| C．It’s very easy for people to know why waterfowl migrate. |
| D．There are complicated factors influencing waterfowl migration. |
| A．Having a good rest there. | B．Protecting-them from hunters. |
| C．Getting access to the best regions. | D．Decreasing risk of dying from migration. |
| A．Almost all the wetlands in coastal Louisiana will disappear soon. |
| B．Loss of wetlands important to waterfowl has been happening rapidly. |
| C．Habitat loss will put waterfowl in immediate danger of extinction, |
| D．Most states in North America have lost over 90 percent of wetlands. |
| A．Where are the ducks on earth? |
| B．How are waterfowl migrating? |
| C．Are waterfowl migrations changing? |
| D．Are waterfowl surviving the warmer climate? |
9 . Avoid the supermarket shelves piled with cheese, cupcakes and pies. That is the message of an analysis that found these items are the worst when looking at both nutritional and environmental impacts of thousands of food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. So far, most studies have focused on the environmental impact of goods such as beef or beans, rather than tofu and other products that shoppers often buy. Where research has focused on such products, it has usually been for a small number of them.
In a bid to bridge the gap, Micheal Clark at the University of Oxford and his colleagues analyzed more than 57,000 food and drink products sold in the UK and Ireland. The team took the ingredients (成份) data from eight retailers (零售商), including major supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s. However, precise figures on how much of each ingredient is in each product were only available for around a tenth of them. To estimate the rest, Clark and his colleagues trained an algorithm (算法) on the known products and used it to predict the composition of the unknown ones. Finally, the team linked all the ingredients to an existing database of environmental impacts, including emissions (排放), land use and water stress.
The results may come as no surprise: meat, fish and cheese products had highest environmental impact while fruit, vegetables, bread and sugary drink products had the lowest burden. Clark admits that none of this is exciting, given what we already knew from past research. “What is important is that you can start getting these impact estimates for products that people are purchasing, which then has a lot of effects,” he says.
One of those is eco-lables, which can help consumers to make greener choices. However, retailers have struggled in the past with the challenge of the large number of food. Clark is thinking about how to eventually turn the data into an app that could be used either by shoppers or by retailers wanting to reduce their environmental impact. “We’ve made that information available in a way that means people can start making informed decisions,” he says.
1. What is the purpose of Clark’s study?| A．To solve the environmental problems with some products. |
| B．To point out the mistakes of the previous research. |
| C．To focus on the important ingredients data from retailers. |
| D．To estimate the environmental impact of frequently-bought products. |
| A．The process of Clark’s study. | B．The result of Clark’s study. |
| C．The significance of Clark’s study. | D．The limitation of Clark’s study. |
| A．Surprising. | B．Worrying. | C．Meaningful. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Nutritious food like beef and eggs. | B．Green food like carrots and bananas. |
| C．Healthy food like fish and tofu. | D．Fresh food like milk and chicken |
Aiming to inspire the people of various countries to learn Chinese, the video series The Imagination of Art was released on Oct. 24.
The project,
Under the theme of “Chinese language plus arts”, the series
In the first episode, Wu, one director of Fine Arts Experimental Art School at the academy
The other two episodes are respectively about Lu’s work Solid Liquid and Zhang’s work Tianxin, both of which have a
