1 . Compared to metal, ceramics (陶瓷) can better resist high temperatures and certain severe environments, but they are fragile. This potentially causes problems for innovators trying to create lightweight versions of these materials, explaining why ceramic materials are not typically used as structural components.
Facing the challenging task of developing lightweight, high-strength ceramic materials, Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Ling Li has turned to the knobby sea star from the tropical Indo-Pacific for design inspiration.
Sea star skeletons (骨骼) are made of an easily broken material. However, the body of the sea star demonstrates high strength and flexibility. Uncovering the principles of this structure may help solve the challenges of making stronger ceramics.
What the team found was unexpected. The skeleton of the knobby star consists of many millimeter-sized skeletal elements. Li and his team discovered that each is constructed of a microlattice (微晶) structure so uniform that it can be described mathematically. Even more interesting, the team found the uniform structure of the microlattice is essentially a single crystal structure at atomic level.
Based on the finding, Li and his collaborators used 3D printing to model and generate large-scale versions of these complex lattice structures, a useful approach in understanding the complexity of these unique geometries. While the 3D-printed models created by Li's team were indeed visually inspiring, the technology needed to bring new, stronger ceramic micro-architectures to market still lay in the future. Currently, 3D printers produce structures at the micrometer level, but printing ceramics still requires firing the final product, which possibly introduces many uncontrolled tiny holes and cracks. These make the structures extremely fragile.
Li hopes that continued advances in the field of 3D printing and further understanding of the formation mechanisms of biological structures like sea star skeletons eventually offer a solution.
1. What does Li's team mainly focus on to improve ceramics?| A．Their strength. | B．Their flexibility. |
| C．Their heat-resistance. | D．Their main component. |
| A．Function. | B．Material. | C．Structure. | D．Size. |
| A．The inability to print tiny structures. |
| B．The failure to produce a larger sea star model. |
| C．Inadequate technology in heating products. |
| D．Misunderstanding in the nature of ceramics. |
| A．The Secret in Fragile Skeletons |
| B．3D Printing for Sea Star Models |
| C．Ceramics as Perfect Structural Components |
| D．A Star in the World of Ceramic Engineering |
2 . Earning an MBA Abroad
Anyone who hopes to lead a Fortune 500 Firm someday should realize that a high-profile leadership role will probably require extensive travel and teamwork with colleagues from all over the world. Any ambitious businessperson may wish to consider attending a business school (B-school) where he or she is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident. When deciding whether to go to a business graduate program in a foreign country, do a cost-benefit analysis.
Selling Points and Disadvantages
Earning an MBA or another type of graduate business degree in a foreign country bears valuable advantages. One big advantage is that you will be able to learn about new cultures.
Other Factors to Consider
When comparing MBA programs in different countries, keep several regional distinctions in mind. The standard in some countries is for MBA degrees to be completed within a single year.
No matter where in the world you’d prefer to pursue an MBA, it’s wise to investigate your target B-school’s course offerings to assess whether the lessons taught at that school seem interesting and relevant to you.
| A．This will help in future work opportunities. |
| B．Another consideration is your final destination. |
| C．In other places the typical time-to-degree is two years. |
| D．Admission odds may vary depending on the location of the programs. |
| E．Unfortunately, there are some downsides to pursuing an MBA overseas. |
| F．How employers recognize the values of an MBA influences job opportunities. |
| G．Here is an outline of the pluses and minuses associated with going abroad for B-school. |
It’s a beautiful sunny day. The Bonds boarded their boat for a carefree day trip to Dove Island for some fishing as a family custom. Thomas Bond, a 30-year-old construction worker, loved the sport, especially catching bass (鲈鱼) and had impressed on his oldest daughter, Lizzy, a love of the outdoors, teaching her how to bait (下诱饵) a hook and cast a line and brave the waves.
The family spent the day fishing in the vast ocean, and then left the island in the early evening. Upon setting off from the shore, they found thick fog rolling in. Lizzy fell into a light sleep beside her five-year-old sister, Molly, at a table on the boat’s lower deck (甲板). Their father’s sharp orders woke her up: “Get out of the boat. The boat’s sinking!” Lizzy pushed her sister into the cold, dark water. Both girls wore life jackets. The adults did not. The girls were followed by their mother, Petra Bond, who was expecting a baby at that time. Within seconds, the boat was damaged and was left just the tip of its bow in the air.
Looking into the faces of her father, mother, and sister, Lizzy wasn’t frightened. After some time, her father told them he would swim for help. “I’ll be back,” he said before disappearing into the darkness.
“Dad is like the superhero to me. I believe he will get help to rescue us,” Lizzy said to herself. After some time, her mother became quiet and stopped swimming. Lizzy wrapped a rope around her mother’s chest and tied her to the boat so she wouldn’t float away. Then her sister fell quiet too and she stayed beside her.
To keep herself awake, Lizzy daydreamed about what they would do after they were rescued. They would stay in a hotel, order room service, and lie comfortably under the blankets in bed, cozy and warm.
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。
After several hours, Lizzy heard her name called in the distance.
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On the coast, an ambulance was waiting for them.
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4 . These Christmassy reads are sure to keep you feeling warm and fuzzy (迷糊的) inside as the long winter nights draw in.
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
May writes sadly about her experience of her husband’s sudden illness and how this event caused major life shifts, both personally and professionally. Her descriptions of staying with the Samí people when visiting Troms, of sea swimming in the winter, of a solstice (冬至) spent at Stonehenge, and the making of slow-cooked meals provides relief when reading alongside such honest descriptions of her own periods of Wintering.
The Christmas Chronicles for Midwinter by Nigel Slater
Nigel Slater describes himself as “a cook who writes” and this sensually written book contains the basic elements of the festive season: food, homesickness, and generosity.
Part memoir (回忆录), part recipe book interwoven with myth and folktale, Slater shares his love for winter through his warm narrative voice. As he says, “The simple act of making someone something to eat, even a bowl of soup or a loaf of bread, has a many-layered meaning. It suggests an act of protection and caring, of generosity and a close interpersonal relationship.”
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
I for one cannot resist a good detective novel, especially one set during Christmas. Our beloved detective Hercule Poirot is charged with solving the bloody murder of multimillionaire Simeon Lee, which takes place on Christmas Eve following a family gathering. Christie’s trademark dilemma takes the form of a murder in a room locked from the inside…
A satisfying read filled with all the elements I love most about a good Victorian detective novel: a strikingly old-fashioned village, a murder-mystery set in a country estate, and unreliable characters.
1. What sense probably occurs to a reader when reading Wintering?| A．Sadness. | B．Comfort. |
| C．Loneliness. | D．Amazement. |
| A．set in a modern city | B．popular with detectives |
| C．concerned with a wealthy person | D．meant for Christmas celebrators |
| A．May. | B．Agatha Christie. |
| C．Nigel Slater. | D．The writer of this text. |
5 . According to Gelb, although not everyone is born with the gifts and the capacities of Leonardo Da Vinci, it is possible for any person to use the fundamentals of Da Vinci’s approach to learning to guide us toward the realization of our inner Da Vinci. One typical fundamental is curiosity. Curiosity is “The desire to know is natural to good men.” — Leonardo Da Vinci
The young Leonardo loved being in nature, showed an early gift for drawing and was fascinated by mathematics. Young Leonardo’s Curiosity regarding education and mathematics especially often raised constant unsureness and difficulties for the teachers who taught him and continuously proved them to be wrong. Most children have in them endless amounts of curiosity and sense of wonder. Unfortunately for multiple reasons these qualities are lost as children reach adulthood, not Leonardo though. Perhaps one of his greatest characteristics was his willingness to question accepted knowledge. Leonardo’s Curiosity never faded and fueled the lake of his genius for his entire life. Leonardo’s motives were not money, women or loyalty to any church or person. His pursuits were pure: the long search for beauty and above all: truth.
Leonardo would wonder around asking questions he did not himself yet understand. He always carried a notebook with himself so that he could quickly write down hundreds of questions, ideas, thoughts, impressions and observations as they occurred. He was expectant and reliant only upon himself to answer his own questions. Being modest, he was not afraid to make mistakes and appear foolish. Leonardo accepted the feelings of unfamiliarity and foolishness.
His questions led him to designing a snorkel (水下呼吸器) as well as diving equipment and even a submarine and also inventing flying machines and a parachute. His curiosity took him under the water and into the sky.
1. What does the underlined words “Da Vinci” refer to?| A．Potential. | B．Curiosity. |
| C．Honesty. | D．Motive. |
| A．Educating kids. | B．Seeking for love. |
| C．Appreciating nature. | D．Questioning his teachers. |
| A．It fooled himself. |
| B．It made him independent. |
| C．It inspired his whole life. |
| D．It disappeared in his adulthood. |
| A．An idle youth, a needy age. |
| B．First come, first served. |
| C．Stay hungry, stay foolish. |
| D．Nothing ventured, nothing gained. |
6 . Often when we think of taking some time out and having a little R&R, the image that comes to mind is that of being very still with the aim of moving as little as possible. Rest, we have come to learn, means sitting down, putting our feet up and unburdening ourselves.
This is all good and well, and as a working mother of two, I completely appreciate the physical exhaustion that comes from standing for literally hours followed by the cool wave of relief that radiates from the soles of my feet upwards when I finally sit down. What better way to do that than a day spent doing nothing?
So why, then, do I still find myself exhausted in the evening? I’ve done hardly any physical activity at all, and how can I possibly be this tired? The answer, I realized, is down to the fact that I wasn’t getting enough cognitive rest. Surfing, texting and answering emails, engaging with people online, the news cycle and the endless worries, all of this can take place while a person is fully curled up on the sofa in pajamas. All these things inhibit us from receiving enough mental rest.
I caught up with CBT therapist Charlotte Luscombe who shared with me the importance of switching off mentally as well as physically. She explains, “We can be physically still and resting but that does not mean our bodies are in a relaxed state. Our minds can continue to race and can cause anxiety when doing so.”
And what suggestions does Charlotte have for busy-minded individuals like me? “Active rest,” She tells me, “activities that help you to engage your mind can help you to relax even if you are physically doing something, as this encourages cognitive rest. They can be yoga, walking, reading, coloring etc. Even doing something active with your mind engaged will be more restful than sitting down but worrying for hours.”
1. What is Paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The manner of sitting. | B．The common sense of rest. |
| C．The definition of a still life. | D．The physical tiredness. |
| A．Protect. | B．Prevent. | C．Separate. | D．Save. |
| A．Interacting online. | B．Doing nothing at home. |
| C．Focusing on reading. | D．Going to a therapist. |
| A．How to Correctly Sit Down | B．How to Timely Deal with Worries |
| C．How to Properly Rest Your Brain | D．How to Fully Engage Your Mind |
7 . You improve your robot’s software by improving its software. Agrim Gupta of Stanford University, however, begs to differ. He thinks you can also improve a robot’s software by improving its hardware. He and his colleagues have invented a way of testing this idea.
They brought to their robots, unimals, the principles of evolution (进化) by natural selection. Unimals, with globes for heads and sticks for arms and legs, are software beings interacting with a virtual environment. The environments where they wandered were in three varieties: flat grounds, grounds with hills and steps, and ones that had the complexities of the second sort, but with added objects.
To begin with, the unimals were randomly assigned various shapes, but with identical software— derl. Newly created unimals learned to face the challenges in a virtual bootcamp. They were then entered into tournaments in groups. Each group winner was awarded one mutation (变异) —one extra arm or leg, or one extra turning in a joint. The new replaced the oldest unimal and then was assigned to a new group, and the process repeated. About 4,000 varieties of them underwent training.
The team were surprised by the diversity of shapes that evolved. Crucially, though, the researchers found the most successful unimals learned tasks in half the time their oldest ancestors had taken, and that those evolving in the toughest grounds were the most successful.
In this evolution of unimals’ morphology (形态) to promote the ability to learn, Dr Gupta sees a version of something called the Baldwin effect. In 1896 James Baldwin, a psychologist, argued that minds evolve to make the best use of the morphologies of the bodies. What Dr Gupta has shown, though in software, is that the opposite can also be true — changes in body morphology can improve the way minds work. Even though he held the software constant, it became more efficient at learning as the unimals’ bodies evolved.
Whether that discovery can be turned to account in the way robots are developed remains to be seen. But the way of testing is certainly an out-of-the-box idea.
1. How was the test conducted?| A．By promoting Unimals’ learning. | B．By adjusting the environments. |
| C．By proving the evolution theory. | D．By stimulating unimals’ mutation. |
| A．The number of trained unimals. | B．The decline in time for learning tasks. |
| C．The variety of evolved shapes. | D．The replacement of old unimals. |
| A．Mind evolution affects body shaping. |
| B．Body changes better mind work. |
| C．Hardware changes do not impact software. |
| D．The discovery is useful in robot development. |
| A．Negative. | B．Objective. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Approving. |
8 . Malat Leuth Wei, 25, loves being in the gym, flying across the court in a specialized wheelchair. The games are incredibly
Wei was born in what is now South Sudan and had polio (小儿麻痹症) at age 3. Worse still, his father went
He had a tough time
Wei went to the park with all the children in the
Wei
| A．easy | B．intense | C．complex | D．close |
| A．in vain | B．in style | C．on display | D．on line |
| A．missing | B．fighting | C．starving | D．begging |
| A．wandered about | B．turned up | C．ended up | D．dropped by |
| A．shelter | B．passport | C．walking-stick | D．wheelchair |
| A．training | B．schooling | C．adjusting | D．travelling |
| A．assigned | B．appointed | C．admitted | D．ranked |
| A．inspiring | B．interesting | C．challenging | D．accepting |
| A．legend | B．motto | C．sport | D．culture |
| A．neighborhood | B．camp | C．city | D．country |
| A．shooting | B．rising | C．chasing | D．kicking |
| A．more | B．better | C．less | D．worse |
| A．loses | B．treasures | C．deserts | D．doubts |
| A．message | B．victory | C．emotion | D．failure |
| A．everything | B．nothing | C．anything | D．something |
9 . Growing up, I was often the first Jewish person my classmates had ever met. I lived in Mississauga, Ontario, and was the only Jewish student in my grade—sometimes the only one in the whole school. This difference set me apart.
Every September, I hated presenting the note my parents had expertly made to a teacher I was just getting to know. The note explained that I would be absent during the Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I fretted that my teachers would label me the “Jewish kid”.
The real trouble always came as the local new year’s festival approached. I was Jewish and celebrated Hanukkah, not this festival. At school, on one day before the winter break, every class would sit in neat rows in the gym and sing songs from the festival. However, the music teacher sometimes played Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel, a Jewish festival song, and I would feel hundreds of eyes staring at my red cheeks. As my friends counted down the days until the festival, I counted the days until it was over and I could go back to feeling normal.
Each year during primary school, my mother would coordinate (协调) with my teacher to come to my class and tell the story of Hanukkah. She would prepare treats and materials depending on my age. Every time I would proudly stand beside her as she told the story of Hanukkah and explained the symbols. The children who had attended the presentation previously competed to answer questions. After my mom left, I would overhear them showing off their fried treats to kids in other classes.
My mom’s annual visits to my school sparked (激发) interest from other parents as well. Over the years, we had visits from parents who shared how festivals were celebrated in Germany and Italy.
My mom showed me, my classmates and their families that what sets us apart should be celebrated and shared, an intention which I continue to set for myself as I cycle through another holiday season.
1. What does the underlined word “fretted” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Noticed. | B．Disagreed. | C．Worried. | D．Expected. |
| A．Being a trick target. | B．Singing holiday songs. |
| C．Being culturally different. | D．Celebrating others’ festival. |
| A．They welcomed it warmly. | B．They gave away her treats. |
| C．They showed off themselves. | D．They expressed sympathy for her. |
| A．She protected her child from being hurt. |
| B．She encouraged cross-cultural understanding. |
| C．She made Hanukkah a school-celebrated festival. |
| D．She saved the Jewish tradition from being changed. |
10 . Oscar Wilde once said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Art provides a way to communicate experiences when people lack verbal skills.
Young children typically draw and sing and dance without worrying about their abilities. Adults, however, often have complex feelings about art and art making. They begin to evaluate the quality of their art instead of focusing on self-expression itself.
What are art therapists’ superpower? They can channel dangerous thoughts into imaginative artworks. For instance, people with violent tendencies might let out their anger by hitting another human being.
| A．Art therapy is a double-edged sword. |
| B．Thus, the many benefits of creative self-expression are lost. |
| C．They develop art as an expressive skill for solving problems. |
| D．But, obviously, releasing their anger in this way isn't a good choice. |
| E．Art therapy, in its own ways, can influence a range of human functioning. |
| F．It can significantly enhance positive moods and boost measures of well-being. |
| G．However, with art therapists’ help, their energy could be changed into creative products. |
