1 . A new study from a team at the University of Pittsburgh has discovered blood-based markers that can reveal someone’s biological age, which could help treat various health problems that can happen as our bodies get older.
We have our actual ages—the number of years we’ve been alive—and then we have biological ages, which is related to the wear and tear on cells and organs. Knowing this biological age can help us work out disease risk, tailor treatments, and better understand the different rates at which our bodies break down.
“Imagine two people aged 65,” says Aditi Gurkar, a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. “One rides a bike to work and goes skiing on the weekends and the other can’t climb a flight of stairs.”
They have the same age, but different biological ages. Why do these two people age differently? To help answer this question, the researchers enlisted the help of 196 elderly adults, separated into two groups: one group of volunteers aged 75 or older who were classified as healthy agers, and the other group of volunteers aged 65-75 who were classified as rapid agers. The healthy agers were able to climb a flight of stairs or walk for 15 minutes without resting, while the rapid agers had to take breaks through each activity.
The distinction gave the study team the chance to look at differences between the groups in metabolites（代谢物）: small chemical substances left by biological processes in the body. They can be used as evidence for which processes are happening, and how well they’re running.
“We chose to look at metabolites because they are dynamic,” says Gurkar. “They change in real time to reflect our current health and how we feel, and we have the power to influence them through our lifestyle, diet and environment.”
With more research, it might be possible to develop a blood test for quick and easy biological age judgment. That test could then be run on people at earlier ages, when changes to molecular processes are easier to edit.
1. What do the underlined words “the wear and tear” mean in paragraph 2?| A．The damage. | B．The repair. | C．The examination. | D．The decrease. |
| A．By analysing some figures. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By giving an example. | D．By grouping volunteers randomly. |
| A．They can affect our lifestyle and diet. | B．They can reflect our current thoughts. |
| C．They can be taken out and tested easily. | D．They can show the present body conditions. |
| A．A Rare Disease Resulted from Blood |
| B．A Better Way to Keep Us Younger |
| C．A Blood Test Indicating Health Problems |
| D．An Approach to Becoming Stronger |
2 . I’ve been a healthcare assistant with Marie Curie for four years. What led me to join this remarkable organization was a deeply personal experience.
Seven years ago, my father was in the end-of-life stage. He had wanted to be at home during his final moments, so I arranged for him to return home. He spent only one more night there, but he wasn’t alone. A Marie Curie nurse was by our side.
Facing the emotions that come with knowing a loved one is at the end of their life can be difficult. Having a nurse with us made it easier to deal with these feelings. That’s when I made the decision to join Marie Curie.
You might assume that being with family members during the end of one’s life would be a sad experience. But what may surprise you is that it’s not. The family, in my experience, make the most of the time they have and understand that their loved one is dying, but it’s not a time for sorrow; it’s a time of togetherness and warmth.
I remember one particular family—three sisters—and the fourth was in the end-of-life stage. When I arrived, she was unaware, and I knew she might not make it through the night.
But sitting with the sisters, talking about their childhood, and sharing photos. I felt it was a special time. They mentioned that their sister had asked for peaches ‘n’ cream earlier that day, and they made sure she got it.
We lost her that night. The sisters expected it, they thanked me, and it was a comforting experience. Our role is to support families and the individuals who are dying. We can’t change the matter of necessity, but we can make-a difference. We provide support through the early stages of sorrow.
1. Why did the author join Marie Curie?| A．To memorize her father. | B．To deal with her sad feelings. |
| C．To provide help and services. | D．To express her thanks to nurses. |
| A．She accompanied her family. | B．She took photos for her. |
| C．She told stories to her sisters. | D．She comforted her parents. |
| A．Challenging. | B．Rewarding. | C．Eye-opening. | D．Time-consuming. |
| A．The support of family counts. | B．Helping others is helping yourself. |
| C．It’s never late to change ourselves. | D．End-of-life company means a lot. |
3 . To help you get out and explore, language leaning platform, Preply, has ranked Europe’s walkable cities.
Seville, Spain
Seville in Spain tops the list of Europe’s walkable cities. Visitors to this amazing Spanish city can explore the impressive Plaza de Espana public square, before wandering over to the UNESCO-listed palace of Real Alcazar and Seville Cathedral. With just 20 minutes of walking between these attractions, you can really make the most of your time here.
Venice, Italy
Venice is famous as a port city for walkers. There are endless attractive passages to explore, as well as plenty of extremely impressive bridges over the crossing canals. Just under half an hour of walking here will take you on a tour of the fantastic Grand Canal, Doge’s Palace, St Mark’s Square, Basilica and bell tower, all in only 1.3 miles.
Florence, Italy
Florence secures its place as a walkable city in Europe thanks to its wonderful display of attractions that can be explored on foot. In only 33 minutes, visitors can take in the brilliance of Florence’s top destinations. A 1.6-mile route covers the famous Uffizi Gallery and the Galleria dell’ Accademia, home to Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the Statue of David.
Athens, Greece
Visitors to Athens can begin their journey at the Acropolis, climbing to discover the ancient Parthenon, which stands as evidence for the city’s ancient heritages (遗产). The National Archaeological Museum is also close by, housing a treasure trove (宝库) of artifacts that proudly display Greece’s impressive archaeological heritage.
1. What is special about Seville?| A．It is Europe’s most walkable city. | B．It is famous for impressive canals. |
| C．Ancient treasures are housed there. | D．There are some wonderful attractions. |
| A．Wander around Seville Cathedral. | B．Visit the Grand Canal. |
| C．Explore the Uffizi Gallery. | D．Climb the Acropolis. |
| A．Seville. | B．Venice. | C．Florence. | D．Athens. |
4 . Why is a compliment so impactful? One of the most important things to humans is to feel valued and respected by others, says Vanessa Bohns, a social psychologist, who has researched compliments. According to her research, people feel “significantly better” after both giving and receiving a compliment.
“You handled that situation so well.”
Bohns recently used her favorite compliment when she saw a server address a difficult situation with a customer at the bar. “I like it so much because you use it in anxious moments where the other person is often unsure of whether they handled a situation OK,” she says. In situations that call for a compliment, don’t second-guess yourself. Give your compliments generously.
“
This compliment — one of Bohns’ favorites — works well among romantic partners and close family members. “It’s a beautiful way to highlight how their presence turns life into something meaningful, despite boring routines of our everyday lives,” she says. If you’re afraid that giving a compliment like this will feel strange, you’re not alone.
“Hey, great dress!”
Feel free to compliment strangers. In Bohns’ research, students on a college campus were told to approach a stranger of the same gender and compliment them-about, for example, their nice shirt. Before heading out, the study participants tended to underestimate their positive effect while overestimating how annoying it would be. Across all contexts, strangers are more likely to be pleased than confused. Plus, who knows?
| A．I love the way you bring out the best in people. |
| B．Respect is essential when you deliver compliments. |
| C．One way to overcome this fear is to do a practice run. |
| D．You make even ordinary moments feel extraordinary. |
| E．You might make a new friend in addition to making someone’s day. |
| F．With that in mind, we asked her to share some of her favorite compliments. |
| G．People sometimes worry that they’re going over and will start to sound insincere. |
5 . Silent reading is far from silent in your brain. Deep within your head there is a voice reading aloud each word as your eyes pass over it.
Let’s do a seemingly unrelated experiment first. Turn on your television and radio. Try to understand both the words from the television and the radio simultaneously. You might have noticed understanding one source required ignoring the other, and you could feel your attention shifting between the two voices. Although we can listen to multiple people speaking at the same time, we can only truly understand one person speaking at a time.
There are three major areas that allow you to understand spoken word. The first is the Auditory Cortex (听觉皮层), which processes the pure characteristics of incoming sounds. Both sides of your brain contain this region. The next area is the Broca/Wernicke (B/W) network, which makes sense of the spoken word. This network exists in only one side of your brain. This means that, although the sounds of language are initially processed in both sides of the brain, spoken word must eventually be funneled (流经漏斗) into this single network. This quickly leads to a bottleneck, which is controlled by the third area: the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG, 额下回). When you try to understand two people speaking at the same time, this region effectively blocks one voice while it allows the other to pass through the B/W bottleneck. Any information that does not immediately make it through the B/W network disappears completely — there is no waitlist.
Now, let’s bring all the pieces together to see why it’s related to your silent reading. When you read, the first region to demonstrate activation is the Visual Cortex, which processes the pure visual characteristics of incoming sights. Immediately after the visual cortex activates, the speech areas of the brain fire up because your brain processes your silent reading in a manner almost identical to the way in which it processes an actual, out-loud speaking voice. For this reason, attempting to read while listening to someone speak is the same as trying to understand two people speaking at the same time—it can’t be done!
1. What does the underlined word “simultaneously” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．At the same time. | B．One at a time. |
| C．On the whole. | D．Through comparison. |
Note: 
disappear; 
wait
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Professors give a speech with a text-heavy PowerPoint slide. |
| B．Teachers keep silent when students are reading attentively. |
| C．Students solve math problem when following a lecture. |
| D．Students practice listening skills while reading novels. |
| A．The art of conversation lies in listening. |
| B．What is reading, but a silent conversation. |
| C．We hear and understand only what we already know half. |
| D．Once an idea gets into your head, it’s probably going to stay there. |
6 . Cordero is the farm manager at Ollin Farms, not far from Boulder, Colorado. The locally grown vegetables on the farm aren’t just pretty. “We play an important role in public health nutrition programs,” says Cordero’s dad, Mark Guttridge, who started this farm with his wife, Kena, 17 years ago.
At a meeting with about a dozen local farmers, two state representatives, and the Colorado officials of agriculture, Guttridge explains how Boulder county has made creative investments in his farm that could be spread to the state or even national level. Before the meeting, Guttridge shows them one of those investments.
A dozen sheep, which Guttridge raises for wool, feed on root vegetables like radishes that have been leftover for them. “So these guys are out fertilizing the vegetable field,” Guttridge laughs. “They’ll be out here a couple more weeks, and then we’ll get our next summer vegetables planted right there.” Around the field is a special moveable type of fencing that Ollin Farms bought using financial aid from the Boulder County Sustainability Office. It allows them to move the sheep from one field to another, fertilizing as they go. The goal of these investments is “really building up our soil health,” he explains. “That relates directly to the nutrient quality of the food-healthy soil grows healthy food.”
The county also makes an effort to get that healthy food out to different communities to boost public health. That’s where the Boulder County Public Health department comes in. It created a coupon program to give discounts to people buying fruits and vegetables from Ollin Farms. Nutrition incentive programs, like those public health fruit and vegetable coupons, are spreading all over the country, and most are funded through the federal farm bill. Amy Yaroch, executive director at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, says “It’s a trip le win. It’s basically good for the consumers who live in that particular community because they’re getting the healthy food, it’s good for the farmer, and then it’s good for the economy.”
1. What does Ollin Farms do?| A．It makes public nutrition health plans. |
| B．It offers financial aid to other farms. |
| C．It provides cheap food to the local community. |
| D．It grows fruits and vegetables rich in nutrition. |
| A．By raising sheep on radishes. | B．By buying fences for farmhouses. |
| C．By funding the farm’s soil health. | D．By giving advice about fertilizing fields. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Dismissive. | C．Unclear. | D．Approving. |
| A．Couponing for Health: Stimulating Nutrition Choices |
| B．Growing Health: Innovations in Farm and Public Health Initiatives |
| C．Fertile Fields and Furry Friends: A Farming Fairy Tale |
| D．Local Produce, Global Impact: The Nutrition Choices of Ollin Farms |
7 . Creating once-in-a-lifetime moments for you is at the heart of everything we do. The following are some tour suggestions handpicked by the WILDFOOT experts.
ICELANDIC WINTER SELF-DRIVE
September to April|4 Nights; £1,529 per person.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Discover Iceland at your leisure, with included car hire and good standard accommodation.
· Hunt for the awe-inspiring northern lights.
· Enjoy incredible landscapes, and natural wonders including waterfalls, hot springs and beautiful National Parks.
CLASSIC SPITSBERGEN EXPLORER
May to July |11 Nights; £8,200 per person.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Observe spectacular wildlife, including the iconic polar bears and whales.
· Enjoy amazing polar scenery and midnight sun.
· Experience exciting Zodiac cruises and shore excursions.
10 DAYS PANTANAL AND AMAZON
June to October|9 Nights; £6,256 per person.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Immerse yourself in the birding paradise of the Amazon Rainforest.
· Have a great chance of spotting the majestic jaguar as it patrols the banks of the Cuiaba River.
· Encounter the wonderful wildlife of the Pantanal including the Brazilian tapir, giant anteaters, capybaras, monkeys, giant river otters, caiman, anacondas and much more.
HWANGE & VICTORIA FALLS FAMILY SAFARI
November to March|11 Nights;
Adults: £3,245 per person; Children: £1,064 per person.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Start your Africa experience with a visit to the iconic Victoria Falls.
· Observe an abundance of iconic wildlife including elephants, lions, buffaloes, wild-dogs, cheetahs, a myriad of birds, and much more.
· Visit the Painted Dog Research Centre to learn about the endangered African Wild-Dog and the conservation efforts in place to protect them.
1. What is special about ICELANDIC WINTER SELF-DRIVE?| A．Northern lights. | B．Polar bears and whales. |
| C．Midnight sun. | D．Victoria Falls. |
| A．ICELANDIC WINTER SELF-DRIVE. |
| B．CLASSIC SPITSBERGEN EXPLORER. |
| C．10 DAYS PANTANAL AND AMAZON. |
| D．HWANGE & VICTORIA FALLS FAMILY SAFARI. |
| A．£5,373. | B．£6,437. | C．£8,618. | D．£10,799. |
8 . “Palace, Mountain, Moon?” has been selected by NASA as the Astronomical Picture of the Day for December 25, 2023.
The photo was taken by Valerio, a young photographer of Turin, Italy. It was shot on the evening of December 15, 2023. While he knew about NASA’s competition, he hadn’t considered participating until receiving much encouragement from his social media followers. Soon after, he received the message, “Your image has been chosen as the astronomical photo of the day.” It was incredible!
In a photo like this, nothing is left to luck. The concept came to him back in 2017. Walking on the hills north of Turin, he found several spots perfect for including both the Basilica of Superga Palace and Mountain Monviso. After numerous visits over several months, he identified four spots where Superga and Monviso line up just right.
After pinpointing these locations, he experimented with shooting them at different times. “I knew I needed something special to perfect the photo. The Sun was a no-go, so I turned to the Moon. Its various phases and position s reach an azimuth angle (方位角) of 230 degrees,” Valerio said. With this in mind, he researched the Moon’s phases, marked potential dates on the calendar, and planned the exact moments when the moon could join the queue.
It was very successful, especially because the Moon was in a waxing phase. This meant that in the photo, not only was its crescent (新月) lit up, but so was the left part, its shadowed side. That part is lit by reflected light, also known as Da Vinci’s glow, named after him because he was the one who theorized about why the Moon’s shadowed side is brightened. During the early days of the waxing Moon phases, the shadowed part is visible because the Sun’s light reflects off the Earth and hits the Moon’s shadowed side, giving it a greyish, silvery color. This allowed the light to outline Monviso on the left as well.
1. Why did Valerio send the photo to NASA?| A．He took an interest in astronomical advances. |
| B．He expected to create an impact on social media. |
| C．He received broad support from enthusiastic fans. |
| D．He wished to make his hometown a tourist hot spot. |
| A．shine light on each other | B．stand in a straight line |
| C．fit each other in size | D．vary from usual in color |
| A．Studying how the Moon phase changes. | B．Calculating the Superga-Monviso distance. |
| C．Analyzing when to adjust the camera angle. | D．Measuring the height of the observation point. |
| A．The outline of the crescent. | B．The outline of Superga. |
| C．The dark side of the Moon. | D．The shadowed side of the Earth. |
9 . What if our bodies had a new way — other than our eardrums — to hear the world around us? That’s what neuroscientist David Eagleman wondered five years ago. Then he looked at the body for answers and saw a huge sound jack (插孔). “We have this huge input channel called our skin,” he says, “and we aren’t using it.”
So Eagleman, along with Scott Novich, his student at Baylor College of Medicine, created the Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer, or VEST. The VEST is worn like it sounds. Through 32 tiny motors, it translates sound waves into vibrations (振动) on your back.
First, a computer or smartphone picks up sounds from your surroundings and breaks down the sound sample into a set of specific frequencies. Each frequency band in the set sets off one of 32 motors in the VEST. With time and practice, your brain learns to unconsciously interpret the series of vibrations as sound — and individual sounds as words in a language.
“There is no theoretical reason why this can’t be almost as good as the ears,” says Eagleman. So far, he has trained deaf people to recognize single words through the VEST. He hopes to eventually help them understand sentences, and then full conversations. Just like with language, Eagleman discovered, children — whose brains are more shapable — learned to interpret the VEST more easily than adults did.
Eagleman says his device could one day be deployed in dozens of professions to better understand complex environments. A pilot could interpret a plane’s condition through the VEST’s vibrations. An astronaut could literally feel the health of the International Space Station. Eagleman and Novich’s startup, Neo Sensory, plans to develop the VEST for all kinds of uses, so someday we all can experience this sixth sense. “The possibilities are endless for the kind of information we could be streaming in,” says Eagleman.
1. What is the VEST?| A．A huge input channel on the body. | B．A computer-smartphone connector. |
| C．A processing program with tiny motors. | D．A wearable sound-vibration transformer. |
①motors to be activated ②sounds to be decomposed ③words to be interpreted
| A．①②③ | B．②③① | C．①③② | D．②①③ |
| A．Assessed. | B．Employed. | C．Detected. | D．Invented. |
| A．Listen with Your Skin | B．Hear Your Sixth Sense |
| C．To Listen or Not | D．Here to Hear. |
10 . The World-Famous Nine
By Ben Guterson, illustrated by Kristina Kister
Zander’s grandmother owns the most incredible department store in the world. When a string of mysterious accidents start happening at the store, Zander’s grandmother tells him that a monster called Darkbloom may have returned. The monster, which can control people, wants a magical object that disappeared from the store decades ago. Zander notices that walls on many floors contain mysterious symbols and takes them down in his notebook. Will the 11-year-old boy be able to solve the puzzle and secure the object before Darkbloom does? Packed with suspense, fascination, and a family drama, this mystery may remind you of a cross between Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Ask the Author
The Week: What inspired this book?
Ben Guterson: When I was growing up, Seattle had two big department stores. Something about these big buildings held many possibilities for mystery and discovery to me.
The Week: Why is Zander close to his grandmother?
Ben Guterson: I didn’t want Zander to be alone, so he’s got his loving grandmother there to give him some guidance and keep him safe.
The Week: Do you enjoy mysteries?
Ben Guterson: Yes, I like stories with a mysterious feel to them. I don’t think I have ever been drawn to straightforward realism.
1. What can we learn about Zander?| A．He grows up in Seattle. | B．He lives alone at a store. |
| C．He wishes to be a magician. | D．He wants to defeat Darkbloom. |
| A．A kid loving true-life stories. | B．A kid enjoying fictional works. |
| C．A kid interested in grandma’s dishes. | D．A kid drawn to online store shopping. |
| A．A writer’s profile. | B．An interview outline. |
| C．A children’s story. | D．A book recommendation. |
