1 . Bumble bees (大黄蜂) play, according to new research led by Queen Mary University of London. It is the first time that object play behaviour has been shown in an insect, adding to evidence that bees may experience positive feelings.
The researchers set up numerous experiments to test this, which showed bumble bees went out of their way to roll wooden balls repeatedly despite there being no apparent motivation for doing so. The study also found that younger bees rolled more balls than older bees and that male bees rolled them for longer than their female ones.
The study followed 45 bumble bees. Individual bees rolled balls between 1 and, impressively, 117 times over the experiment. The repeated behaviour suggested that ball-rolling was rewarding. This was supported by a further experiment where another 42 bees were given access to two coloured rooms, one always containing movable balls and one without any object. When tested and given a choice between the two rooms, neither containing balls, bees showed a preference for the colour of the room previously associated with the wooden balls.
The experiments removed any idea that the bees were moving the balls for any greater purpose other than play. Rolling balls did not contribute to survival strategies and was done under stress-free conditions.
The research was based on previous experiments, which showed that bumble bees could be taught to score a goal by rolling a ball to a target in exchange for a sugary food reward. The new research showed the bees rolling balls repeatedly without being trained and without receiving any food for doing so — it was spontaneous.
Professor Lars Chittka said, “Play is thought to contribute to the healthy development and maintenance of an animal’s cognitive (认知) and motor abilities, which may make for their searching for food and is considered an important aspect of animal welfare. The finding shows insect minds are far more complex than we expect. We need to do all we can to protect insects.”
1. What do we know about female bumble bees compared with male ones?| A．They rolled far more balls. |
| B．They spent less time playing rolls. |
| C．They had bigger motivation to roll balls. |
| D．They preferred to play in the colorful rooms. |
| A．Rolling balls is what bumble bees are expert in. |
| B．Rolling balls helps reduce bumble bees’ pressure. |
| C．Rolling balls develops bumble bees’ survival skills. |
| D．Rolling balls is done without any purpose for bumble bees. |
| A．Voluntary. | B．Rewarding. | C．Forced. | D．Conscious |
| A．Play makes a difference to animals’ life. | B．Humans find it hard to figure out insect minds. |
| C．Many insects are faced with dying out. | D．Play can ensure insects to find food successfully. |
2 . Rising water temperatures and the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in our oceans are killing our beautiful coral reefs at a surprising speed. Add the current extreme weather pattern, and things look even worse.
So what makes coral so sensitive? Although it may be hard to believe, corals are not plants, but animals. The colorful reefs we admire so much happen to be skeletons(骨骼) given up by hundreds of thousands of polyps(珊瑚虫). To survive, these animals live with an algae(海藻). The coral polyps give the algae a home and then the algae provide the polyps with their bright color and food.
But the rising water temperatures are causing the coral polyps to lose their algae friends. As a result, the corals are not only losing their food source but also their beautiful colors.
The disappearance of the coral not only makes humans lose the chance to admire the beautiful coral reefs. It also removes a natural barrier which protects shorelines from storms and also fewer living places for fish and other sea animals.
To prevent these important animals from disappearing, a team of researchers are attempting to raise ‘super’ corals.
They began by selecting certain coral species that seems to have got used to the changing ocean conditions. Then they made them even more adaptable to warmer water. Once ready, the researchers plan to transplant the coral into Hawaii’s Kaneohe Bay.
This sounds simple, but they are not sure that it will work because coral is sensitive to touch and also develops very slowly and infrequently. Also, past attempts to remove coral have failed because they were either eaten by fish or died of disease.
Though there exist these dangers, researchers believe there’s no other choice to prevent the reefs from disappearing. Tom Oliver, a scientist says, “The question is not ‘can they do it?’, but ‘can they do it fast enough?’”
1. Which fact might surprise people according to the text?| A．Corals come in different colors. |
| B．Corals are not plants but animals. |
| C．Corals are sensitive to water temperatures. |
| D．Coral reefs can protect the coast from storms. |
| A．The failure to raise them. |
| B．Too much sunshine. |
| C．The polluted sea water. |
| D．The loss of algae friends. |
| A．Remove. | B．Admire. |
| C．Export. | D．Exchange. |
| A．Corals are of great use to people. |
| B．People are trying to prevent corals disappearing. |
| C．Human activities are affecting the growth of corals. |
| D．Coral polyps depend on an algae for color and food. |
3 . If the eyes are the romantic’s window into the soul, then the teeth are an anthropologist’s (人类学家) door to the stomach.
In a study published last month in the journal Science, Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas and his partner, Matt Sponheimer of the University of Colorado, US, examined the teeth of our early human ancestors to find out what they were really eating.
They already knew that different foods cause different marks on teeth. Some cause scratches, while others cause pits (坑).The carbon left on teeth by different foods is also different. Tropical grasses, for example, leave one kind of carbon, but trees leave another kind because they photosynthesized (光合作用) differently.
Traditionally, scientists had looked at the size and shape of teeth and skulls (头骨) to figure out what early humans ate. Big flat teeth were taken to be signs that they ate nuts and seeds, while hard and sharp teeth seemed good for cutting meat and leaves. But this was proven wrong.
The best example was the Paranthropus (傍人), one of our close cousins, some of which lived in eastern Africa. Scientists used to believe Paranthropus ate nuts and seeds because they had big crests(突起) on their skulls, suggesting they had large chewing muscles and big teeth. If this had been true, their teeth should have been covered with pits like the surface of the moon. They would also have had a particular type of carbon on their teeth that typically comes from tree products, such as nuts and seeds.
However, when the two scientists studied the Paranthroupus, it turned out to have none of these characteristics. The teeth had a different kind of carbon, and were covered with scratches, not pits. This suggests they probably ate grass, not nuts and fruit stones. It was the exact opposite of what people had expected to find.
Carbon “foodprints” give us a completely new and different insight into what different species ate and the different environments they lived in. If a certain species had the kind of carbon on its teeth that came from grasses, it probably lived in a tropical grassland, for example.
1. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 probably means that anthropologists can _____.| A．know the structure of human stomachs by studying their teeth. |
| B．find out the diet of early humans by studying their teeth |
| C．learn whether humans were healthy by looking at their teeth |
| D．get the most useful information about humans from their teeth |
| A．Scratches on teeth are caused by eating nuts or seeds. |
| B．Pits on teeth are caused by eating grass or leaves. |
| C．Early humans with hard and sharp teeth ate meat and leaves. |
| D．Different foods leave different marks and carbon on teeth. |
| A．they were one of our close cousins living in eastern Africa |
| B．living environment makes a difference to skull structure |
| C．they had different eating habits from other humans |
| D．the size and shape of teeth don’t show accurately what early humans ate |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
4 . Scientists have studied cats’ social relationships—both with other cats and humans—but it can be difficult to tell whether two cats are playing or fighting, says cat behavior researcher Noema Gajdoš-Kmecová.
To assess and classify interactions, Gajdoš-Kmecová and colleagues watched about 100 videos of different cats interacting in pairs. After viewing about one-third of the videos, Gajdoš-Kmecová identified six types of behaviors, including wrestling and staying still. She then watched all of the videos and noted how often each cat displayed one of the specific behaviors, and for how long. By running statistical analyses on the behaviors, she found three types of interactions between the cat pairs: playful, aggressive and intermediate. To confirm the outcome, other members of the team also watched the videos and classified each interaction between cats.
Some clear connections appeared. Quietly wrestling, for example, suggested playtime, while chasing and vocalizations(发声), like growling, hissing or gurgling, implied aggressive encounters.
Intermediate interactions had elements of both playful and aggressive encounters, but especially included prolonged activity of one cat toward the other, such as pouncing(突袭) on or grooming(梳毛) its fellow cat. These in-between encounters could suggest that one cat wants to keep playing while the other doesn’t, with the more playful cat gently pushing to see if its partner wants to continue, the authors say.
This work provides an understanding of cat interactions for the first time, Gajdoš-Kmecová says, but it’s just the start. In the future, she plans to study more subtle behaviors, like ear twitches and tail swishes. Gajdoš-Kmecová also stresses that one potentially controversial encounter doesn't necessarily signal a terrible cat relationship.
1. What did the study focus on?| A．The cats' social relationships with humans. |
| B．The real meaning of the interactions between cats. |
| C．The ways cats communicate with each other. |
| D．The benefits of being a cat owner. |
| A．Researchers determined nine types of interactions finally. |
| B．The frequency and length of certain behaviors were noticed. |
| C．The cats were trained and grouped before they were filmed. |
| D．100 pairs of different cats interacting were watched on the spot. |
| A．The two cats are wrestling quietly. | B．The two cats are grooming each other. |
| C．One cat is pouncing while the other stays still. | D．One cat is running after the other violently. |
| A．A future idea of the study. | B．A data analysis of the study. |
| C．A conclusion of the study. | D．An application of the study. |
5 . “May 17, 2157
Dear diary,
Today, Tommy found a real book!...”
“What’s it about?” Margie asked.
“School.” replied Tommy, turning the yellow pages.
“Why would anyone write about school? I hope they can take my geography teacher away.”
“It’s not our school. This is the old sort that they had centuries ago.”
“Anyway, they had a teacher.” Margie said, reading the book over his shoulder.
“Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
“A man? How could a man be a teacher?”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them assignments and asked them questions.”
“A man isn’t smart enough.”
“Sure, he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”
Margie wasn’t prepared to argue about that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a strange man in my house to teach me.”
Tommy laughed. “The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”
“And all the kids learned the same thing?”
“Sure, if they were the same age.”
“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
They weren’t even half-finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”
“Not yet, Mamma.”
“Now!” said Mrs. Jones.
Margie said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”
“Maybe,” Tommy said.
Margie went into the schoolroom, right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on waiting for her.
The screen was lit up, and it said, “Please insert yesterday’s assignments in the proper slot.”
Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the assignments and discussed them.
And the teachers were people…
1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?| A．Margie doesn’t like her school. |
| B．It’s common to read paper books in 2157. |
| C．Online learning is what Margie wants. |
| D．Tommy feels his father is smarter than his teacher. |
| A．There are only female teachers at school. |
| B．Teachers give no assignments to students. |
| C．A special building is constructed for teachers. |
| D．Students learn different things at their own pace. |
| A．Envelope. | B．Opening. |
| C．Screen. | D．Schoolroom. |
| A．Longing. | B．Objection. |
| C．Suspicion. | D．Tolerance. |
6 . Marilu Arce loves her job, but for a time she considered leaving. The traffic-plagued commute from her home to her office, nearly two hours each way, meant her daughters couldn’t enroll in after school activities because she couldn’t get home in time to take them.
Then her employer adopted a policy permitting her to work from home two days a week, and “I feel like it changed my life,” she said. Her stress level has dropped. Her daughters are thrilled. She likes her job more. That’s the type of reaction Arce’s boss likes to hear as the company measures the success of the work-from-home policy which was instituted three years ago in hopes of improving employee retention. So far, it seems to be working: turnover was less than five percent last year—its lowest ever.
Flexible work policies top employee wish lists when they look for a job, and employers increasingly have been offering them. Studies have shown working remotely increases employee engagement, but in moderation because there is still value in the relationships nurtured when colleagues are face to face. The key, advocates of flexible work policies say, is to match the environment with the type of work that needs to be done.
The flexibility hasn’t hurt productivity, which is up 50 percent. There is “something lost” when colleagues don’t gather at the water cooler, but it’s outweighed by the retention and happiness gains, he said. As jobs that require physical work decline, thanks to technological advances, life superficially appears to get better. Consumers benefit in the form of cheaper prices. Labor-saving appliances all make things easier and suggest that even more and better benefits are on the horizon. But is something lost?
Talk long enough to the most accomplished academics, they will brag about a long-ago college summer job waiting tables or repairing hiking trails. They might praise the installer who redid their kitchen. There seems to be a human instinct to want to do physical work. The proliferation of hard-work reality-television programming reflects this apparent need. Indeed, the more we have become immobile and urbanized, the more we tune in to watch reality television’s truckers, loggers, farmers, drillers and rail engineers. In a society that supposedly despises menial jobs, the television ratings for such programmes suggest that lots of Americans enjoy watching people of action, who work with their hands.
Physical work, in its eleventh hour within a rapidly changing Western culture, still intrigues us in part because it remains the foundation for 21st century complexity. Before any of us can teach, write or speculate, we must first have food, shelter and safety. And for a bit longer, that will require some people to cut grapes and nail two-by-sixes. No apps or 3D printers exist to produce brown rice. Physical labour also promotes human versatility: Those who do not do it, or who do not know how to do it, become divorced from—and, at the same time, dependent on—labourers. Lawyers, accountants and journalists living in houses with yards and driving cars to work thus count on a supporting infrastructure of electricians, landscapers and mechanics. In that context, physical labour can provide independence, at least in a limited sense of not being entirely reliant on a host of hired workers.
1. The author mentions the example of Arce to show that________.| A．she dislikes the present job for the long commuting time |
| B．she is having trouble balancing work and school life |
| C．people usually don’t work hard outside office |
| D．employers are facing the problem of staff drain |
| A．it helps to increase job satisfaction for the employees |
| B．it improves harmonious relationship among colleagues |
| C．the decline in physical work gives employees more mobility |
| D．employees are entitled to request it according to their work |
| A．They entertain those employees burned out with overwork. |
| B．People can learn some basic labour skills from these programmes. |
| C．There’s an ongoing need for physical labour skills that technology doesn’t possess. |
| D．They offer instructive information for both employers and employees. |
| A．The Emergence of Alternative Work Arrangements |
| B．The Rise of Automation, the Decline in Need for Labour |
| C．Time to Rethink in the Face of the Evolution of Work |
| D．New Challenges for Today’s Employers and Academics |
7 . Map reading, growing fruit and vegetable and basic car service are also more common skills among the baby boomer generation. But according to a new survey, just one in three 18- to 25-year-olds are able to do basic DIY, compared to two-thirds of those aged 58 and over.
Sarah Clarke-Kuehn, Chief Operating Officer-Commercial, said, “The survey findings are so interesting as they highlight a very common incorrect conception related to ‘getting old’.”
When asked at what age they thought developing new skills becomes “difficult”, Gen Z respondents said they were 35 years old, while those aged over 58 believed this number was 63 years old. The belief is that there is a boundary between learning new skills and getting a sense of achievement. But we know that this is just not the case. The benefits in continuing to enjoy life, as well as developing new talents are very significant—both physically and mentally as we grow older.
Neuroscientist and author, Dr Julia Jones, said, “We underestimate our brain’s ability to continue learning. Our brain is the most complex and precise structure in the known universe but we only use a small part of its true potential throughout our lifetimes. To boost continued brain health, we should learn complex and novel skills at all ages. This becomes more important as we age, because these learning experiences help to build new connections between neurons (神经细胞) that maintain intelligence and reduce the risk of future brain decline.”
“Learning languages and musical instruments are believed to be effective at boosting neuroplasticity (神经可塑性) due to their complex nature, but all learning is beneficial and can bring a sense of achievement, purpose and social engagement.”
Dr Jones added. “Find a new hobby and throw yourself into a wonderful learning experience or pick up an old pastime and improve those skills. I’m currently learning to play the guitar and it’s opened up a whole new world of music and fun.”
1. What is mentioned about the young generation in the text?| A．They lose interest in DIY. |
| B．They have no idea in plants. |
| C．Many of them lack some basic skills. |
| D．Many of them own poor reading skills. |
| A．Learning brings a sense of belonging. |
| B．It is never too late to learn in one’s life. |
| C．It is necessary to show off one’s talents. |
| D．The benefits of lifelong learning are temporary. |
| A．The significance of knowing the structure of the brain. |
| B．The difficulties in improving the ability of the brain. |
| C．The reasons for taking full advantage of the brain. |
| D．The process of protecting the brain from risk. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
8 . One of the oldest metaphors (隐喻) for human interaction with technology is the relationship of master and slave. Aristotle imagined that technology could replace slavery if machine became automated. Marx and Engels saw things differently. “Masses of laborers are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine,” they wrote in the Communist Manifesto.
Today, computers often play both roles. Nicholas Carr, in his new book The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, takes a stand on whether such technology imprisons or liberates its users. We are increasingly engaged, he argues, but the invisibility of our high-tech traps gives us the ‘image of freedom’. He describes doctors who rely so much on decision-assistance software that they overlook signals that are not obvious from patients.
All of this has obvious implications for the use of technology in classrooms: When do technologies free students to think about more interesting and complex questions, and when do they destroy the very cognitive (认知) capacities that they are meant to improve? The effect of spell check and AutoCorrect software is an example. Psychologists have found the act of forming a word in your mind strengthens your capacity to remember it. When a computer automatically corrects a spelling mistake, we’re no longer forced to form the correct spelling in our minds.
This might not seem very important. The process of word formation is not just supplementing spelling skills, it’s also destroying students. When students find themselves without automated spelling assistance, they don’t face the prospect of freezing to death, as the Inuits did when their GPS malfunctioned, but they’re more likely to make errors. This creates a vicious cycle: The more we use the technology, the more we need to use it in all circumstances. Suddenly, our position as masters of technology starts to seem more insecure.
1. What did Marx and Engels think of the machine?| A．It did the boring daily work for people. |
| B．It failed to free people from being enslaved. |
| C．It gave people more time to enjoy themselves. |
| D．It was the result of the development of technology. |
| A．Technology is a guarantee of freedom. |
| B．Doctors should stay away from technology. |
| C．Too much involvement with technology may be risky. |
| D．Some decision-assistance software needs improving. |
| A．Students being unable to spell words correctly. |
| B．Spell check helping students remember more words. |
| C．Students depending too much on spelling software. |
| D．Spellcheck destroying students’ cognitive capacities. |
| A．Is technology making people stupid or not? |
| B．Which areas are most affected by technology? |
| C．Are people satisfied with the advancement of technology? |
| D．Why shouldn’t technology be employed in the classroom? |
9 . When I travel, away from home, especially in India, I feel like Alice in Wonderland; I feel like I’ve fallen into the rabbit hole, or stepped through the looking glass. I felt everything is challenging, including my sense of self in the world and my ideas about how life and people should be.
In India, I meet other foreigners who tell me they think Pahar Ganj in Delhi is “the real India,” and who say the only way to travel in India is by staying in 150-rupee-a-night hotels. I also meet Delhi-born Indians who tell me they think Pahar Ganj is a ghetto(贫困区)and wouldn’t go near it. They prefer Delhi’s five star hotels and the shopping malls of Gurgaon.
I’m familiar with Indian life, but when I travel, I am seen as a foreigner and as if I know nothing about the culture. What’s the truth? The truth lies in the fact that “a mirror in the hands of God. It fell, and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.”
Perception(认知)is the reason one person loves Thailand and another Rome. The scenery outside of the window depends of our culture, age, and everything else that goes into making us who we are. I have long been into perception and the nature of consciousness. I’ve studied and practiced running for close to 20 years, which told me: truth is in your experience, your experience is coloured by your perception, and you are a co-creator in your perception and thus in your reality of life.
As is written in Talmud, we do not see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.
1. What do we know from this passage?| A．The author finds the travel in India easy. |
| B．All of the Indians love five star hotels. |
| C．The author knows nothing about Indian culture. |
| D．People who love Thailand may not love Rome. |
| A．The god helps those who help themselves. | B．East or west, home is best. |
| C．We see what we are. | D．Experience is the best teacher. |
| A．Perception can influence our understanding of the outside world. |
| B．The people looking at the broken mirror can get the truth from god. |
| C．We should live in the hotel instead of the ghetto when travelling in India. |
| D．If we share the same culture, we will have the same perception of the world. |
| A．How to better understand the Indian culture? |
| B．A colorful experience during a foreign trip. |
| C．India-a different but attractive country. |
| D．Perception is what lies behind our understanding. |
10 . Many people like sweet food. And being an Indian, sweet is what we all fall in love with every day. According to a study, 30 grams of sugar is enough for us every day.
These are the changes in the inner body, and outside it can raise the bacteria in teeth, thus ruining your white teeth.
So, next time you have desire for some sugary food, stop and think. Do you really want to change your healthy hour into an unhealthy hour? The healthy life isn’t far away. Eat less sugar and good changes are coming in your way.
| A．Sugar can result in overweight. |
| B．Too much sugar can cause damage to it. |
| C．There is no exact answer to this question. |
| D．But there’s nothing wrong in keeping it low. |
| E．Besides, sugar is also considered harmful to your skin. |
| F．To make it work well, you can consume a little more sugar. |
| G．The healthy life is sweeter than a small sweet bite of sugar, after all. |
