1 . Going from being called a “stupid molecule (分子) ”to “the secret of life”, our discovery and understanding of DNA has come a long way. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA----the pivotal (关键的) year when the so-called “secret of life” was uncovered by two scientists: James Watson from the US and Francis Crick from the UK.
Inherited characteristics like eye color, nose shape and even intelligence----scientists found the structure of the chemical which transmits these from one generation to another. “Discovering how these ‘chemical’ cards are shuffled (洗牌) and paired will keep the scientists busy for the next 50 years,” journalist Ritchie Calder commented in 1953 on the discovery. And it certainly has. The study of DNA has led to world-changing advances in many fields.
“DNA makes time fluid (流动的),” said The Irish Times. It lets us redefine the future. For example, in medicine, DNA helps us identify “weak points” in the human genome (基因组) that might be prone to disease. Through a technique called gene therapy, a person’s genes can be modified to treat or cure certain diseases. Another example is agriculture, where work on plant DNA has allowed us to change the way we breed (培育) crops, opening the door for genetically modified plants and advances in food security.
DNA can also shed light on the past. In forensic (法医的) science, DNA analysis has come to serve as a vital form of evidence in crime scenes, with “many millions having been proven guilty or innocent” through its usage, said the website AZoLife Sciences. And DNA in specimens (标本) like fossils and artifacts (文物) can give us vital information on humans and other species.
But what's next for DNA research? Improvements in technology are allowing us to utilize DNA in new ways. As the cost of DNA technologies decreases and related machines become more efficient, it becomes more accessible, reported Wired magazine. In medicine, DNA plays a key role in furthering the development of “personalized medicine” —designing treatment plans based on the genomes and other specific factors of individual patients. As “natural supercomputers”, DNA can store large amounts of data. So scientists are busy learning from DNA to make our computers store more data and work even faster.
1. Why does the author quote Ritchie Calder's remark in paragraph2?| A．To help better understand DNA. | B．To highlight scientists’ efforts. |
| C．To stress the discovery's impact. | D．To stress the importance of DNA technology. |
| A．The diverse applications of DNA. | B．The mysterious aspects of DNA. |
| C．Challenges of DNA research. | D．Ways to expand DNA research. |
| A．protect | B．use | C．correct | D．prevent |
| A．The replacement of medicines. | B．The reduction of medical costs. |
| C．The advancement of self-diagnosis. | D．The improvement of computer performance. |
2 . Happiness, as I see it, comprises five elements: spiritual well-being (meaning and purpose), physical well-being (nutrition, exercise), intellectual well-being (curiosity, deep learning), relational well-being (kindness and generosity), and emotional well-being (cultivating positive emotions). As an interdependent aggregate of these five elements of SPIRE, happiness is about much more than experiencing pleasure.
As Aristotle put it, happiness is the ultimate purpose of life, meaning how we spend our everyday lives is ultimately guided by what we think would make us happier. This is not a good or a bad thing. It simply is, like the law of nature. Even people who are tirelessly working for an important cause, for example, to get rid of world hunger, are doing it because they find their work meaningful. Meaning is an element of happiness.
One barrier to happiness has to do with the expectation that happiness is an unbroken chain of positive emotions. This expectation, however, prevents people from experiencing happiness because painful emotions don’t go away but grow stronger when we reject them.
The second barrier has to do with equating happiness with success. It’s a commonly held belief that happiness can be attained by achieving certain goals, like money or fame. People tend to think if they finally find success, they will automatically become happy.
The third barrier has to do with the way people pursue happiness. We want to be happy for many reasons. After all, we are constantly told that happiness is good for our health, relationships, and work outcomes. Yet, if I wake up in the morning and decide to pursue happiness straight, I will become less happy.
But how? Indirectly. As is known, if you look up at the sun directly, you’ll hurt yourself. But if you take the same sun rays and break them down, you’ll enjoy the colors of a rainbow. Similarly, pursuing happiness directly can hurt us; pursuing it indirectly—by breaking it down into something like the SPIRE elements—can contribute to our well-being. Starting a meditation practice, exercising, performing acts of kindness, learning something new, or expressing gratitude for what we have are all indirect ways of pursuing happiness.
1. What does the underlined word “aggregate” probably mean in the first paragraph?| A．Combination. | B．Conclusion. | C．Accumulation. | D．Association. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Suspicious. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Being a success leads one to happiness. |
| B．Refusing negative feelings helps us obtain happiness. |
| C．Going after happiness directly makes one feel happy. |
| D．Pursuing one aspect of SPIRE can boost our well-being. |
| A．To make a contrast. | B．To make an analogy. |
| C．To conclude the argumentation. | D．To answer the previous question. |
3 . Exploring unmapped territory on the moon could soon be as easy as slipping on a backpack. NASA researchers designed a new high-tech pack for navigating(给引航)unknown territories in outer space.
The backpack uses a remote-sensing mapping system to create high-resolution(高分辨)3-D maps that astronauts could use to explore the southernmost point on the moon according to a statement. NASA’s dynamic technology is like the technology used by smart cars to alert their drivers of potential collisions(碰撞).
“Basically, the sensor is a surveying tool for both navigation and science mapping, able to create ultra-high-resolution 3-D maps at centimeter-level precision and give them a rich scientific context,”tells Michael Zanetti, a scientist. “It will also help ensure the safety of astronauts and rover vehicles in a GPS-denied environment such as the Moon by identifying actual distances to far-off landmarks and showing explorers in real time how far they’ve come and how far is left.”
NASA plans to have astronauts return to the moon by 2025. The team is set to land near the lunar south pole because previous evidence suggests that the area may contain subsurface water ice. Part of the reason astronauts would need a GPS tracking backpack is because the area on the moon’s south pole is shrouded by shadows, making it difficult for space explorers to estimate distances on the moon.
Next, NASA is working on bringing the backpack’s weight and size down. Currently. It weighs 40 pounds, but the team hopes that the tech could be small enough to fit on an astronaut’s helmet.
1. What are Michael Zanetti’s words mainly about?| A．The working principle of the backpack. | B．The challenges of the backpack. |
| C．The shortcomings of the backpack. | D．The development of the backpack. |
| A．Mixed. | B．Reduced. | C．Covered. | D．Separated. |
| A．Make the backpack cheaper. | B．Make the backpack more accurate. |
| C．Make the backpack more fashionable. | D．Make the backpack lighter and smaller. |
| A．A travel journal. | B．A science magazine. |
| C．An impressive novel. | D．A personal notebook. |
4 . As cities balloon with growth, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find. If you’re lucky, there might be a pocket park near where you live, but it’s unusual to find places in a city that are relatively wild.
Past research has found health and wellness benefits of nature for humans, but a new study shows that wildness in urban areas is extremely important for human well-being.
The research team focused on a large urban park. They surveyed several hundred park-goers, asking them to submit a written summary online of a meaningful interaction they had with nature in the park. The researchers then examined these submissions, coding (编码) experiences into different categories. For example, one participant’s experience of “We sat and listened to the waves at the beach for a while” was assigned the categories “sitting at beach” and “listening to waves.”
Across the 320 submissions, a pattern of categories the researchers call a “nature language” began to emerge. After the coding of all submissions, half a dozen categories were noted most often as important to visitors. These include encountering wildlife, walking along the edge of water, and following an established trail.
Naming each nature experience creates a usable language, which helps people recognize and take part in the activities that are most satisfying and meaningful to them. For example, the experience of walking along the edge of water might be satisfying for a young professional on a weekend hike in the park. Back downtown during a workday, they can enjoy a more domestic form of this interaction by walking along a fountain on their lunch break.
“We’re trying to generate a language that helps bring the human-nature interactions back into our daily lives. And for that to happen, we also need to protect nature so that we can interact with it,” said Peter Kahn, a senior author of the study.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the text?| A．Pocket parks are now popular. | B．Wild nature is hard to find in cities. |
| C．Many cities are overpopulated. | D．People enjoy living close to nature. |
| A．To compare different types of park-goers. | B．To explain why the park attracts tourists. |
| C．To analyze the main features of the park. | D．To find patterns in the visitors’ summaries. |
| A．Walking is the best way to gain access to nature. |
| B．Young people are too busy to interact with nature. |
| C．The same nature experience takes different forms. |
| D．The nature language enhances work performance. |
| A．Language study. | B．Environmental conservation. |
| C．Public education. | D．Intercultural communication. |
5 . Many people don’t take much time for lunch or if they do, they eat at their desks while checking emails. But lunch breaks are more than just a time to eat a meal. Taking lunch breaks can make you more productive and reduce stress.
You may consider spending time in nature. Go outside! Even spending a short time in nature has a positive effect on your mood.
Reading can also be a good choice.
Eat mindfully. Good nutrition plays an important role in your physical and mental health. Make your lunch count by eating nutritious foods. Make an everyday eating plan for yourself.
| A．You can try a lunchtime workout. |
| B．It makes you learned and less stressed. |
| C．Nothing can take effect better than that. |
| D．Read to find more benefits of lunch breaks. |
| E．So take time to do something good for yourself. |
| F．It will keep your body and brain conscious of careful eating. |
| G．Find a park or other green space nearby and eat your lunch there. |
6 . There’s a good reason people say laughter is the best medicine. In a recent study from Rehabilitation Nursing Journal, researchers looked at changes in loneliness for older adults in nursing homes after receiving laughter therapy (疗法). Each of the 31 participants received laughter therapy twice a week for six weeks, while the same number of controls only received usual care. At the end of the six weeks, those who participated in laughter therapy reported less loneliness than the control group.
Laughter therapy is a low-key option that you can practice in many ways. Jenna Pascual, a laughter yoga teacher, hosts group and one-on-one classes with seniors. She starts by guiding people through warmups to get comfortable with stimulating laughter. These may involve deep breathing exercises, clapping and light stretches paired with laughter, and call-and-response laughter. She then transitions (转变) to laughter around a theme, such as a Hawaiian beach party or Star Wars, pairing laughter with small movements.
Many forms of laughter therapy are available to all. “Laughter therapy is great for people with disabilities,” says Katie Ziskind, a marriage and family therapist. Pascual also works with people in wheelchairs or hospital beds.
Rehabilitation Nursing’s study is one in a long line of research confirming laughter’s ability to improve well-being in older adults. In a 2015 study from the International Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, people aged 60 or older at a retirement center attended two 90-minute laughter therapy classes a week for six weeks. At the end of the experiment, participants had improved general health. In a 2016 study from Nursing Open, older adults at an elderly daycare center had laughter therapy once a week for four weeks. The participants experienced reduced depression, along with increased sociability.
While you can try laughter therapy alone, there are advantages to doing it with others. “I want to stress the power of simply hearing laughter and watching others enjoying themselves laughing,” says Pascual. “I’ve worked with seniors who were not in the mood to laugh, but after hearing and watching others laugh in my classes, they ended up laughing with us.”
1. How did the researchers do the recent study?| A．By offering participants different types of laughter therapy |
| B．By controlling the time of laughter therapy for the same participants. |
| C．By studying the effects of laughter therapy on disabled people. |
| D．By comparing participants having laughter therapy with those not having. |
| A．Why laughter is the best medicine. | B．How seniors react to laughter therapy. |
| C．What Pascual does to help disabled people. | D．How Pascual teaches her laughter yoga classes. |
| A．To compare them with the recent study. | B．To show the benefits of laughter therapy. |
| C．To state the popularity of laughter therapy. | D．To talk about old people’s health problems. |
| A．Making a person laugh is hard. | B．Laughter helps reduce loneliness. |
| C．People may laugh at different things. | D．Laughter can spread among people. |
7 . Fig trees are native to Europe around the Mediterranean Sea, Asia and Arica, but they can grow in much cooler climates.
Once big enough, fig trees can accept temperatures even a few degrees below freezing. Some kinds of fig trees do better in such environments than others.
Depending on the weather and pruning (修剪), a fig can grow into a bush or a tee. Bushes with several stems (茎) growing from the ground do best if covered for the winter.
One popular method for burying trees for their protection involves digging a narrow, shallow area.
Next, push a shovel (铲子) into the soil about a half-meter from the trunk (树干) on the side opposite the hole. Lift that side of the tree’s root ball out of the ground. Then, gently push the tree toward the hole.
Pack soil around the exposed side of the roots, and around the length of the tree. Load soil over the tree. Make it at least 30 centimeters deep. You will need more soil than you removed from digging.
| A．And in this area the tree can be laid. |
| B．All kinds of the trees could use protection. |
| C．You can also cover, or wrap, the tree instead. |
| D．And bend it around the bottom part of the tree. |
| E．When it is lying fat, cover the tree with plastic. |
| F．Trees with a single trunk can be buried or covered. |
| G．Remove the cover on the tee on a cloudy day in early spring. |
8 . A new recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics (儿科) says doctors should treat childhood obesity actively.
The problem of being overweight affects over 14 million American children. Doctors say carrying extra weight often results in lifelong health problems. Children can develop high blood pressure, diabetes and depression.
In the past, many doctors thought children would grow out of bad eating habits. They used the method of “wait and see” to decide what to do. But the new guidelines say overweight children should receive operations or take medicine to reduce their weight. The new guidelines recommend weight loss drugs for children as young as 12 and operations starting at 13.
Semaglutide is the drug described in the report. It has recently received approval as an obesity treatment for children 12 and older. It is reported that teenagers have used the drug and reduced their BMI by about 16%.
Ihuoma Eneli, one of the writers of the new guidelines, disagrees with the old guidelines. She said, “Waiting doesn’t work.” She said doctors usually see “a continuation of weight gain and the possibility that children will have obesity in adulthood.” Eneli said the drugs or operations should go along with life changes, which means children need help choosing better foods and finding ways to exercise more.
Dr. Claudia Fox, a weight management doctor at the University of Minnesota, said semaglutide helps her patients have a “possibility of even having an almost normal BMI.” Justin Ryder, a Chicago doctor, said the drug helps patients feel more full than they would be without it. “In addition,” he said, “working out is necessary.”
Dr. Stephanie Byrne, a doctor in Los Angeles, said she still wants to see more research on how semaglutide affects many different children. However, she said, she is glad pediatricians are starting to think differently about obesity. “I definitely think that diet and exercise won’t do it for a number of teens who are struggling with this,” she said.
1. What does the method of “wait and see” refer to?| A．Patients have to wait for new drugs. | B．Patients should receive operations. |
| C．Doctors wait for new research. | D．Doctors don’t take any measures. |
| A．It can avoid being overweight. | B．It’s better than operating on patients. |
| C．It should be combined with exercising. | D．It is the best option for overweight children. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Unfavorable. | C．Cautious. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．US starting to take action to deal with children obesity |
| B．US doctors offering new guidelines on children obesity |
| C．New ways found to deal with children obesity in the US |
| D．American children faced with the serious problem of obesity |
9 . A recent study in Japan has revealed that a wearable soft robot, named Relicbo, can improve the experience of patients in medical treatments, such as injections(注射)and other unpleasant therapies. The purpose of the robot is to help ease pain and defend people against anxiety. The study, led by researchers at the University of Tsukuba, was inspired in part by the numerous needles people had to endure while being vaccinated(接种疫苗)against COVID-19. Some people felt an intense dislike for these needles, which led to fewer people getting vaccinated.
The robot is soft and covered in fur. It contains small airbags internally that inflate(膨胀)in response to hand movement. Participants in the study who wore the robot while subjected to a medium heat stimulation, experienced less pain in the test than those who did not wear the robot. The test proved that the pain and anxiety being felt could be reduced sharply by lessening the experience of pain through using the robot.
The research team checked the effectiveness of the wearable robot while being handled by participants under certain conditions, based on the clenching of the hand. The team placed painful heat stimulation on the other arm that was not holding the robot. They then measured cortisol levels from the participants’ saliva samples, suggesting levels of stress hormones. The pain felt by the patients was given specific ratings and was also recorded using an assessment scale. The people in the study were given a survey test to assess their fear of injections before and after the experiment with the wearable robot was completed.
The study proved that holding the robot can case the experience of patients who were receiving injections. The research team hopes to use this study to advance the robot for use during painful situations, such as getting medical shots or similar conditions.
1. What is the function of the robot?| A．To assist doctors in injecting accurately. |
| B．To help relieve people’s pain from injections. |
| C．To evaluate patients’ physical and mental health. |
| D．To assess the effects of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. |
| A．Detecting. |
| B．Increasing. |
| C．Recording. |
| D．Decreasing. |
| A．Methods of testing the effectiveness of the robot. |
| B．Reasons for conducting the experiment on the robot. |
| C．The advantages of the new robot in the medical field. |
| D．The process of reducing people’s fear of injections. |
| A．Evaluate the risk of the robot. |
| B．Develop other devices for medical treatment. |
| C．Promote the application of the robot. |
| D．Carry out more tests on the robot. |
10 . You’ll probably be familiar with the North American spelling of the word “airplane”. However, if you’ve ever been on an international flight leaving the United States and going to another English-speaking country like the United Kingdom, you’ve probably noticed that there are a few differences between the American and British spellings of words with the same meaning.
Let’s look at the root of the phenomenon.
There’s a good reason why words that mean the same thing are spelled differently, and why that will continue to happen. “
| A．Every country has different culture |
| B．Your spelling tells people where you’re from |
| C．The word “airplane” happens to be an example |
| D．Airplane is a much better word than aeroplane |
| E．American English and British English have similar historical origins |
| F．There’s a lot of history that goes beyond words and dives deep into politics, government, and science |
| G．A lot of words in the English language are borrowed from other languages, like Latin, Greek, and French |
