1 . Far too often, we look at ourselves in the mirror and tell ourselves we aren’t good enough.
Accept your individuality
View your weaknesses as what makes you a unique person. As humans, we all have weaknesses that set us apart from others. Instead of viewing your weaknesses as bad things, turn them into what makes you an individual.
We are often our own worst critics, and we tend to hold ourselves to standards that we wouldn’t expect of other people. Think about the standards you set for yourself, and then think about if you’d hold a friend or loved one to the same standards. If you wouldn’t, then you don’t need to hold yourself to those standards either.
Don’t compare yourself to others
Stick to your own standards. While it can be tough, try not to compare yourself to your peers (同龄人).
Surround yourself with people who support you
| A．Everyone’s life path is different |
| B．Set realistic standards for yourself |
| C．Learn not to criticize yourself too often |
| D．You can always seek trust from friends and family |
| E．Accepting your weaknesses is a great way to love yourself |
| F．Hang out with people who make you feel good about yourself |
| G．For instance, maybe you feel like you aren’t as good at math as your classmates are |
2 . Native to forests of Central and South America, glass frogs in the Centrolenidae family get their name from their skin and muscles that help them be perfectly fit to live in their jungle environment. Turn the frogs over, where the effect is the most impressive, and you’ll make out their hearts, livers, and other organs through their hyaline stomachs.
And in a study published in the journal Science, researchers have discovered an amazing mechanism (机制) the animals use to become so clear.
When glass frogs go to sleep, they take in 89 percent of their brightly colored red blood cells into sacs (液囊) in their livers, which reflect incoming light and make the frogs appear nearly unseen. With their red blood cells out of view, the frogs become twice to three times more clear -a trick scientists believe helps the animals avoid being killed and eaten by their natural enemies.
“The trick is really hard to do, because their tissues are full of things that take in and spread light. And transparency (透明) is normal for many creatures in water, but hard on land,” says study co-author Jesse Delia. “Red blood cells also take in a lot of light, and we found that the frogs can actually hide themselves by packing them into the liver.”
Not only are the findings interesting, but the researchers attach great importance to them. That’s because many red blood cells in one place usually form a clot (血块), which can block and lead to a potentially life-threatening condition. But the frogs can seemingly clot and expand their red blood cells at will — without any negative effects. This may mean the animals already have what medical researchers have been seeking for decades: a biological mechanism which prevents too much bleeding while also preventing too much clotting.
1. What does the underlined word “hyaline” mean in paragraph 1?| A．See-through. | B．Powerful. | C．Narrow. | D．Good-looking. |
| A．The frogs fit in their environment better. |
| B．Sacs filled with red blood cells make the frogs clear. |
| C．Red blood cells in the frogs’ liver reflect light. |
| D．The frogs are able to take in a lot of bright colors. |
| A．Interesting. | B．Unusual. | C．Normal. | D．Annoying. |
| A．They help cure serious diseases. |
| B．They are a blessing for wild animals. |
| C．They can lead to advances in medicine. |
| D．They will prevent all clotting and bleeding. |
3 . People may typically think of memory as the recollection of the past. Memory enables people to learn from past experiences and apply that knowledge in present cases. It is an important part of our identity. So is culture, the way of life specific to a group of people.
Cultural memory is the constructed understanding of the past that is passed from one generation to the next through text, oral traditions, monuments and other symbols. Cultural memory is often amassed in objects, such as museums or historical monuments. To understand culture, humans access a mass of cultural symbols, such as books. Artifacts (历史文物) of the past provide insights into where we came from. Libraries and the Internet keep a seemingly boundless amount of data on what it means to be part of a culture. Cultural memory is the longest-lasting form of memory.
Like all forms of memory, cultural memory has important functions. For example, it makes the experiences a nation owns clear. It provides us with an understanding of the past and the values of the group to which we belong. Besides, it creates a form of shared identity and a means for communicating this identity to new members. The most powerful forms of cultural memory may involve memories of past disastrous experiences undergone by groups of victims. For example, in Russia, their role in World War II —in which tens of millions of Russians were killed — is still an important part of modern Russian identity. Because all groups have cultural memory, it can bring about a spirit of resistance or survival among threatened groups.
The main function of cultural memory is not to recall the past, whether it is good or bad. Rather, it is to use knowledge of past experiences to avoid making the same mistakes again and again. Aleida Assmann, a professor who has worked on memory theory since the 1960s, calls this “remembering forward”. Cultural memory enables people to adapt to their culture; it enables cultures to adapt to new circumstances by keeping traces (痕迹) of what worked in the past.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．Reporting a discovery of cultural memory. |
| B．Leading to the concept of cultural memory. |
| C．Introducing the importance of memory in identity. |
| D．Making a connection between memory and culture. |
| A．Stored. | B．Ignored. | C．Damaged. | D．Created. |
| A．the features of cultural memory | B．the formation of cultural memory |
| C．the role of big events in Russian identity | D．the impact of cultural memory on identity |
| A．Pass previous wisdom down. | B．Keep traces of history. |
| C．Get people to know about the past. | D．Remind people of their identity. |
4 . A Chicago resident didn’t know riding the local train would unexpectedly turn him into a hero.
It was a typical day for Anthony Perry, 20, who got off the train at Chicago’s 69th Street station. Since Perry was interested in purchasing a car, he was on his way to meet his grandfather, who had agreed to accompany him to view one he had been eyeing.
Suddenly, a physical fight erupted between two men at the station, which led to the two falling onto the train tracks. Although one of the men landed on his back, they continued to fight. This caused the other guy to fell on the third rail, which passes electric current to the train. The man was lying on the tracks and appearing to convulse (抽搐) as a result of hundreds of volts of electric current shooting through his body. It looked like the unnamed man lost his life. However, Perry refused to let him lie on the tracks. He jumped down from the platform and quickly crossed the tracks in front of a train that had managed to stop a few feet away.
Perry said “I was hoping I could just grab him and not feel nothing, but I felt a little shock. I felt it all through my body actually. I didn’t let that stop me.” Perry administered CPR to the man after he’d pulled him from the tracks. Then the man was taken to hospital and survived finally.
As planned, Perry went to look at the car he wanted to buy, but it had been sold. Just days after the incident, Early Walker, founder of an anti-violence organization, rewarded him with the car. “We need more Anthonys in the world,” Walker said.
Also, there to thank Perry was the Chicago police department. District Commander Roderick Watson said “So many times people think these young men are out here doing the wrong thing, but this is just a typical example of how a young man took it upon himself to jump in and do the right thing, and it should be recognized.”
1. What caused the unnamed man to fall on the third rail?| A．Carelessness of the man. | B．The emergency stop of the train. |
| C．An unintentional push from Perry. | D．The fight between him and another man. |
| A．Gentle and considerate. | B．Courageous and kind-hearted. |
| C．Energetic and ambitious. | D．Strong-willed and conservative. |
| A．He received it as a reward. | B．He purchased it at a discount. |
| C．The man rescued by Perry donated it. | D．His grandfather gave it to him as a gift. |
| A．Every man has its faults. |
| B．Parents have a high expectation for their children. |
| C．The young need to be evaluated objectively. |
| D．Most teenagers need to be inspired by model education. |
5 . On the rocky beach, Shiwak butchers the seal with precision, turning the water red as crow flew overhead. As a boy, he learned to hunt and fish with his father and grandfather, who had learned from their elders. It is also how Shiwak learned the core Inuit (因纽特人的) values of taking only what is needed, sharing, sustainability and respect for nature—values he is passing down to his children.
Shiwak has hunted for years in the waters of Lake Melville, close to the Inuit community of Rigolet in Nunatsiavut, an autonomous area in Canada. But while traditional knowledge has allowed Inuit to survive in this severe environment for a long time, the climatic conditions are changing quickly. Since 1950, Nunatsiavut has lost 40 days of ground snow a year. Its sea ice is disappearing faster than anywhere in the Canadian Arctic. By November, the shoreline would usually be covered in ice, and people would be putting away their boats and dusting off their snowmobiles. In his lifetime, Shiwak has witnessed the winters becoming warmer, wetter, and shorter.
There is very little local people can do about that: although the region is roughly the size of the Republic of Ireland, Nunatsiavut’s population is less than 3,000, spread among five small towns. What they can do, however, is working to protect what they have. That’s why Nunatsiavut is partnering with the Canadian government to co-develop the world’s first Inuit protected area. Built on Inuit values and culture, this new type of conservation area would allow local people to continue traditional practices of hunting and fishing.
“Just that we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t do something,” says James Goudie, deputy minister of lands and natural resources in the Nunatsiavut government. “We can show the world that a small region can protect a massive amount of biodiversity.” The Inuit protected area would only cover about a third of Nunatsiavut’s offshore waters, but the region is home to important populations of fish, the breeding grounds for many migratory birds, and the habitat of Arctic marine mammals.
1. How do Inuit people learn their core values?| A．By enhancing their hunting skills. |
| B．By receiving general school education. |
| C．By appreciating the gifts of nature. |
| D．By passing them down from generation to generation. |
| A．Their small population. | B．The climate change. |
| C．Their conventional knowledge. | D．The overuse of resources. |
| A．The Inuit knowledge of surviving is disappearing |
| B．The number of Canadian Inuit has dramatically increased |
| C．The region is too large in comparison with the Republic of Ireland. |
| D．The new protected area will help maintain the traditional Inuit way of life. |
| A．The Inuit knowledge of surviving is disappearing |
| B．The number of Canadian Inuit has dramatically increased |
| C．Nunatsiavut plans to create a conservation area for the Inuit |
| D．Nunatsiavut contributes a lot to the diverse culture in Canada |
6 . Plenty of past research has found that late-night eating is linked to weight gain, but most studies are observational, and few explain why eating later might have anything to do with why people put on pounds. A recent study, published in Cell Metabolism, sought to address the question by controlling the calories participants ate, how much they slept, and how much physical activity they got so researchers could learn how and why eating later might affect weight.
One of the most significant findings from this report is that “a calorie is a calorie, but the response of your body to that calorie is different in the morning versus in the evening,” said Frank A. J. L. Scheer, the senior author and a scientist at Harvard Medical School.
That finding matches past research showing that the glycemic index (升糖指数) of a food—how it affects the body's blood sugar following a meal—varies depending on the time of day that food is consumed, said Nina Vujovic, who led this study. In the study, Vujovic found that eating within four hours of bedtime affects two hormones (激素) related to hunger.
On days participants ate closer to sleep, they also burned fewer calories and showed molecular changes in fat tissue suggesting their body converted calories into fat storage more easily.
What surprised Scheer most was that eating closer to bedtime affected all the factors they measured rather than just one or two of them. “In the nutrition field, I think the longest resistance against the idea that timing of food matters is based on this simplistic view of‘a calorie is a calorie,’ meaning that it shouldn't matter when someone eats it,” Scheer said, “yet it does.”
But the authors also acknowledged that their study was not designed to determine whether eating dinner closer to bedtime long-term would lead to weight gain over time or whether the body might instead adapt to such a schedule.
1. What did the researchers do in the study?| A．They asked the participants to sleep more. |
| B．They recorded the participants' daily routines. |
| C．They gave the participants calorie-controlled diet. |
| D．They encouraged the participants to work out regularly. |
| A．Late supper is connected to weight gain. |
| B．Nutritious food contains more calories. |
| C．Different foods have different glycemic indexes. |
| D．Late-night eating affects hormones about hunger. |
| A．Transformed. | B．Buried. | C．Absorbed. | D．Broke. |
| A．The study aims to warn people. |
| B．The time people eat food matters. |
| C．Eating late is the key factor to overweight. |
| D．Our body is designed to adapt to various foods. |
7 . About 12% of the total global energy demand comes from heating and cooling homes and businesses. A new study suggests that using underground water to maintain comfortable temperatures could reduce consumption of natural gas and electricity in this section by 40% in the US. The approach is called ATES, short for aquifer thermal energy storage(含水层热能储存).
“We need storage to absorb energy from the sun and wind. It’s crucial to creating affordable, reliable, and deeply environmental-friendly electricity systems. Most people are interested in batteries and other kinds of electrical storage. But we were wondering whether there was any opportunity to use geothermal (地热的) energy storage,” said first author A. T. D Perera. “With ATES, energy can be stored for a long period of time, without adding an additional burden to the grid (输电网).”
ATES is a pleasantly simple concept that takes advantage of the heat-absorbing property of water and the natural geological features of the planet. You simply pull existing underground water up and heat it at the surface in the summer with environmental heat or energy. Then you send it back down. It stays fairly hot because the Earth is a good insulator (绝热体).
“Unlike above-ground tank-based water or ice storage systems, ATES will not need space. It’s also more efficient and can support larger communities in cooling or heating than traditional geothermal heat pump systems that rely on heat moving with the underground soil,” added coauthor Hong Tianzhen.
A major benefit of ATES is that it will become more efficient as weather becomes more extreme in the coming years due to climate change. The hotter summers and severer winters could increase the amount of free thermal energy that can be stored with ATES. “It’s very much a realistic thing to do and this work is really about showing its value,” said Perera. “This technology is ready to go, so to speak. We just need to do it.”
1. What do we know about ATES?| A．It is aimed at replacing natural energy. |
| B．It mainly relies on batteries to function. |
| C．It is technologically demanding. |
| D．It helps achieve an environmental-friendly society. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By discussing results. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By analyzing principles. |
| A．Extreme weather. | B．Insulated materials. |
| C．The time of storage. | D．The type of energy. |
| A．A Turning Point in Energy Usage |
| B．A Transformation in the US Electricity System |
| C．A Solution to Green Cooling and Heating |
| D．A Discovery About Geothermal Energy Storage |
8 . Below is a list of the top and leading Theme Parks in London.
Chessington World of Adventures Resort is a theme park and resort that offers a fun and enjoyable experience for both adults and kids. It’s a pe rfect place to visit to unwind and relax over the weekend with the different rides, attractions, zoo and sea life exhibits, shows and entertainment that they have. They house over 1,000 animals in their zoo and around 40 rides that will make your visit highly enjoyable.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is one of the best Christmas destinations in London. Strategically located in the heart of London, they are opening their doors every November 19 to January 3 to all individuals of varying ages and gender, who want to experience the festivity that Christmas season brings.
Thorpe Park Resort is the go-to place for all thrill seekers that are looking for an ultimate adventure that is near London. Famous for their different rides, you will certainly enjoy the unique experience that only they can offer. Seek the best adventure and leisure at this park and have your ultimate day out with your family, loved ones and friends.
ClownTown is the largest indoor activity centre that is created for all kids looking for some fun and adventure. Established in 1994, this centre offers a safe, secure and wonderful surroundings where your kids can play and have a pleasant and amusing time. It can also help host your kids’ birthday party based on their personal likes and interests and can accommodate a maximum of 25 children with the package including one and a half hours of play time and 30 minutes meal time.
1. Which park favors those keen on extreme sports?| A．ClownTown. | B．Thorpe Park Resort. |
| C．Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. | D．Chessington World of Adventures Resort. |
| A．It holds various outdoors activities. |
| B．It is suitable for both adults and kids. |
| C．It provides personalized service for kids. |
| D．It’s the best place for Christmas celebrations. |
| A．A guidebook. | B．A business plan. |
| C．A fashion magazine. | D．An academic article. |
9 . How to spot misinformation online
We’ve all seen a lot of misinformation that seems absolutely crazy or unbelievable online these days.
Pause and be skeptical about new information.
Whenever you come across an article or post sharing information that you haven’t seen before, take a second to consider it. Don’t just scroll by accepting it as a fact or share the information without exercising some skepticism first. It’s okay to be doubtful!
Confirm the source and date of the information.
Look up the information at the source to see if it was actually published there. Double-check the date of the article to make sure it’s current and still accurate. Usually, the date is located next to the author of the article. The date can be a really big deal.
Check to see if you can tell who the original author is.
Misinformation is often designed to make you feel angry, sad, scared, or just plain old upset. If you spot a claim, article, headline or any other information that causes you to feel a super-strong emotion, be cautious. It could be a sign that it’s fake and designed to get a reaction out of you. If you come across a headline that says, “NEW LAW TAKES AWAY PET DOGS,” it’s most likely false or at least misleading.
Misinformation isn’t just annoying, it can be dangerous. But by identifying it, you can help stop the spread of it.
| A．But there’s good news |
| B．Whenever you come across new information |
| C．Evaluate how the information fits into your own belief system |
| D．Watch out for information that causes a strong emotional response |
| E．It’s better to investigate information to make sure it’s real before spreading it around |
| F．Find out who wrote the information by looking up the article or searching for their name |
| G．For instance, an article about new corona-virus cases from 6 months ago may not be accurate right now |
10 . Meat cultivated(培植)from cells — with no need to raise and kill animals—is now a reality. The process of cultivating meat uses the basic elements needed to build muscle and fat and enables the same biological process that happens inside an animal. Cultivated meat is identical(完全相同的) to conventional meat at the cellular level. But can it be made cheaply enough to replace animal agriculture?
More than 150 startups are pursuing an ambitious goal: meat that doesn’t require raising and killing animals and that is affordable and tastes and feels like the meat we eat now. They are part of a young industry aiming to use cell biology to reduce the environmental impact of the world’s ever-increasing demand for meat and change global protein production the way electric cars are shaking up the auto industry.
“We are addicted to meat as a species. It’s part of our culture,” said Believer founder Yaakov Nahmias. “But we thought about quantity rather than the environment, rather than sustainability.”
Although there are dozens of companies making this meat, none has yet reached commercial-level production in terms of scale or cost. From cell line development to bio-processor design, there are a number of scientific challenges to meet before cultivated meat is widely available at the market. Government policy is another challenge. Only Singapore and the U. S. allow sales of cultivated meat.
And while many people who have tried it say they like it, others find the idea distasteful. A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that half of U. S. adults would be unlikely to try it. When they were asked why, about half said they didn’t think it would be safe. Even Nahmias’10-year-old son Oren said he would only eat traditional meat. “I feel bad” for the animals, he said, “but they are yummy!”
“Until this meat costs and tastes the same as traditional meat, it will remain a specialized product,” said Bruce Friedrich, president of the Good Food Institute.
1. Why does the writer ask a question in the first paragraph?| A．To indicate an opinion. | B．To present a worry. |
| C．To make an assumption. | D．To start a discussion. |
| A．Study cell biology. | B．Provide sustainable protein. |
| C．End world hunger. | D．Help the traditional food industry. |
| A．It is not ready for mass production. | B．It is as popular as traditional meat. |
| C．It is safer than traditional meat. | D．It is competitive in price and quantity. |
| A．Enthusiastic. | B．Indifferent. | C．Unclear. | D．Conservative. |
