Life in the Clear
Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way light passes through a window. These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet-as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Sonke Johnsen, a scientist in biology, says, “These animals live through their life alone. They never touch anything unless they’re eating it, or unless something is eating them.”
And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see-through? Ifs trickier than you might think.
The objects around you are visible because they interact with light. Light typically travels in a straight line. But some materials slow and scalier(散射) light bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, stopping it dead in its tracks. Both scattering and absorption make a.n object look different from other objects around it, so you can see it easily.
But a transparent object doesn't absorb or scatter light, at least not very much. Light can pass through it without bending or stopping. That means a transparent object doesn't look very different from the surrounding air or water. You don't see it- you see the things behind it.
To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light. Living materials can stop light because they contain pigments(色素) that absorb specific colors of light. But a transparent animal doesn’t have pigments, so its tissues won’t absorb light. According to Johnsen, avoiding absorption is actually easy. The real challenge is preventing light from scattering.
Animals are built of many different materials—skin, fat, and more—and light moves through each at a different speed. Every time light moves into a material with a new speed, it bends and scatters. Transparent animals use different tricks to fight scattering. Some animals are simply very small or extremely flat. Without much tissue to scatter light, it is easier to be see-through. Others build a large, clear mass of non-living jelly-like(果冻状的) material and spread themselves over it.
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简要描述图片，并谈谈自己的看法。
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下图是国外中学的课堂一角，对照你中学上课的情况，作出比较并谈谈你的感受。你的作文包括：
1.描述图片里学生上课的场景；
2.比较你同时期上课情况；
3.简要谈谈你的感受。
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American College of Physicians 'stepped out of its lane" by placing gun control in medical education. Stanley Gold-farb, formerly the associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, argued that teaching social justice issues and population health comes "at the expense of strict training in medical science" at a time when sub-specialists are in short supply. But many physicians, ourselves included, think social issues should be at the heart of medical education.
Formal medical school typically takes four years, followed by several years of residency（住院医生实习期）and often a fellowship（研究员职位）, and during that short time students have a wide range of competing requirements. They must learn complex biological and chemical pathways that explain diseases and health. They must be educated on how to read the the scientific literature and apply it to their patients. They must master many therapies and know how to adapt them to patients' varied diseases states. On top of all this, they must learn to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients and colleagues.
Being a good doctor also demands that we understand the reasons behind poor health. Our mission is not simply to diagnose, manage and treat. Physicians should act to prevent the root causes of illness and improve well-being. Physicians are trained to tackle problems at their root. System and structural-level social issues are also drivers of poor health, and it is our duty to address them. Medical training must evolve to produce doctors who are able to not only treat the individual but also understand the larger influencers of health -- of which gun violence is most emphatically one. As medical professors, we would fail our students -- and our patients - if we expected any less.
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What Is Zero Waste?
The goal of the “zero waste” movement is to get rid of all waste from products. “Zero waste” means using every part of a product. Today, the zero waste idea can be found everywhere from food to fashion.
Creating a zero waste restaurant is a challenge. It is very difficult to use every part of produce and leave nothing behind. Creating a soup from unused ingredients is a popular way to use up extra food items. Other ways are more advanced. Some restaurants use coffee grounds（咖啡渣）to flavor dishes. Some cooks also crush shrimp shells and reuse them in sauces. While it’s challenging, zero waste restaurants appear to be on the rise.
In the fashion industry, zero waste isn’t a new idea. But in today’s world of fast fashion, zero waste is growing more popular. Usually, cutting cloth creates lots of waste. In zero waste fashion, designers try to avoid this. One way to do so is by adding these extra pieces of cloth to the final design. Another way is to design clothing without wasteful cuts.
Beyond restaurants and fashion, there are many other possibilities for zero waste products. All restaurants need utensils（器皿）. Bakey’s is a company that is developing edible（可食用的）utensils. After using them, you can eat them! Their spoons are made of flour and come in all kinds of flavors. While these spoons are not hard enough to cut meat, they are perfect for rice dishes. Meanwhile, Air New Zealand is experimenting with edible coffee cups that are made by the company Twice. They have already introduced a line of flavored cups. After you finish your coffee, you eat the cup, just like a cookie!
Whether products are made to be edible or reusable, hopefully the movement will help reduce waste all over the world.
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成长道路上难免遇到来自同伴的压力(peer pressure)。同伴压力可能给我们带来积极或消极的影响。请结合自己生活中的一个具体事例, 谈谈你的体会。
注意:请勿透露本人真实姓名和学校名称。
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Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification.
Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert. It generally arises from two related causes. The first is over-use of water in the area. There is not enough water in any case, and if it is not carefully used, disaster can follow. As time goes on, water shortages make farming more and more difficult. In some places, locals can remember local lakes and marshes which were once the homes for all kinds of fish and birds. They have been completely buried by the sand now. Farmers leave the land, and fields are replaced by deserts.
The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land. This means that the wrong crops are planted and need more water than is available. Ploughing large fields and removing bushes and trees means that the wind will blow away the soil. Once the soil is lost, it is hard to replace, and if there is rain, it has nowhere to go, and brings no benefit.
It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer. Every spring, the skies over some of eastern cities, thousands of kilometers away from the deserts, can be darkened by sandstorms. Dust from deserts can have a great effect on weather systems. While desertification is perhaps being partly caused by global warming, these sandstorms can make global warming worse by adding to what is known as the greenhouse effect.
What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously first steps are to find new water sources. Tree planting can help, by providing barriers between desert and rich field. Some types of grass also hold the soil together, and stop the wind taking it. Without these efforts, it will be harder and harder to stop the world’s deserts in their tracks, and more and more farmers will give up and head for cities. The lesson to be learnt lies beneath the sand.
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The Zeigarnik Effect
Have you ever found yourself thinking about a partially finished project for school or work when you were trying to focus on other things? Or perhaps you wondered what would happen next in your favorite TV show or film series. If you have, you’ve experienced the Zeigarnik effect. You tend to remember unfinished tasks better than finished tasks. Knowledge of the Zeigarnik effect can be put into use in everyday life.
The effect is especially well suited for helping overcome procrastination or delaying an action to a later time. We often put off big tasks that seem overwhelming. However, the Zeigarnik effect suggests that the key to overcoming procrastination is to just get started. The first step could be something small and seemingly insignificant. In fact, it’s probably best if it’s something fairly easy.
The Zeigarnik effect can be useful for students who are studying for an exam. The effect tells us that breaking up study periods can actually improve recall. So instead of cramming for an exam all in one sitting, breaks should be scheduled in which the student focuses on something else. This will cause intrusive（侵入的）thoughts, enabling students to rehearse and consolidate the information that must be remembered, leading to better recall when they take the exam.
The Zeigarnik effect also points to reasons why people may experience mental health problems. If an individual leaves important tasks incomplete, the intrusive thoughts that result can lead to stress, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and emotional distress. Conversely, completing a task can give an individual a sense of accomplishment and lead to a feeling of closure that can improve psychological well - being.
The Zeigarnik effect can actually be used to positively impact your work productivity.
According to an official report on youth violence.“In our country today, the greatest threat to the lives of children and adolescents is not disease or starvation or abandonment, but the terrible reality of violence.”Given that this is the case, why aren’t students taught to manage conflict the way they are taught to solve math problems, drive cars, or stay physically fit?
First of all, students need to realize that conflict is unavoidable. It is reported that most violent incidents between students begin with a relatively minor insult. For example, a fight could start over the fact that one student eats a peanut butter sandwich each lunchtime. Laughter over the sandwich can lead to insults, which in turn can lead to violence.
If the conflict occurs, students can practice the golden rule of conflict resolution: stay calm.
Once the student feels calmer. Once the student feels calmer. He or she should choose words that will calm the other person down as well. Rude words and accusations only add fuel to the emotional fire while soft words can put out the fire before it explodes out of control.
After that, they can use another key strategy for conflict resolution. Listening allows the two sides to understand each other. One person should describe his or her side: and the other person should listen without interrupting. Afterwards, the listener can ask non-threatening questions to clarify the speaker’s position. Then the two people should change roles.
Finally, students need to consider what they are hearing. An argument doesn’t mean trying to figure out the fault of the other person but means understanding what the real issue is. As the issue becomes clearer, the conflict often simply becomes smaller.(280 words)
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Early Adopters Fall into a Costly Trap
Being among the first to try out a new piece of technology is cool. When you’re the only member of your social circle with the latest hot device, people stare in fascination. However, people tend to underestimate the costs of this temporary coolness, which they pay in more ways. Frankly speaking, early adoption is a bad investment. The earliest versions of devices are not only expensive, they are also the most expensive that those devices will ever be. Companies are attempting to recover the cost of production as fast as they can, and once the profits from early adopters’ purchases are safely in their hands, they can cut the price and shift to the next marketing stage: selling the product to everyone else. This is why the cost of the original iPhone dropped about $200 only eight months after its release.
Those who are first to leap into a new technology also risk wasting money and time on something that will never catch on. In 2006, HD DVDs, a new format for video, entered the market. A few eager consumers bought HD DVD players that were discontinued in early 2008. The early adopters were then stuck with pricey devices that just sat on their shelves collecting dust.
Another good reason to resist the early adoption temptation is that the first version of a product typically has imperfections. For example, when Microsoft’s game machine, Xbox One, was first released in 2013, users immediately began to complain of problems. Devoted gamers worked to find and share solutions to these issues. Such problems are so common with new technology that early adopters are basically unpaid testers.
So don’t join the first wave of consumers who invest in the latest version of device; instead, wait and see.
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