Sea-level rise predictions

A team of University of Idaho scientists is studying a fast-moving glacier in Alaska in hopes of developing better predictions on how quickly global sea levels will rise.

Tim Bartholomaus, a professor in the Department of Geography and Geological Sciences, spent several weeks on Turner Glacier in Alaska’s southeastern     1     near Disenchantment Bay. The glacier is unique because, unlike other glaciers, it rises greatly every five to eight years.

A surging glacier is defined,     2    , as one that starts flowing at least 10 times faster than normal. But the how and why of that glacial movement is poorly understood, although recent research suggests that global climate change increases the     3     of glacial surging.

During Turner’s surges, the mass of ice and rock will increase its speed from roughly 3 feet a day to 65 feet per day.

All of that is important because glaciers falling into the ocean are a major contributor to sea level rise, and current climate change models don’t     4     account for these movements. For example, Greenland’s glaciers are one of the leading contributors to global sea-level rise. Since the early 2000s, Greenland     5     from not having any effect on world sea levels, to increasing sea level by about 1 millimeter per year. Half of that yearly increase is due to warmer average temperatures, which leads to more ice melting. The other half, however, is because glaciers in Greenland are, as a whole, moving faster and running into the ocean more frequently.

Glacial movement has something to do with water running underneath the glacier. Glaciers are full of holes, and water runs through those holes. When the water pressure is high underneath a glacier, it starts to move, partly because it’s lifting the mass of ice and rock off the ground and partly because it’s     6     the underside of the glacier.

But how exactly does that water move through the glacier, and how does the movement     7     the glacier’s speed? Those are the questions the scientists hope to answer.

Bartholomaus, some graduate students and researchers from Boise State University,     8     onto the ice in August. They set up a base camp at the toe of the glacier and spent their days flying in on helicopters. They placed roughly 30 instruments, burying them deeply into the glacier and     9     them on rock outcroppings (露岩) alongside the glacier. This summer the team will return to get the instruments and replace batteries. Those instruments will     10     on and around the glacier until the glacier surge stops, providing researchers with before and after data.

3 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Boat of Power

Dragon boat racing began in China more than 2,000 years ago as part of a cultural community event to memorize the ancient poet, Qu Yuan. The traditional holiday was a time to perform    1    for good fortune and well-being, and to drive off evil spirits. Over time, dragon boat racing    2    into a global sport.

The Toronto-based Dragons Abreast team stands out at this sport for a few reasons. For one, the79-member team includes people ranging in age from 30 to 93. Prior to joining Dragons Abreast, some members hadn’t been part of a sports team since childhood and wouldn’t have described themselves as particularly athletic ones. And what has brought these women together is something    3     — living with breast cancer.

The breast cancer survivors on this team are in the same boat in every way. For many, being part of a community that knows    4    how life changes after breast cancer is as beneficial as the physical gains. The team offers a supportive space to    5    all the complexities of survivorship.

“I was so surprised at how    6    the racing was for me,” says Liz Johnston Hill, the race coordinator for Dragons Abreast. “It’s almost overwhelming how people encourage, no matter what.”

Being out on the water and connecting to the environment is an important aspect of dragon boating for many of the team members. They talk about how it provides    7    of peace and encourages mindfulness, something we could all use more of in our lives. Outside of dragon boat, the members are a(n)    8    part of each other’s life. “We’ve all been through    9    the same thing in our various ways,” says the race coordinator Liz Johnston Hill. While the number of breast cancer survivor teams grows, barriers to the sport remain such as cost, time,     10    to water and practice facilities and the lack of cultural and language diversity. But there are ongoing efforts to introduce more people living with breast cancer to dragon boat.

Your Social-Media Detoxes (脱瘾治疗) Probably Aren’t Helping You

We’ve all heard the supposed benefits of unplugging from digital devices, even for 24 hours. Such breaks are said to     1     self-confidence, reduce social competitiveness and fears of missing out, and make room for more-enriching, in-person interactions. Yet studies exploring those effects have produced     2     results. So a global research team set out to systematically test the idea that social media detoxing delivers meaningful psychological     3    .

The researchers recruited 600 undergraduate students in three places: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong. All participants were randomly     4     to keep away from social media on either the first or the second day of a two-day experiment. On the other day, they were to interact with digital platforms as they     5     would. Each evening they answered survey questions aimed at    6     various aspects of well-being. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, the one-day detox made no noticeable impact on positive or negative emotions, self-confidence, or daily satisfaction. When it did have an effect, it decreased daily satisfaction and social relatedness, although the changes were not significant once the analysis was adjusted to control for gender. Just as     7    , people didn’t use the time freed up from looking at screens for other forms of socializing. In fact, they reported     8     lower levels of face-to-face, phone, and email interactions on their detoxing days.

Even short social-media breaks can be hard to     9     — indeed, only half the participants in the experiment did what was required and these results suggest that they may not be worth the     10    . “We did not find any evidence that social media detoxing for one day had significant positive impacts on psychological well-being,” the researchers write.

5 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A Review on Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s film about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man known as “the father of the atomic(原子的) bomb”. As a drama about genius, pride and error, it    1    the life of the American theoretical physicist who helped research and develop the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities in Japan, during World War II.

Oppenheimer is a great achievement, partly because it    2    relates that period of history thanks to Nolan’s lifelike filmmaking. Nolan goes deep and long on the    3    of the bomb, but he doesn’t restage the attacks and there are no documentary images of the dead or cities in ashes.

The story tracks Oppenheimer across decades, starting in the 1920s with him as a young adult and continuing until his hair    4    . The film touches on his personal and professional milestones, the controversies that    5    him, and the attacks that nearly ruined him. Besides, the friendships and romances    6    him, yet also troubling, are also described.

The path of Oppenheimer’s life    7     shifted at Berkeley. He was once only an academic there, but his identity changed after Germany entered Poland by force. By that time, Oppenheimer had become friends with Ernest Lawrence, a physicist who invented the historic particle accelerator (粒子加速器) and played a(n)     8    role in the Manhattan Project. And Oppenheimer also met the project’s military head and was then made director of Los Alamos, where much of his later research on nuclear weapons took place.

François Truffaut once wrote that “war films, even those who support peace, even the best, willingly or not, present wars in a certain    9    way.” That is why Nolan refuses to show the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing millions of souls. In the film, you hear that Oppenheimer’s famous words    10    his own mind as the mushroom cloud rose: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Nolan is actually reminding audience to reconsider the roles they can play in the world.

6 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

Unlocking The Vatican Museums

Gianni Crea has, almost every morning for the past decade, unlocked the doors to the Vatican Museums. He has seen the splendor of the Sistine Chapel and admired the textures of ancient Egypt. “Yes, I’m a key keeper. But the doors I open are the ones to the history of art, and it’s here that exists the biggest and most beautiful history in the world,” says Crea.

The Vatican Museums have     1     collections since the 15^th century, including tens of thousands of artworks and artifacts spanning prehistory to modern times. The most     2     one of them, according to Crea, is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. He recalls being     3     with emotion the first time he accompanied the former head key keeper to open the chapel more than 20 years ago. Since then, he’s witnessed people of all faiths     4     at the chapel’s loveliness, something the church believes is increasingly vital during these unsettled times.

“In the difficult current context the world is experiencing, in which sadness and     5     seem to have the upper hand, art is more necessary than ever, because beauty is always a source of joy,” Pope Francis said last year.

There is also     6     scientific evidence to support this view. A 2019 WHO analysis revealed that artistic and cultural activities     7     physical and psychological health. In fall 2022, physicians at Brussels’ hospitals partnered with the city to launch a six-month     8     study examining the benefits of “museum prescriptions as supplemental treatment for stress, burnout, and anxiety”. It’s the first investigation of its kind in Europe and is expected to have     9     effects across the continent. And in the wake of the pandemic (疫情), which forced the Vatican Museums to close three times between 2020 and 2021, there’s a growing movement for wider and easier access to the arts for people’s well-being. “The Vatican Museums must open their doors to people from all over the world, as a(n)     10     of dialogue between cultures and religions,” Pope Francis wrote in his 2015 publication.

“Everyone can find something beautiful and moving here,” says Crea, who always welcomes travelers from around the world to accompany him during his morning routine on select dates. “The Vatican Museums will give you an understanding of art and history regardless of your faith.”

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

How Digital Modeling Plays a Key Role in Restoring the Notre Dame Cathedral (巴黎圣母院)

It’s been more than four years since a fire damaged Notre Dame, the Catholic cathedral in Paris that’s historically drawn millions of visitors every year.

Since then, people from around the world have united to support an effort,     1     by French President, that’s intended to have the building back open to the public by the end of next year. Teams working to restore the Gothic cathedral have     2     to rebuild much of the damaged sections using materials like oak wood (橡木) and stone that have stood the test of centuries.

But the builders, architects and engineers do have the     3     of some 21st century technologies, including modern building information modeling (BIM) software that enables them to work with a(n)     4     detailed 3D digital model of the cathedral and surrounding site, backed by powerful cloud computing technology.

“It allows you to really understand a lot of how a building fits together, how it’s constructed,” says Andrew Anagnost, CEO of design software     5     Autodesk. It has contributed technical consulting, software and financial assistance to the project since shortly after the fire. A digital model, which took more than a year to create, includes more than 12,000 objects.

It was a complex process. Onsite workers captured the point-by-point 3D     6     of the cathedral with laser (激光) and photo equipment. Then, others turned the data points from that process into detailed shapes and objects, down to individual building stones. That let experts see how the building shifted in the fire — important for     7     any stability issues — and plan out the process of reconstruction.

“It’s like Mission: Impossible when they plan,” says Nicolas Mangon, VP of architecture, engineering and construction industry strategy at Autodesk. “Every little piece is done     8    , and with the 3D model you can simulate (模拟) everything.”

Even when the cathedral is     9    , the model may still serve important roles. Mangon says the company is currently in discussions about using it to manage aspects of the complex going forward,     10     using sensors that could show the exact location of any future fires.

What Comes After Space?

Looking at a clear night sky you witness the vastness of space, which holds everything humans know to exist. To find out what     1     beyond a good place to start is to determine where the universe ends. However, the problem is that scientist are uncertain about where space ends or whether it ends at all.

The     2     universe

The furthest humans can see out into space,using all the technology currently available to us,is 46 billion light years (alight year is the distance that light can travel in one year,and is equivalent to about 9. 5 million million kilometres). The     3     of space that humans can see is called the visible universe. Beyond this, it remains a mystery whether it’s an expanse of more galaxies and stars or possibly the edge of the universe. Some think that the universe is     4    , meaning space goes on forever in every direction. In this case,there is nothing after space,because space is everything.

Moving further away

Experts have captured images of the entire Earth from space,and some astronauts have personally witnessed its beauty from orbit. Perhaps     5     the limits of the universe would also be possible too, if only humans knew where to go to look for it.

Another challenge is the universe’s rapid     6    . As galaxies move further away their light   takes longer to reach us. Eventually, some galaxies may be so distant that their light never     7    . This might imply that any edge— and whatever is on the other side — is increasingly     8     itself from us. Regardless of these uncertainties, scientists still spend a lot of time thinking about what comes after space.

Many universes?

It’s possible that there isn’t just one universe, and that our universe is just one small part of a “multiverse”. Perhaps our universe is     9     within its own distinct region of space, separated from others by vast expanses of nothingness. Or maybe     10     universes exist pressed tightly against each other. Getting an idea of the universe’s true shape may help astronomers find out whether it has an edge. What comes after that could be an even great mystery.

What makes us happy?

You probably know the type of personality in some people: they seem to be hopeful in almost everything. Are they simply born happy? Is it the product of their environment? Or does it come from their life decisions?

If you are familiar with genetics research, you will have guessed that it is a     1     of all three. A 2018 study of 1516 Norwegian twins suggests that around 30% of the differences in people’s life satisfaction is     2    . Much of this seems to be related to personality traits.

To put this in context, the heritability of IQ is thought to be around 80%, so     3     factors clearly play a role in our happiness. These include our physical health, the size and strength of our social network, job opportunities and income. It seems that the absolute value of our salary matters less than whether we feel richer than those around us, which may explain why the level of       4     predicts happiness better than GDP.

Interestingly, many important life     5     have only a little influence on our happiness. Consider marriage. A 2019 study found that, on average, life satisfaction does rise after the wedding, but the feeling of happiness tends to     6     over middle age.

Parenthood is even more complex. For decades, social scientists have found that people with children at home are significantly less happy than those without. More recent research, however, suggests that there are important regional differences.

Analyses show that these differences can be almost completely explained by variations in       7     parental leave, flexible working hours, affordable childcare and holiday leave, which together     8     the potential for work-family conflict. The effects of these policies may play out across generations. In addition to the legacy of their genes, parents’ own emotional well-being will influence the family vigour, which will, in turn, shape the     9     of their children.

Our life satisfaction, then, is shaped by our genes, health, economic prospects, relationships and the culture around us. While many of these things may be beyond your control, there is now good evidence that certain psychological strategies will help you to     10     to your circumstances in the happiest way possible.