What is causing the increase in the
2 . Distance running, it turns out, is where humans are better at compared with other species, even if our two-leggedness makes us about half as fast as other mammals of similar size, on average.
So what is it about our bodies and our physiology that allows us to undertake such long and hard runs?
“Our ancestors developed adaptations for running literally from toe to head,” said Daniel Lieberman, a human evolutionary biologist at Harvard University who focuses on movement. “There’s no part of our body that running doesn’t touch.” According to Lieberman, our toes are short so they don’t break while running. And in general, our lower body has larger joints, tendons (筋腱) and muscles than our upper body that does to absorb the forces we generate at speed. Beefy muscles in our back keep our upper body from falling forward, and our swinging arms stabilize our heads. Unlike apes, we have a flexible spinal column (脊柱) that allows us to twist our hips and shoulders and separate them from our head so we can keep our gaze directed forward.
But perhaps the biggest adaptations that set humans apart deal with our ability to let heat out. Our tall, upright bodies create a lot of surface area for cooling, and the ability to breathe from both the nose and mouth helps dump heat as well. Humans are also one of the only species with the ability to sweat, and without thick fur, our sweat can easily evaporate from our skin, cooling us down.
All of these adaptations led humans to adopt what’s known as persistent hunting long before the appearance of early weapons. Hunters likely followed their quarry (猎物) for miles until the animals gave in to exhaustion. Other animals do this too, but none can persistently hunt during the day or in hot climates. Hunting gave humans access to more energy, which freed our brains to grow larger. In turn, our brains have developed our ability to run and hunt, said Missy Thompson, a neuromechanics biologist at Fort Lewis College in Colorado.
1. What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?| A．We don’t need our toes in our running. |
| B．Running can touch most parts of our bodies. |
| C．Our lower bodies play a vital role when running at speed. |
| D．When we are running, our swinging arms can twist our hips and shoulders. |
| A．Tall upright bodies. | B．The ability to breathe. |
| C．Having no thick fur. | D．Persistent hunting. |
| A．Hunting is beneficial to our brains’ growth. |
| B．Humans are the only species that can sweat. |
| C．Hunter won’t follow their targets in hot climates. |
| D．Beefy muscles keep our body from falling backward. |
| A．The ways to be good runners |
| B．Effective ways to undertake long runs. |
| C．The reasons why humans are good long distance runners. |
| D．An imporatnt sport for humans—distance running. |
1. What happened to boats and ships in the Bermuda Triangle?
| A．They disappeared. | B．They crashed into each other. | C．They caught fire without reason. |
| A．A reporter. | B．A writer. | C．An explorer |
| A．In 1918. | B．In 1600. | C．In 1400. |
| A．Every report on it is untrue. | B．It is completely safe at present. | C．It is a dangerous area in the ocean. |
1. Where are the speakers probably?
| A．In the kitchen. | B．In the living room. | C．In the dining room |
| A．Popular. | B．Boring. | C．Attractive. |
| A．Write something. | B．Do some cleaning. | C．Buy the woman a new jacket. |
| A．Walking in the rain. | B．Running a restaurant. | C．Cooking a meal |
1. What do we know about the Burj Khalifa?
| A．It is an ancient man-made building. |
| B．It is the tallest man-made building. |
| C．It is located in the United States. |
| A．Five years. | B．Seven years. | C．Nine years. |
| A．Visit the inside of the Burj Khalifa. |
| B．Go to another scenic spot. |
| C．Take a break. |
1. What do we know about the quilt?
| A．It’s new. | B．It’s beautiful. | C．It’s light. |
| A．He bought it long ago. | B．He received it as a gift. | C．He got it from his grandma. |
| A．He is moving. | B．He doesn’t like it. | C．He needs money badly. |
| A．$ 16. | B．$ 60. | C．$ 80. |
1. How does the woman know the man ate the cookie?
| A．She saw him on the video camera. |
| B．Another customer told her. |
| C．She saw him in person. |
| A．He didn’t want to pay. |
| B．He thought the cookie tasted bad. |
| C．He thought the cookie was too expensive. |
| A．The man paid for the cookie. |
| B．The woman called the police. |
| C．The speakers went to the back of the store. |
| A．From not enough water. |
| B．From not enough sun. |
| C．From not enough plant food. |
9 . Debate about artificial intelligence (AI) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic (算法) discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity. As some observers worry, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards. AI could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and toughest problems. And, they say, AI will do this in a very specific way: by speeding the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.
Such claims are worth examining, and may provide a useful counterbalance (抵消) to fears about large-scale unemployment and killer robots. Many previous technologies have, of course, been falsely praised as panaceas (灵丹妙药). The electric telegraph was praised in the 1850s as a sign of world peace. Experts in the 1990s said the internet would reduce inequality.
But the mechanism by which AI will supposedly solve the world’s problems has a stronger historical basis, because there have been several periods in history when new approaches and new tools did indeed help bring about bursts of world-changing scientific discovery and innovation.
In the 17th century microscopes and telescopes opened up new vistas (视野) of discoveries, while the introduction of scientific journals gave them new ways to share their findings. From the mid-20th century, computers in turn enabled new forms of science based on simulation and modelling, from the design of weapons and aircraft to more accurate weather forecasting.
And the computer revolution may not be finished yet. As we report, AI tools and techniques are now being applied in almost every field of science, though the degree of adoption varies widely: 7.2% of physics and astronomy papers published in 2022 involved AI. AI is being employed in many ways. It can identify promising candidates for analysis, such as molecules with particular properties in drug discovery, or materials with the characteristics needed in batteries or solar cells.
All this is to be welcomed. But the journal and the laboratory went further still: they altered scientific practice itself and unlocked more powerful means of making discoveries. AI has the potential to set off such a transformation.
1. How does the author develop the first paragraph?| A．By providing evidence. | B．By listing debates about AI. |
| C．By making classification of AI. | D．By explaining a phenomenon. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Objective. | C．Disapproving. | D．Favourable. |
| A．Scientific journals bring about successful data analysis. |
| B．Scientific journals and computers remove people’s discrimination. |
| C．Scientific discovery and innovation have some potential problems. |
| D．Scientific progresses benefit from new approaches and new tools. |
| A．How Al can revolutionise Science |
| B．Why Al Decides Human Beings’ Future |
| C．When Human Beings No Longer Fear Al |
| D．Where Al Performs Better in Scientific Fields |
10 . Three scientists jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for proving that tiny particles (粒子) could keep a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon once doubted but now being explored for potential real-world applications such as encoding information. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were quoted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for experiments proving the “totally crazy” field of quantum entanglements (量子纠缠) to be all too real. They demonstrated that unseen particles, such as photons (光子) , can be linked, or “entangled”, with each other even when they are separated by large distances.
In quantum entanglement, establishing common information between two photons not near each other “allows us to do things like secret communication, in ways which weren’t possible to do before”, said David Haviland, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. Quantum information “has broad and potential effects in areas such as secure information transmission, quantum computing and sensing technology”. The kind of secure communication used by China’s Micius satellite, as well as by some banks, is a “success story of quantum entanglement”, said Harun Siljak of Trinity College Dublin.
The Nobel Committee said Clauser developed quantum theories first put forward in the 1960s into a practical experiment. Aspect was able to correct an error in those theories, while Zeilinger demonstrated a phenomenon called quantum teleportation that effectively allows information to be sent over distances. “Using entanglement you can send all the information which is carried by an object over to some other place where the object is.” Zeilinger said. He added that this only works for tiny particles. “It is not like in the Star Trek films transporting something, certainly not the person, over some distance,” he said.
1. Which of the following statements about quantum entanglements is NOT true?| A．Scientists were doubtful whether it exists in the real world. |
| B．The Nobel Prize winner has put it into practical experiment. |
| C．Two particles can actually be connected regardless of distances. |
| D．The more distant 2 photons get, the less entangled they’ll become. |
| A．Affecting. | B．Transforming. |
| C．Communicating. | D．Spreading. |
| A．The achievements these 3 scientists have got individually. |
| B．The explanation for information transmission over large distances. |
| C．The clarification that science fiction is no equal to scientific theory. |
| D．The reason why these 3 scientists share this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. |
| A．Classical physics can be applied to tiny particles. |
| B．Quantum physics is the focus of modern physical research. |
| C．Particles, photons, and quanta are all the basic composition of matter. |
| D．Quantum entanglements can contribute to more cutting-edge technologies. |
