1 . The only science fiction that ever really caught my attention when I was growing up, besides Star Trek and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, was the novel Contact by Carl Sagan. When I was 15, I saw the 1997 film version of this. Later, as a 17­-year-­old adapting to my first semester (学期) at university, I read the book. Contact eventually became the gateway for me to try more popular science books.

One thing that interested me was the bitter fights the researchers got into with one another about their different ways of measuring the expansion rate of space­time. On second thoughts, maybe this was a lesson I was supposed to draw from Contact, but, at the time, I didn’t regard such politics as a scientist problem. Instead, what caught my attention was the portrayal of Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, a scientist who searched for alien intelligence. In the film version, Ellie is seen listening to space using a pair of headphones connected to the Very Large Array (VLA)—a real facility in New Mexico.

Astronomers don’t really do this for the purposes of actual research because there is rarely any point. This is the kind of detail that is unimportant for the film of Contact, but how it portrays radio astronomy is one of the inaccuracies I occasionally hear scientists complain about. I was lucky enough to observe the behaviour of some water molecules (分子) in the Orion nebula (猎户座星云) using the VLA for my third­year lab course. We didn’t listen to the data. Instead, we processed it so that we could look at it.

That was probably the only time I ever excelled in the lab, and I was so excited to be a real­life Ellie Arroway. Later, I was forced to think more about the human aspects of my working experience. I witnessed unnecessarily heated arguments between scientists, complete with shouting and chalkboard punching (用拳猛击). But, thankfully, Contact had not only introduced me to the idea of radio astronomy as a possible career path, it had also given me a road map for remaining calm in the confused conflict of astronomical wonder and human politics.

1. What can be learned about the author in his teenage years?

A．He watched Contact’s film version in his freshman year.

B．His interest in science was inspired by Contact.

C．He read a wide range of science fiction books.

D．His favourite science fiction author was Robert Heinlein.

2. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Detecting the sound of space.	B．Searching for alien intelligence.
C．Communicating with non­experts.	D．Visiting the VLA in New Mexico.

3. Why does the author mention his third­year lab course?

A．To demonstrate his strong interest in lab projects.

B．To explain why scientists sometimes make complaints.

C．To show his observations had achieved positive results.

D．To prove the film of Contact presented radio astronomy incorrectly.

4. What lesson did Contact teach the author?

A．How to grasp career opportunities.

B．How to get an excellent score on a lab course.

C．How to deal with conflicts between scientists.

D．How to explain the science of radio astronomy.

2 . When I was a teenager, I knew nothing about mental health. If you talked about “safe spaces”, I’d think that you meant a bank. What’s more, I didn’t care about mental health. Why would I? As Dad used to say, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!”

But unfortunately my mental health did “break”. I was diagnosed (诊断) as seriously clinically anorexic (厌食的) at age 23. I had immediate treatment in hospital, which lasted two and a half years. People always wonder what helped me recover and the key was simple: comedy (喜剧).

I’m a professional stand-up comic. Comedy began as my hobby and has progressed into a job. The word “comedy” is believed to come from the Ancient Greek kōmos meaning “to reveal”, whose job is to reveal, explain and understand things. This was something I turned to when I was in recovery from anorexia. I’d never been able to explain what going on inside my head; trying to explain what’s going on in your mind is like trying to explain a color to someone who’s blind. So humour became a way of understanding things and then a way of explaining them.

Dr Dieter Declercq, Lecturer in Film at the University of Kent, believes “Humor can change our opinions on a difficult situation”. However, he adds carefully that “We should avoid judgments like All humour is good for you.” In his new book Satire, Comedy and Mental Health, he looks at how comedy can be used as a mental health method. Enjoyed with others, it is important for good mental health and recovery.

Stand-up comedy was important to my recovery. I know I’m not alone in that. So I want to pay that forward and show other people your mental health doesn’t have to be “broken” before you can “fix it”.

1. How did the author treat the issue of mental health as a teenager?

A．She took it seriously.

B．She was confident of it.

C．She hated talking about it.

D．She paid no attention to it.

2. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 3?

A．Explain how comedy helps.

B．Share what she went through.

C．State where comedy comes from.

D．Show why comedy is a common hobby.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Comedy.

B．Film.

C．A difficult situation.

D．The new book.

4. In which section of a magazine is this text probably from?

A．Health & Life.

B．Man & Nature.

C．Science & Technology.

D．Society & Opinion.