1 . Investing In the Graphite (化石墨) Revolution
December 21st, 2014
Graphene (石墨烯) is the future. Plain and simple.
Its 200 times stronger than steel, thinner than a sheet of paper, and more conductive than copper.
And that’s not all…
Researchers all over the world are using it for critical advances in a variety of industries. Graphene makes:
·Solar cells — 50x～100x more efficient
·Semiconductors — 50x～100x faster
·Aircraft — 70% lighter
We’re talking about batteries that charge 10x faster and store 10x more power…
Phones and computer displays that bend and fold…
It’s so vital to our future that it’s been named a “supply critical mineral” and a “strategic mineral” by the United States, Japan and the European Union.
Yet only a few companies around the world have access to mineral resource that is required to make graphene. And 70% of supply is controlled by China.
So the setup is perfect for any non-Chinese supply to become an extremely profitable investment, just like rare earths a few years ago.
A new report from the Outsider Club fully outlines the situation:
·What grapheme is used for…
·And why now is the perfect time to invest in this world changing discovery.
To get this new report, simply drop your name in the box below. And in a few moments, you’ll be fully informed on the ins and outs of grapheme. All I ask in return is for you to sign up to receive our financial and economic news elater, Outsider Club.
In each issue, well bring you the financial news from the “Outsiders” perspective. It will show you how to plan your own finances, and manage your own investments. Become a reader of Outsider Club today.
So what are you waiting for?
1. What do you know about graphene?| A．It can conduct electricity very well. | B．It is much stronger than paper. |
| C．It is much heavier than steel. | D．It is very easy to obtain now. |
| A．move much faster | B．work more efficiently | C．save more energy | D．weighs much less |
| A．Cheap | B．common | C．profitable | D．worthless |
2 . Millions of years ago dinosaurs lived on the earth. In the days of dinosaurs the whole earth was warm and wet. There were green forests and they could find enough to eat. Later, parts of the earth became cold and dry, and the forests there died. Then dinosaurs could not find enough to eat. This must be one reason why dinosaurs died out.
We can guess another reason. New kinds of animals came on the earth. Some had big brains and were fast and strong. They could kill dinosaurs.
There may be other reasons that we don’t know about yet. Scientists are trying to make more discoveries about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs have many sizes and shapes (形状). Some were as small as chickens, while some were about 90 feet long.
There were also terrible fights between dinosaurs. They might have happened more than 100 million years ago. Though there was no man to see any of the fights, we can be told by the footprints (足迹) that fights did take place.
1. According to the passage, dinosaurs did exist only________on the earth.| A．for millions of years |
| B．millions of years ago |
| C．more than 100 million years ago |
| D．when it was warm and wet somewhere |
| A．there were too many dinosaurs |
| B．parts of the earth became warm and wet |
| C．there were many green forests |
| D．they couldn’t find enough to eat |
| A．scientists are trying to make some dinosaurs |
| B．dinosaurs are dangerous enough |
| C．dinosaurs are worth studying further |
| D．scientists know nothing about dinosaurs |
| A．footprints | B．imagination | C．rocks and forests | D．dinosaurs’ eggs |
3 . “Hello Mother, Dad, and Blanche,” a quiet voice, has clearly been played many times over. “How’s everything at home? I’m recording this from Dallas…” The disc is small, seven inches across, dated October 1954. The old label shows that the speaker’s name is “Gene”. Gene suggests in his minute-long message that he is traveling and tells his family not to worry about him.
This forgotten sound is one of the world’s early “voice mails”. During the first half of the 20th century, these “voice mails” and other messages were recorded largely, pressed onto metal discs and vinyl records (黑胶唱片) and mailed in places all over the world. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph (留声机) in 1877, he expected a device that could reproduce music and even store languages.
The gramophone, a later form of the phonograph developed by Emile Berliner in 1887, provided a first possibility for recorded sound being used for long distance communication. The practice of sending “voice mails” really got going across the world in the 1930s and 1940s. Back then, families could listen to the messages on repeat — gathering together around the record player whenever one arrived. They could play it proudly again anytime there were guests, but with each play, the needle would scrape away at the grooves (凹槽) until the message could hardly be heard any longer.
Today at Princeton University, professor Thomas Levin is trying to store these sounds of the past. Linguists (语言学家) are particularly interested in “voice mails” because it provides some of the earliest-ever recorded samples of how regular people spoke — their conversational vocabulary, their pronunciation and accents, their sentence structure and their intonation (语调).
1. Why did Gene record his voice in the disc?| A．To let his family know he was OK. | B．To prepare for his experiment. |
| C．To test an old vinyl record. | D．To keep a memory. |
| A．People couldn’t listen to the music in it. |
| B．It couldn’t keep voice in the records very clear. |
| C．The recorded sound would be damaged by the needle. |
| D．The needle of the gramophone must be changed often. |
| A．To research the earliest-ever recorded voice. |
| B．To prove recorded samples are true. |
| C．To learn from famous historical linguists. |
| D．To reproduce the sound of the past. |
| A．The Early Days of Recorded Sound | B．The Importance of “Voice Mails” |
| C．The Development of Our Language | D．The History of “Voice Mails” |
4 . There are two kinds of people: those who like to pack up leftovers as soon as dinner is over, and those who let leftovers sit out for a few hours so they can cool down.
However, both leaving leftovers out for a long period of time and adding hot items to the fridge can cause problems.
Whether you should immediately put food in the fridge or let it sit out to cool depends on its temperature. Dangerous bacterial (细菌的) growth happens between 41 and 135 degrees F. Potentially harmful bacteria grows most rapidly at these temperatures.
Placing lots of hot food in the fridge can raise the temperature of the fridge into this danger zone. Fridge temperatures should always be set below 40 degrees F. This may help the food get out of the danger zone as fast as possible.
However, there’s no harm in putting hot food directly into the fridge if you need to. If you are a forgetful person, or if you won’t be around to store the food after it has cooled enough, go ahead and put it in the fridge. Your fridge can handle the heat and get the food cooled quickly.
Food should never stay out at room temperature for more than two hours. Leftovers can become breeding grounds (滋生地) for dangerous bacteria if they’re left out too long and can make people sick.
“It is OK to leave the food cooling outside before you hit the two-hour mark,” says Serena Poon, nutritionist of Le Cordon Bleu’s Grand Diploma training program. “In fact, the sooner you can get your leftovers in the fridge, the better.”
1. Which temperature most contributes to the growth of harmful bacteria?| A．Below 40 degrees F. | B．Between 39～40 degrees F. |
| C．Between 41～135 degrees F. | D．Above 135 degrees F. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Neutral. | C．Worried. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Dividing them into small parts. |
| B．Storing them in the fridge right away. |
| C．Waiting until they cool down completely outside. |
| D．Leaving them sitting at room temperature for two hours. |
| A．When to Pack up Leftovers. | B．How to Prevent Bacterial Growth |
| C．To Cool Food Outside or in the Fridge | D．A Good Idea to Store Food in the Fridge |
5 . You may have noticed some changes in your grandparents. As they get old, they start
Calorie restriction(热量限制) let lab animals live longer. And these
In the latest
In a word, the less you eat, the more you will remember.
1.| A．missing | B．understanding | C．forgetting | D．loving |
| A．less | B．more | C．farther | D．deeper |
| A．remember | B．leave | C．find | D．believe |
| A．get | B．close | C．practice | D．lose |
| A．reduce | B．improve | C．test | D．damage |
| A．little | B．happy | C．dangerous | D．hungry |
| A．healthier | B．weaker | C．higher | D．better |
| A．what | B．why | C．whether | D．how |
| A．magazine | B．match | C．study | D．exercise |
| A．put | B．cut | C．increase | D．take |
| A．researchers | B．farmers | C．teachers | D．postmen |
| A．fatter | B．higher | C．shorter | D．thinner |
| A．writing | B．memorizing | C．recognizing | D．drawing |
| A．control | B．limit | C．reduction | D．repair |
| A．weak | B．tired | C．fit | D．hard |
6 . If you thought running was just great for the body, then think again. Scientists have found that the sport not only keeps people fit but also improves your brain power (脑力).
The research found that people who keep fit are more likely to have larger brains, better memories and clearer thinking. They also found that unfit people tended to have smaller brains and reduced cognitive skills. The findings add to a growing body of evidence which links exercise with helping protect the brain against ageing (老化) and also helping it replace dying cells (死细胞). This might reduce the risk of many illnesses and diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
One research paper within its latest issue sees scientists at Kentucky University putting 30 adults aged 59 — 69 on a treadmill (跑步机). Their heart and lung capacity was measured and an MRI scanner was used to assess the blood flow to their brains. Those who were less fit had smaller brains compared to the fitter volunteers who had larger brains. Scientists in Germany followed 21 adults aged between 60 — 77. As they went through a three-month fitness program, they saw improvements in their memory.
Researchers are not yet sure why exercise helps to protect brain cells but some research in mice has produced results. Mice, examined at the National Institute on Ageing, in Baltimore, found that cells in the hippocampus (海马体), an area of the brain used for memory, were actively reproducing while their fatter peers were in decline.
Linda Clare, professor of clinical psychology of ageing and dementia at Exeter University and a member of the Global Council on Brain Health told The Sunday Times: “Moderate intensity aerobic (有氧的) activity such as walking, cycling or running can produce changes in brain structure and function.”
1. Who tend to have larger brains, better memories and clearer thinking?| A．People who are healthy. | B．People who are thin. |
| C．People who are unhealthy. | D．People who are fat. |
| A．Those who were less fit had larger brains. |
| B．Those who were fitter had smaller brains. |
| C．Exercise helps people improve their memory. |
| D．Old people doing exercise improve memory better than young people. |
| A．Walking. | B．Singing. |
| C．Cycling. | D．Running. |
| A．To tell you sport improves your brain power. |
| B．To introduce some good ways to keep healthy. |
| C．To teach you how to best spend time in doing sports. |
| D．To introduce several ways to improve your memory. |
7 . Staffan Lindeberg is a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Lund in Sweden. He was interested in a Stone Age diet. In the early 1990s he travelled to Papua New Guinea to study the diet of the people on the island of Kitava as it was very close to the Stone Age diet. While there, he found that people did not suffer from heart attacks, diabetes (糖尿病), being overweight and many other diseases common in western countries.
As a result of his findings, he decided to test patients in Sweden to see how such a diet would affect them. Fourteen patients followed a Stone Age diet while another fifteen followed a Mediterranean diet, also healthy with lots of fruit and vegetables. All of the patients in the tests had high blood sugar levels, most suffered from diabetes and all had heart problems.
At the end of three months, the group following the Mediterranean diet had reduced their blood sugar levels by a small amount but those following the Stone Age diet had much lower levels of sugar in their blood. The patients in both groups also lost weight although the level of sugar in the blood and the patients’ weight didn’t seem to be related.
So, what is it about the Stone Age diet that can make us healthier? The diet contains some meat, fish, vegetables and nuts (坚果) but it doesn’t contain any dairy products (乳制品) or grains, and there is no salt.
The next question is whether the Kitava people are healthier than us. After all, their life expectancy (预期寿命) is much lower. According to Professor Lindeberg, this is not as simple as we may think. Because of their poor health care, there is more chance of them dying at a young age. However, if people on Kitava manage to reach fifty, they are likely to live as long as people in more developed countries.
1. What did Staffan Lindeberg find about the Kitava people on the island of Kitava?| A．They followed the Stone Age diet. |
| B．They lived a simple life. |
| C．They had no diseases common in western countries. |
| D．They had poor medical conditions. |
| A．The Stone Age diet could help people lose weight quickly. |
| B．High blood sugar levels could cause people to be overweight. |
| C．The Mediterranean diet could not help reduce blood sugar levels. |
| D．People following the Stone Age diet had a low blood sugar level. |
| A．Vegetables. | B．Salt. | C．Meat. | D．Fish. |
| A．They have unhealthy eating habits. |
| B．Their living conditions are poor. |
| C．They don’t have good health care. |
| D．They tend to suffer from a rare disease at a young age. |
8 . When everything is going wrong, there's nothing like listening to a few bars of your favorite sad song. But why do we find pleasure in sad music? This puzzled two researchers at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany who set out to explore our strong feeling for sad songs in a world where entire industries exist to help us remove sadness from our lives.
Their study — based on a survey of more than 770 people around the world and published this month in the journal, PLOS ONE — discovered sad music can create positive emotions, like peacefulness and kindness, and that choosing the tearful ballad on your music player offers three benefits.
The biggest turned out to be that sad songs allow you to feel sadness without any of its “real-life contexts.” In other words, you can safely explore what it's like to be a little blue without experiencing the great pain of losing a loved one, for example.
“Emotion control” was another important benefit. Many of those surveyed said that when they were in a bad mood (情绪), experiencing sadness through music made them feel better afterwards and provided an emotional improvement. That may be because the songs help them to express and let go of their emotions, researchers noted. “Sad music promotes and creates a space for reflection and reexamination of personal experiences, thoughts and feelings,” one of the researchers added
The benefit of “empathy” (同理心) made the listener feel good by allowing him to share the sadness of another human being through the song. When we're having social problems, like when we're feeling lonely, homesick or missing someone, the sad songs can offer comfort by showing someone else shares our state of mind, the study found.
So it turns out that Elton John was right: Sad songs do say so much.
1. What does the underlined word “This” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．When things go wrong. | B．What to explore in sad songs. |
| C．Why sad music brings us joy. | D．How to remove sadness from life. |
| A．Benefits of sad music. |
| B．Strong feelings in sad music. |
| C．Real-life contexts of sad music. |
| D．Empathetic comforts from sad music. |
| A．By freeing us from bad moods. | B．By bringing great pain to us. |
| C．By helping us reflect on exams. | D．By providing a space for us. |
| A．To prove Elton John was right. | B．To show Elton John wrote songs. |
| C．To make the readers think deeply. | D．To stress the point of the passage. |
9 . A few days ago, I received a letter from my Aunt Loraine.
It was a handwritten letter thanking me for some Shanghai cookies I had sent her. Aunt Lorraine is ninety-one years old and she has wonderful manners. That is why she sent me the “thank you” letter. She also has wonderful handwriting. Her penmanship（书法）is smooth. It is a pleasure to read.
Aunt Lorraine was educated half a century ago. At that time, penmanship was considered an important skill. Now, it is the age of e-mail and social media. Few people have the time or hope to practice their penmanship or write letters by hand.
This is not good. In my view, good penmanship still counts. This is especially true in school. If you want to get good grades, keeping your writing clean and beautiful will be important. Your writing might be full of good ideas. However, terrible handwriting can turn an A into a B. Awful handwriting can get you a D!
Good penmanship has other advantages, too. Since it's a skill, it trains your brain and develops your learning abilities. It also helps you organize your thoughts. And, believe it or not, that slow process of pushing a pen along paper improves your reading, spelling and even your pronunciation of English.
Apart from all these educational advantages, good penmanship also has personal advantages. A beautifully written letter to a friend is something he or she will treasure forever.A letter that looks as if achicken bad danced across the paperwill be quickly thrown away.I have kept the letter from my Aunt Lorraine. It's a great treasure!
1. Why did Aunt Lorraine write a letter to the author?| A．To express her thanks. | B．To show her wonderful manners. |
| C．To make herself pleased. | D．To set a good example to the author. |
| A．Getting good grades on your writing. |
| B．Organizing your thoughts. |
| C．Making your writing full of good ideas. |
| D．Improving your English pronunciation. |
| A．a boring letter | B．a great treasure |
| C．bad handwriting | D．good penmanship |
| A．To express the importance of clean and beautiful handwriting. |
| B．To share her pleasure of hearing from her aunt. |
| C．TO talk about her experiences of practicing penmanship. |
| D．To encourage people to write litters by hand instead of e-mailing. |
