1 . Science may never know what memories play on the mind of the California sea hare, a foot-long marine snail, when it eats algae — a sea plant — in the tide pools of the Pacific coast.

But in a new study, researchers claim to have made headway in understanding the simplest kind of memory a creature might form.

David Glanzman, a neurobiologist at the University of California, believes the kinds of memories that trigger a defensive reaction in the snail are encoded not in the connections between brain cells, as many scientists would argue, but in RNA molecules (分子) that form part of an organism’s genetic machinery.

In an experiment to test the idea, Glanzman implanted wire into the tails of California sea hares, and gave them a series of electrical shocks. The procedure sensitized the animals so that when they were prodded (戳) in a fleshy spout called a siphon, they contracted their gills (鳃状呼吸器官) in a strong defensive action.

After sensitizing the sea snails, Glanzman extracted RNA from the animals and injected it into other sea snails to see what happened. He found the recipient sea snails became sensitized, suggesting the “memory” of the electrical shocks had been transplanted. When Glanzman repeated the experiment with RNA from sea snails that had been hooked up to wires but not shocked, the reaction behavior did not transfer.

Despite the result, the work has not found widespread acceptance. “Obviously further work needs to be carried out to determine whether these changes can happen without failure in a wide range of conditions,” said Prof Sherilynn Vann, who studies memory at Cardiff University. “While the sea hare is a fantastic model for studying basic neuroscience, we must be very cautious in drawing comparisons to human memory processes.”

Tomas Ryan, who studies memory at Trinity College Dublin, is firmly unconvinced. “It’s interesting, but I don’t think they’ve transferred a memory,” he said. “This work tells me that maybe the most basic behavioral responses involve some kind of switch in the animal and there is something in the liquid that Glanzman extracts that is hitting that switch.”

But Ryan added that different thinking about memory was badly needed: “In a field like this which is so full of accepted beliefs, we need as many new ideas as possible. This work takes us down an interesting road, but I have a huge amount of skepticism about it.”

1. Why were the sea hares given electrical shocks?

A．To rob them of their memory.

B．To see how they defend themselves.

C．To break the connection between nerves.

D．To make them sensitive to external stimulations.

2. What conclusion may Glanzman draw from the experiment?

A．Memory can be encoded and changed by people.

B．Only with strong stimulation can sea snails form reaction.

C．The memory giving rise to sea snail’s sensitization is held in RNA.

D．The sea snail’s defense is probably enabled by connectivity of brain cells.

3. According to the passage, the limitations of Glanzman’s experiment involve the following EXCEPT ________.

A．The recipient sea snail’s response may require further confirmation.

B．Variables (变量) in the experiments may not have remained the same.

C．Something else other than RNA in the extract may lead to the recipient’s reaction.

D．The sea snail “memory transplant” may not apply to more complex memory process.

4. The underlined word “skepticism” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.

A．criticism

B．doubt

C．relief

D．optimism

2 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. profitably	B. fallen	C. sell	D. dangerous	AB. dump	AC. efficiently
AD. plastic	BC. endless	BD. civilization	CD. throwaway	ABC. stylish

The value of upcycling

Recycling is a well-known idea that refers to reusing waste materials in any way possible. But what about “upcycling”? It’s a new word, even though it’s something that has been going on since human     1     began. It means reusing waste materials so that they have greater value. Throughout history, people have always done creative things with “trash”. For example, they’ve used straw and dead leaves to make roofs, skin from dead animals to make leather goods, and wood from     2     trees to make boats. So why is there a new word for it now?

One answer to this question is that we reuse fewer and fewer things, and so have become a (n) “    3    ” society. This has raised huge questions about waste: Where can we     4     it all? Will it pollute the environment? Could it be     5     to our health? The evidence is everywhere—even in the Pacific Ocean, where billions of bits of broken     6     float near the surface. Fish eat them, and then we eat the fish.

So upcyclers have adopted this new word to focus people’s attention on how waste cannot simply be reused, but be reused     7    . In fact, upcyclers don’t like the idea of waste and prefer to call it an “asset”, something of value. Nowadays, there are lots of organizations that     8     products with upcycled material. Some artists and designers have upcycled things like denim from old jeans to make rugs, and wood from old houses to make furniture. Others have even used candy wrappers to make handbags! Sometimes they’ll add a(n)     9     element to their products, such as a beautiful mosaic (马赛克) made with broken dishes. With a (n)     10     supply of “assets”, it seems that upcycling has a great future.

3 . American farmers have been complaining of labor shortages for several years.The complaints are unlikely to stop without an overhaul（全面修订）of immigration rules for farm workers.

Congress has obstructed（阻挠）efforts to create a more straightforward visa for agricultural workers that would let foreign workers stay longer in the U.S.and change jobs within the industry.    1     .

Perhaps half of U.S. farm laborers are undocumented immigrants.As fewer such workers enter the country，the characteristics of the agricultural workforce are changing. Today's farm laborers.while still predominantly born in Mexico，are more likely to be settled rather than migrating and more likely to be married than single.They're also aging. At the start of this century，about one-third of crop workers were over the age of 35.Now more than half are.And picking crops is hard on older bodies.One oft-debated cure for this labor shortage remains as implausible as it's been all along：Native U.S.workers won't be returning to the farm.

Mechanization isn't the answer，either--not yet，at least. Production of corn，cotton，rice，soybeans，and wheat has been largely mechanized，but many high-value，labor-intensive crops，such as strawberries，need labor.    2     .

As a result，farms have grown increasingly reliant on temporary guest workers using the H-2A visa to fill the gaps in the workforce.Starting around 20l2，requests for the visas rose sharply；from 2011 to 2016 the number of visas issued more than doubled.

    3     . Even so，employers complain they aren't given all the workers they need.The process is cumbersome，expensive，and unreliable.One survey found that bureaucratic delays led H-2A workers to arrive on the job an average of 22 days late.The shortage is compounded by federal immigration raids，which remove some workers and drive others underground.

In a 2012 survey，71 percent of tree-fruit growers and almost 80 percent of raisin and berry growers said they were short of labor.Some western farmers have responded by moving operations to Mexico.    4     . Little more than a decade later，the share of imports was 25.8 percent.

In effect，the U.S.can import food or it can import the workers who pick it.

A．One trouble with U.S. agricultural workforce is the high mobility of crop workers.

B．The H-2A visa has no numerical cap，unlike the H-2B visa for nonagricultural work，which is limited to 66，000 a year.

C．Even dairy farms，where robots do a small share of milking have a long way to go before they're automated.

D．From1998 to 2000，14.5percent of the fruit Americans consumed was imported.

E．To attract younger laborers to the farm work is the much argued solution to the labor shortage in U.S.farming.

F．If this doesn't change，American businesses，communities，and consumers will be the losers.

4 . If you followed the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, you may have noticed that several athletes, including US swimmer Michael Phelps, had circular bruises on their bodies. These bruises were the results of “cupping therapy”, a traditional Chinese medical practice that has been around for more than 2,000 years.

Cupping therapy involves attaching circular cups to the skin using suction(吸力). The suction is created either by heating the cup inside or by using a handheld pump. This suction pulls the skin upward into the cup. Sometimes it can leave dark red bruises, other times there is no mark at all.

Many athletes say that they have benefited from the therapy. Phelps used the therapy in the fall of 2014 and has used it about twice a week since, reported ABC News. Another US swimmer, Dana Vollmer, also believes that “it really helps with blood flow, and helps pull swelling out of different areas.”

However, some have said that the supposed health effects result from people feeling that the treatment works, rather than any physical effects of the treatment.

To figure out whether cupping therapy has any physical effects, last year researchers from Germany carried out a test in which a sham(假装的) treatment was provided.

In the study, the same type of cups was used in the real treatment and the sham treatment. But in the sham treatment, the cups had a hole at the top so that they couldn’t create the proper suction.

The tested patients, who suffered from a disorder(疾病) that causes a lot of pain, were told that they would receive either a traditional cupping or “soft cupping”. But they were not informed that the so-called “soft cupping” was a sham treatment.

It turned out that most patients correctly guessed which kind of cupping they had received. In both groups, patients also experienced about the same reductions in pain. The results suggest the effects of cupping therapy might come fro factors that are not necessarily part of the treatment itself, the researchers told the Live Science website.

The question of whether cupping therapy works still needs to be answered. But because the treatment is relatively safe and it could be helpful for some people, “the therapy can be used as a part of a comprehensive treatment program involving other exercises, nutritional choices and lifestyle interventions(干预)”, Dr Brent Bauer, director of the US’ Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program, told Live Science.

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about cupping therapy?

A．It leaves bruises every time.	B．Heating is crucial to cupping therapy.
C．The key to cupping therapy is suction.	D．It has been widely used in Western countries.

2. The purpose of the test was to ________.

A．prove the health effects of cupping therapy

B．see whether cupping therapy has a physical effect

C．compare traditional cupping and the soft cupping

D．compare cupping therapy’s effects on different groups of people

3. What can be concluded about the test?

A．Different types of cups were used for different cupping therapies.

B．Patients knew which kind of cupping treatment they would receive before the treatment.

C．The real treatment and the sham treatment were almost equally effective for patients.

D．The results show the effects of cupping therapy result from people’s belief in the treatment

4. The underlined word “comprehensive” in the last paragraph probably means ________.

A．easy and convenient to carry out

B．newly invented and untraditional

C．requiring a long period of time to take effect

D．including everything that is important and necessary

5 . Directions: After reading the passages below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Oscar Envelope

The shining Oscar statue is a celebrated symbol of the Academy Awards,but there is another symbol on the Oscars scene.

    1    (weigh) a quarter of a pound and seen by millions of viewers around the world, it’s the Oscar envelope. It bears, after all, the Oscar winner’s name. The golden envelope was initially developed as a safeguard     2     leaks to the media of the winners’ name. Yet the envelope holds some secrets of its own.

While 24 envelopes appear on the Academy Award telecast----one for the winner of each category, three sets are produced, totaling 72 envelopes. That’s because the two extra sets are emergency backups,     3         4     the first set gets delayed in its delivery.

The production team also construct 363 heavyweight cream color winner cards     5    (print) with all the nominees’ names. Yet the stuffing of the envelopes takes place outside of the studio, in a top-secret process     6    protects the Academy’s picks of the year until the formal presentation.

Although 72 envelopes are made,only one third of them     7     （make) it to the Oscar stage. The winner of each category takes home both a golden statue and the winning envelope, but the extra sets of envelopes    8     (destroy) .

＂The elimination is to prevent leftovers from appearing on some online stores or markets and    9    (preserve) the honor of the winners,"Mare Friedland, designer of the Oscars envelope said. "The value of each envelope as a souvenir is priceless. Hopefully a winner looking back at the envelope will recall that moment in time when     10     was watching, and the hosts announced in that particular second     11     the Oscar winner was.”