1 . You’re in the shower. You grab the showerhead. What do you do? You sing.
Have you ever wondered about this phenomenon? Some of us wouldn’t sing in public if someone paid us. Yet we’ll sing in the shower without embarrassment. Believe it or not, there’s a scientific explanation behind it.
First, let’s look at why we’re relaxed enough in the shower to burst into song. Think about it: you don’t sing when you’re sad (unless you’re singing the blues, of course). For many people, shower time is the only time they’re alone all day. You’re in a warm, small, safe environment. You’re comfortable enough to be yourself! When you relax, your brain releases dopamine (多巴胺), which can give your creative juices an extra kickstart.
Warm water is rushing over you, and now you’re relaxed and feeling good. It turns out that singing makes you feel even better. Singing, because of the breathing you put into it, gets more oxygen into the blood. This gives you better circulation, which in turn improves your body and mood. And because you have to breathe a little deeper to belt out a song, you get some of the same relaxation and mind-clearing benefits as meditation (冥想). Another neat thing is that when you’re singing, you really can’t think about your problems—more stress relief.
But the best thing about singing in the shower? The acoustics (音响效果)! You can never ask for a better sound system than a bathroom. Because bathroom tiles (墙砖) don’t absorb sound, your voice bounces back and forth around the room before fading away, which makes your voice hang in the air longer. And because the shower is a small space, it boosts your voice, making your singing sound more powerful. So you will sound better than you actually are, which is a confidence boost.
We don’t sing in the shower simply because we have “Call Me Maybe” stuck in our heads. It turns out we do it for many reasons: stress relief, happiness, great acoustics, or maybe just because we like to hear our own voices. Whatever the reason, keep it up. It’s good for you. And if you’ve never tried it, pick a song, grab the showerhead and put on your own private concert.
1. Why do many people feel comfortable singing in the shower?| A．The acoustics are perfect in public places. | B．Shower time is relaxing and private. |
| C．Singing boosts stress levels. | D．Showering improves vocal abilities. |
| A．Released dopamine due to relaxation. | B．Increased exposure to blues music. |
| C．Enhanced oxygen absorption from water. | D．Strengthened lung capacity. |
| A．The bathroom’s small size encourages relaxation. |
| B．Breathing while singing improves circulation. |
| C．Singing removes the need for deep breaths. |
| D．Tile walls absorb sound and stress. |
| A．Science. | B．Technology. | C．Culture. | D．People. |
2 . When Amelia thinks about her freshman year two years ago, she remembers being tardy to her 8 a.m. first period class from time to time. “It was so hard to wake up in the morning,” she said. “I had to bike to school and I lived on the other side of the island.”
Like other teens, mornings area struggle because she had several hours of homework and extracurricular activities the night before, but research shows that’s not the entire story. According to psychotherapists, Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright in their book Generation Sleepless, today's teens are sleepier than ever and earlier school start time is disturbing their body's circadian (昼夜节律的) rhythm.
“One of the things that happens somewhere around age 12 is that their brain clock becomes set to a later pace,” said Turgeon, which put sateen about two hours behind the sleep schedule of a young child or an adult. “That means they want to go to sleep later and they want to wake up later,” she said.
“We consider adequate sleep —the very lowest amount—to be about eight hours,” said Wright. However, the average sleep time for high school students is usually about 6.5 hours. And missing out on just a couple hours of rest each night has negative consequences for developing teenage brains.
When a teen is tired, the amygdala—which is the part of the brain that responds to danger—will become more active. And the parts of the brain that are in charge of judgment become less active. Sleep issues are commonly associated with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder (双相情感障碍) and ADHD (多动症). “We see teens with very serious mental health issues and accidents and soon things that parents really worry about—and getting enough sleep addresses those issues.”
Even with research showing that letting students sleep well contributes to better academic performance, lower truancy (旷课) rates and improved mental health, there has been pushback from parents and school districts about delaying the start of the school day.
1. What does the underlined word “tardy” probably m can in paragraph 1?| A．Late. | B．Busy. | C．Tired. | D．Excited. |
| A．They feel more tired than ever | B．They sleep later and wakeup later. |
| C．They have about 6.5 hours of sleep | D．They sleep about two hours later than adults. |
| A．The teens are always feeling tired |
| B．The amygdala becomes more active. |
| C．The lack of sleep causes many problems. |
| D．The teenagers have trouble sleeping |
| A．Favorable | B．Doubtful | C．Ambiguous. | D．Disapproving |
3 . Whether shyness is part of your child’s personality or just something they feel when they are in front of a group of strangers, it is a typical experience. “Shyness isn’t always as socially valued as more outgoing personalities. However, we should step back and think about different personalities and their unique advantages,” said Pérez-Edgar, professor of psychology (心理学) at The Pennsylvania State University. “Everyone can feel shy at times. And those who are especially shy often have happy social lives --they just aren’t likely to be the liveliest person in a crowded room.”
But there are things to watch out for. If your children are avoiding situations that are important or could be enjoyable for them because they’re feeling nervous, it might be time to take action, said Chiappini, a child expert. “That could mean not speaking in class, trouble making friends, or not joining in activities they like.” she said.
Chiappini recommended first saying something like: “You seem a little nervous or unsure about who everyone is/what to say . We haven’t met them before and that can feel a little uncomfortable.” From there, you can encourage them to join someone or say something when they are ready ---with the promise that you will be there to support them, she added.
The more we avoid situations where kids may feel shy, the more anxiety (担心) we will have about them in the future. But that doesn’t mean to push your child into the deep end.
“We may have to deal with the situation step by step. For example, you may have to encourage your child just to make eye contact during an outing before expecting them to ask someone a question,” Chiappini said.
1. What may Pérez - Edgar agree with?| A．Shyness is not as bad as people have thought. |
| B．Children are more likely to feel shy than adults. |
| C．Shy people like to stay with lively people. |
| D．It’s difficult for people to get over shyness. |
| A．When they ask for instructions from others. |
| B．When they feel nervous in school activities. |
| C．When they try hard to mix with other children. |
| D．When they are absent from important situations. |
| A．Tell their kids what they should say. |
| B．Ask their kids how they are feeling. |
| C．Help their kids stay away from some situations. |
| D．Show their kids they understand how they feel. |
| A．Parents should be strict with the shy children. |
| B．Parents should push the shy children to be outgoing. |
| C．Parents should be patiently guide the shy children. |
| D．Parents should encourage shy children to make eye contact with them. |
4 . According to a study published this week, habitual napping (打盹) appears to be associated with a large brain volume in adults although experts stressed that further research was needed. It reduces the cost caused from the lost time and the fatigue-related errors. The work followed previous studies that suggested a brief doze could improve people’s ability to learn.
Arianna Huffington, a co-founder of Huff Post and the founder and chief executive of Thrive Global, said, “Given the latest science on the effectiveness of napping and the clear link between employees feeling well rested and their productivity, it’s long past time that businesses embrace short naps at work.”
Some businesses, including Thrive Global, have already introduced facilities for employees to take naps. Google introduced sleep pods as far back as 2014 and companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry’s introduced nap rooms. The practice has even been adopted by the NHS, with a growing number of hospitals introducing sleep pods for staff in an effort to help them get more rest. Employees, it seems, are enthusiastic. Sean Greenwood, of Ben & Jerry’s, said, “If a quick nap gets employees more involved and creative, we’re happy to provide that for our team members.”
Unfortunately, the practice of napping still suffers from our collective concept that sleep equals weakness and laziness. However, the performance-enhancing benefits of naps have been no secret to many leaders throughout history. It also gives the higher-ups the chance to acknowledge the 24/7 culture and come up with top-down solutions that encourage workers to take care of themselves in and out of work.
While sleep experts stressed that a daytime doze could be beneficial, they said it was crucial to get enough shut-eye at the end of a day. It is the late stage of sleep, sometimes missed by early risers, that strengthens the nerve circuits that make for learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neutral connections. Additionally, prioritizing sufficient sleep during the regular nightly sleep period is essential for overall well-being.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．Work stress. | B．Learning abilities. |
| C．A research finding. | D．The brain volume. |
| A．Dismissive. | B．Approving. |
| C．Unclear. | D．Critical. |
| A．To advocate enough rest. | B．To praise creative employees. |
| C．To compare the differences. | D．To present the current situation. |
| A．The approaches to shut-eye. | B．The importance of napping. |
| C．The secrets to well-being. | D．The benefits of memory. |
5 . Goldfish may seem like simple creatures swimming in a glass tank, but they possess a rather complicated navigation system, as discovered by researchers at the University of Oxford Led by Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux, the study aims to shed light on our understanding of how fish, and potentially humans, estimate distances using what could be described as an internal GPS.
Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Sibeaux and colleagues report how they created a tank in their experiment with 2cm-wide black and white vertical stripes (条纹) on the walls, connected by similar stripes across the floor. The team trained nine goldfish to swim a set distance of 70cm and then return to their starting point when waved at. The experiment aimed to investigate how the fish would estimate this distance without any gestures, under different patterns.
Over multiple trials, the goldfish averaged a swim distance of 74cm, give or take 17cm, when presented with the vertical 2cm-wide stripes. However, when the stripe pattern was altered to either narrower vertical stripes, checked patterns, or horizontal stripes, the fish’s behavior changed significantly. Narrower vertical stripes led them to overestimating the distance by 36%, while horizontal stripes resulted in highly inconsistent estimations.
According to the researchers, the goldfish appeared to be using an “optic (光学的) flow mechanism” based on the visual density of their environment. They kept track of how frequently the vertical pattern switched between black and white to estimate how far they had traveled. The study suggests that different optic flow mechanisms are used by mammals, including humans, based on angular (有角度的) motion of visual features. The study implies that the use of visually based distance information could have emerged early in the evolutionary timeline.
“This study is novel because, despite knowing that fish respond to geometric information regarding direction and distance, we don’t know how they estimate distances,” Professor Colin Lever, although not involved in the study, said, “it’s exciting to explore fish spatial mapping because fish navigation evolved earlier and better than most mammals.”
1. Why did Dr. Adelaide Sibeaux conduct the study on goldfish?| A．To test the accuracy of goldfish’s internal GPS. |
| B．To create an advanced navigation system for humans |
| C．To uncover how an inbuilt GPS helps calculate distances. |
| D．To explore the relationships between goldfish and humans |
| A．People gestured the goldfish throughout the experiment |
| B．The tank was decorated with colorful background patterns |
| C．Goldfish tended to underestimate distances with horizontal stripes. |
| D．The change in the tank setting led to the goldfish's incorrect judgment. |
| A．optic flow mechanism is unique to humans |
| B．mammals developed flow mechanism long before goldfish |
| C．goldfish evaluated the distance with multidimensional visual information |
| D．visual density of the environment strengthened the locating ability of goldfish |
| A．Neutral. | B．Ambiguous. | C．Disapproving. | D．Favorable. |
6 . The word paradigm comes from the Greek. It was originally a scientific term, and is more commonly used today to mean a model or theory. In the more general sense, it’s the way we “see” the world — not in terms of our visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting.
A simple way to understand paradigms is to see them as maps. We all know that “the map is not the territory.” A map is simply an explanation of certain aspects of the territory. That’s exactly what a paradigm is. It is a theory, an explanation, or model of something else. You can never arrive at a specific location in a new city with a wrong map.
Each of us has many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act.
We see the world, not as it is, but as we are or, as we are conditioned to see it. Clearheaded people see things differently, each looking through the unique lens of experience. But this does not mean that there are no facts. Instead, each person’s interpretation of these facts represents prior experiences.
The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.
1. How does the author illustrate the concept of “paradigm”?| A．By comparing it to an everyday object. | B．By sorting it into different categories. |
| C．By presenting personal examples. | D．By highlighting a sharp contrast. |
| A．They fail to escape our attention. | B．They may be lacking in accuracy. |
| C．They prove wrong and unreliable. | D．They have little influence on behavior. |
| A．Great minds think alike. | B．All men have opinions, but few think. |
| C．Where we stand depends on where we sit. | D．The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinions. |
| A．A better understanding of our paradigms. | B．A stronger sense of responsibility for others. |
| C．A more objective view of others’ perceptions. | D．A more positive attitude toward life experience. |
7 . Tropical (热带的) birds deep in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are shrinking and developing longer wings as they adapt to climate change but why is something of a mystery.
Researchers have studied data for 77 tropical bird species over the past 40 years and found that all of them had lost body mass. Some species have been losing nearly 2 percent of their weight per decade.
Birds and mammals of the same species are generally larger at higher latitudes. The leading explanation is that their smaller surface-area-to-volume ratio (比率) allows them to better conserve heat. The opposite would help smaller species in hot climates to cool and could explain why birds are getting smaller as the climate warms, says Vitek Jirinec at the Integral Ecology Research Center in California, who led the analysis.
In line with this, the mean temperature of the birds' habitat today is 1℃ warmer in the wet season and 1.6℃ warmer in the dry season compared with 1966. Weather patterns are also more extreme, with 13 percent more rain falling in the wet season and 15 percent less in the dry season, and the birds lost mass more sharply after extremely dry or wet seasons.
This could suggest that body mass loss is partly a short-term response to changes in their environment rather than entirely down to evolution. For instance, a lack of rainfall could cause a decline in the number of insects that the birds feed on, say the researchers.
But none of this can explain the team's other main finding. Wingspan has become significantly larger in one-third of the bird species over the past 40 years. “Mass is a generally good measure of body condition in birds,” says Jirinec. “If they are simply not getting enough to eat, you would expect them to lose weight. But why would they have more energy to grow their wings?”
1. Why are some birds larger at higher latitudes?| A．To preserve heat. | B．To find food better. |
| C．To fight against heat. | D．To adapt to climate change. |
| A．When they are hungry. | B．When there is less rain. |
| C．When they lose their habitat. | D．When they experience extreme seasons. |
| A．Why tropical birds develop longer wings. | B．How Amazon rainforest is decreasing. |
| C．Why some birds are smaller in hot climates. | D．How temperature of the birds' habitat changes. |
| A．A personal diary. | B．A travel brochure. | C．A science magazine. | D．A science novel. |
8 . 
The return of sea otters to Southeast Alaska over the past 50 years, a project funded by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, has been a conservation success story. Erin Foster, a Nearshore Ecology PhD from Hakai Institute, suggests that sea otter restoration can enhance the genetic diversity of their habitat.
Sea otters reside in coastal habitats, including eelgrass fields, where they feed on rock crabs, often creating foraging pits (觅食坑) in the eelgrass. Foster looked at the impact of this activity on eelgrass genetic diversity by comparing eelgrass ecosystems with no otters (pre-disturbance) to those where otters had been reintroduced (post-disturbance). It was found that genetic diversity was higher in the areas with otters. Foster argues that genetic richness is of central importance here because it is crucial to resilience (恢复力) and the evolution of clonal organisms. Why? The primary mode of expansion for eelgrass is clonal growth, but sea otter digging stimulates sexual reproduction in the flowering plant and opens up areas for the seeds to settle.
Even though disturbance enhances the diversity and dynamics of many of the world’s ecosystems, its influence on genetic diversity remains poorly appreciated. The amount of disturbance that was observed in the eelgrass fields was relatively low: about 5% of the seafloor had foraging pits, although the pits last only for a short time, and visual observations likely underestimate the amount of activity. The disturbance theory, presented in 1978 on the basis of evidence from tropical forests and coral reefs, is well known to ecologists. Early studies showed that disturbance could increase species diversity, but researches on the effects of disturbance on genetic diversity are relatively rare.
The role of sea otters in eelgrass fields provides insights into how genetic diversity can change when species interactions are lost—and how these patterns can be restored. Without sea otters, genetic diversity appears to decline; when they return, so does diversity. Sea otters were extirpated from much of their range during intense commercial harvests in the 18th and 19th centuries. As their range expanded in the 1960s and 1970s after the disturbance, and their habitats became better understood, sea otters became symbolic species in ecology.
The role of sea otters in biogeochemical processes such as the carbon cycle has gained attention in recent years. During the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), more attention should be paid to rebuilding animal populations and the key ecological functions they provide.
1. We can learn from the passage that ________.| A．eelgrass ecosystems are established by sea otters |
| B．eelgrass expands through clonal growth due to sea otters |
| C．the return of sea otters can increase genetic diversity of eelgrass |
| D．eelgrass plays a more important role in the ecosystem than sea otters |
| A．The ecological disturbance theory lacks basic proof. |
| B．The previous researches on disturbance are insufficient. |
| C．The necessity of the research on disturbance is doubted. |
| D．The effects of disturbance on genetic diversity are relatively small. |
| A．Removed. | B．Restored. | C．Reproduced. | D．Relocated. |
| A．The Ecological Function of Eelgrass Fields |
| B．The Commitment to Ecological Conservation |
| C．The Strategy for Increasing Sea Otter Population |
| D．The Benefit of Disturbance on Genetic Diversity |
