1 . A lot of people assume the more work they put in at the gym, and the longer and harder they push themselves, the better their results will be.     1     But if you want to get the best gains, the key is to focus on the quality of the work rather than the quantity.

Your body is capable of making only tiny adaptations and improvements at any one time. Once you've given it enough push to make these changes, any additional work you do after that point won't be making you any better.     2     This is because you'll need longer to recover afterwards. Besides, you won't feel fresh when you start your next session. Ideally, it's just enough to do the smallest amount of work required to promote growth in every workout.     3     Thus the minimum amount of exercise brings the maximum physical gains.

    4     For example, if a new gym-goer wants to get stronger, he might start a squat (深蹲) Workout, which is made up of ten steps, each having five repetitions. In theory, it's a sensible way for building strength. If he's only attempted three steps in his previous exercise, it's far from enough. The fourth step would push him past his previous limit and force adaptation. But the subsequent steps are meant for more professional people.     5    

As a general rule, regardless of your experience, aim to only increase the volume of any exercise by one step from workout to workout.

A．It seems logical.

B．Instead, it'll harm your progress.

C．It's natural that you may want to keep fit.

D．After that, you can stop exercising during the day.

E．Only in this way can you enjoy the benefit of exercise.

F．They would just increase the chance of injury for beginners.

G．How much exercise you need to do depends on your current fitness level.

2 . The chorus of the theme song for the movie Fame, performed by actress Irene Cara, includes the line “I’m gonna live forever.” Cara was, of course, singing about the longevity (长存) that fame can bring after she dies. But in Silicon Valley, plenty of big names in big tech have sunk funding into solving the problem of death as if it were just an upgrade to your smartphone’s operating system.

Yet what if longevity will always have a ceiling, no matter what we do? Researchers have now taken on the question of how long we can live if we do not die from cancer, heart disease or getting hit by a bus. They report that when omitting things that usually kill us, our body still fades with time. And even if we make it through life with few stressors, this decline sets the maximum life span for humans at somewhere between 120 and 150 years.

For the study, Timothy Pyrkov, a researcher at a Singapore-based company, and his colleagues looked at this “pace of aging” in the U. S. , the U. K. and Russia. They assessed changes in blood cell counts and the daily number of steps taken and analyzed them by age groups.

For both blood cell and step counts, the pattern was the same; as age increased, some factor beyond disease drove a predictable and incremental (递增的) decline in the body’s ability to return blood cells or pace to a stable level after a disruption. The researchers also found that with age, the body’s, response to injuries could increasingly range far from a stable normal, requiring more time for recovery.

Measurements such as blood pressure and blood cell counts have a known healthy range, however, whereas step counts are highly personal. The fact that the researchers chose a variable that is so different from blood counts and still discovered the same decline over time may suggest a real pace of aging factor in play across different domains.

Study co-author Peter Fedichev says that although the majority of biologists would view blood cell counts and step counts as “pretty different”, the fact that both sources “paint exactly the same future” suggests that this pace of aging component is real.

1. Why did the author mention Irene Cara?

A．To introduce a concept.	B．To bring in the topic.
C．To prove the longevity of fame.	D．To show everyone’s dream.

2. What does the underlined word “omitting” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Ignoring.

B．Testing.

C．Analyzing.

D．Changing.

3. What was mainly discussed in paragraph 4?

A．The pattern of blood cells.	B．The results of the research.
C．The process of the experiment.	D．The body’s response to injuries.

4. What do most biologists think of the method of the study?

A．Advanced.

B．Unreliable.

C．Conventional.

D．Unusual.

3 . Would you make the same decisions in a foreign language as you would in your native tongue? It may be intuitive that people would make the same choices regardless of the language they are using, or that the difficulty of using a foreign language would make decisions less systematic. We discovered, however, that the opposite is true: Using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases (偏差).

Together with his students and collaborators, Professor Keysar has made discoveries about the impact of using a foreign language on choice, the way that language modality affects reasoning, how language affects health decisions and negotiations, and more. In a 2021study, Boaz Keysar, a professor at the University of Chicago in the US, led an experiment concerning how foreign languages relate to human ways of thinking.

Whereas people were risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses when choices were presented in their native tongue, they were not influenced by this framing manipulation in a foreign language. People were asked to make a choice: Take a guarantee of one pound or take a 50 percent chance of winning 2.50 pounds. When presented with this choice in their native language, most people took the safe option of only getting one pound. But they were more willing to make the riskier choice when asked in a foreign language, leading to more profits overall, according to The Guardian. As Keysar put it, “People just hate the prospect (前景) of losing, but they hate it less in a foreign language. ”

Keysar and his team did another experiment in which participants were given a series of related words like “dream”, “snooze”, “bed” and “rest”. Later, when asked which words they remembered hearing, people were more likely to mistakenly remember “sleep”, which was not on the list, in their native language. But it was much less likely to happen if they did the test in a foreign language.

The evidence is clear: By learning a foreign language, you’re not just learning a language — you’re gaining a new state of mind.

1. What aspect of the Boaz Keysar’s research in 2021 focus on?

A．The impact of using a foreign language on choice.

B．The way that language modality affects reasoning.

C．How language affects health decisions and negotiations.

D．The relationship between foreign languages and people’s way of thinking.

2. What does the underlined word “averse” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A．willing

B．slow

C．opposed

D．eager

3. Why did Keysar and his team did the second experiment?

A．To change people’s attitude to the game.

B．To prove a foreign language influences the way of thinking.

C．To show the choice is more correct when using a foreign language.

D．To prove using a foreign language leads to memories with greater accuracy.

4. Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage?
I: Introduction       P: Point       C: Conclusion

A．

B．

C．

D．

5 . Research found that when people saw others in their herd (群体) hesitating before making a choice, they were about twice as likely to break from the group and make a different choice.

The findings have meanings for group behaviour in finance, fashion—any situation where there might be herd behaviour, Krajbich said. “Even if it appears at first that everyone is following the same trend, hesitation may show that they are not all on the same page,” he said.

The research studied 72 college students. They participated in groups of eight. When their predecessor (前任) responded slowly, participants chose against the herd about 66% of the time, compared to only 33% of the time when their predecessor chose quickly. In cases where the group was making the wrong decision, this often led people to break from the herd and make the correct choice, he said.

“A couple of bad decisions at the beginning can lead everyone to the wrong road. That’s the herd behaviour,” Krajbich said. “But what we found is that if people can see the hesitation in others’ choices, that can help them break the chain and change the course of the herd.”

Fast decisions by others can consolidate one’s own belief. For example, if a person sees their friends quickly choose to get a vaccine for COVID-19, that may make them more comfortable making the same choice, Krajbich said. If friends hesitate before getting a vaccine—even if they eventually get one—that may make a person less sure about whether to get the shot, he said.

Krajbich said the findings in the research aren’t necessary a universal rule. There may be some decisions for which taking longer to choose could indicate a more thoughtful choice. “It will be important to figure out when fast decisions signal confidence or when instead they signal thoughtlessness,” he said.

1. What will people probably do when seeing others in their herd hesitate?

A．Stop and see.

B．Criticise the trend.

C．Adopt other options.

D．Follow the majority.

2. What can be concluded from the research?

A．A wrong beginning leads to a wrong road.

B．Predecessors help speed up decision making.

C．People tend to choose against the herd without hesitation.

D．Hesitation in others’ choices helps when the majority is wrong.

3. What does the underlined word mean in the fifth paragraph?

A．Strengthen.

B．Challenge.

C．Weaken.

D．Change.

4. Why do some people make fast decisions according to Krajbich?

A．They may lack confidence.	B．They are persuaded by friends.
C．They are affected by COVID-19.	D．They may act without due consideration.

7 . Working out is great for your skin. It increases blood flow to all your organs — skin included — delivering oxygen and nutrients along with it. But if you exercise in a full face of makeup, you might be hurting your skin health, not helping it.

To find out what makeup does to skin during exercise, researchers applied a drug-store-brand foundation (粉底液) to the foreheads and under-eye areas of 43 university students. They left the bottom halves of everyone’s faces makeup-free. All of the students then ran for 20 minutes.

“Our assumption is that makeup can block pores partially or completely, and because pores are important for sweating, evaporation and getting rid of rubbish, makeup will negatively impact skin health, says Sukho Lee, a professor in Texas A&M University-San Antonio and senior author of the study published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology.

Using a device that can scan the skin for moisture levels, oil amounts, and pore size, the researchers compared people’s made-up and makeup-free parts of the face. Moisture levels on the makeup side were higher than those on the bare side — and though that might sound like a good thing, it actually indicates a negative effect of the foundation. “Moisture on the skin is evidence of poor evaporation, so a lot of moisture on the skin is not a good sign, since it should be evaporating, says Lee. People’s pores were also smaller on the areas where they wore makeup, which indicates that the skin wasn’t able to open up and properly regulate moisture and remove oil and rubbish as it normally does, Lee says.

The findings also raise questions about other products people apply to the face, such as sunscreen. Lee is hoping to extend the study to include other types of foundation that contain different ingredients — such as oil-free formulations — as well as sunscreen to determine what they do to the skin during exercise.

1. What is the primary focus of the research?

A．The changes of skin exposed to sunlight.	B．The effect of applying various foundations.
C．The influence of foundation during workouts.	D．The benefits of physical activity for skin health.

2. How is the research conducted?

A．By using trial and error.	B．By conducting surveys.
C．By making comparisons.	D．By analyzing historical data.

3. What may Sukho Lee agree with?

A．The skin is capable of self-care.	B．Larger pores contribute to better skin.
C．Low moisture indicates poor skin health.	D．Makeup enhances the expansion of pores.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．How You Master Makeup Techniques	B．Why You Avoid Makeup in Workout
C．Why Makeup Makes Workout Better	D．How Makeup Affects Pore Regulation

8 . 阅读下面短文,在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

We’ve all heard the advice to “get out of your comfort zone” by taking on a new challenge. A recent study goes a step further: Make discomfort a direct goal. That’s more likely to motivate you than if you focus on     1     you hope to learn.

In the first of five experiments, the researchers assigned several hundred students training at Second City Chicago     2     (participate) in a small-group improvisation (即兴) exercise, and then instructed half of the group that their goal during the session was “to feel awkward and     3     (comfortable).” The rest, those in the control group,     4     (tell) to “feel yourself developing new skills.” Members of the first group kept at the exercise longer than the others did and took     5     (great) risks. Experiments involving other dimensions of personal     6     (grow) — engaging in expressive writing, learning about gun violence, and hearing about opposing political beliefs —     7     (produce) similar results.

Reframing anxiety as excitement has been proven a way to improve singing in front of strangers, and     8     (think) of stress as a means to boost achievement a demonstrated stress-management technique.

“When people reinterpret negative experiences as functional, they are more willing to engage     9     tasks that call forth those experiences,” the researchers explain. “Instead of seeing discomfort as unrelated to the goal     10     a signal to stop, they will start perceiving it as a sign of progress toward their goal. ”

9 . African penguins live on the rocky coasts of South Africa, Namibia and nearby islands. Like other types of penguins, the birds have white feathers covering their chests and black feathers covering their backs. They form lifelong pair bonds with mates, but they nest in huge colonies — so, scientists wondered how the birds were able to identify their partners among the sea of black-and-white birds. They wondered if their chest spots had something to do with it. To test this theory, they studied 12 African penguins at a zoo and marine park near Rome called Zoomarine Italia.

In one test, they hung two life-size photographs of the African penguins. One showed a random member of the colony, while the other showed the test subject’s mate. The scientists recorded the birds’ interactions with the photos: How long did they spend looking at each one, as well as how much time did they spend standing near each photograph? The penguins spent more time gazing at the photo of their partners — about 23 seconds longer, on average — than looking at the other photo. They also stood next to the image of their beau s for twice as long. Then, the researchers covered up the heads of the birds in the photographs, leaving only their speckled bodies visible, and the penguins still lingered near their partners’ portraits.

In another experiment, the researchers hung up two photos of a bird’s mate — but, in one, they had digitally removed its spots. In this case, the penguin again spent more time looking at the photo with the dots.

Finally, the researchers posted two photographs of penguins with digitally removed spots — one of the test subject’s mate and the other of a random penguin from the colony. In this scenario, the penguins did not appear to recognize their partners. They spent roughly the same amount of time gazing at or standing near both photos.

Together, the results of these experiments suggest African penguins are zeroing in on their partners’ spots and using them like name tags, scientists say.

“Our results provide the first evidence of a specific visual cue responsible for spontaneous individual recognition by a bird and highlight the importance of considering all sensory modalities in the study of animal communication,” the researchers write in the paper.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?

A．African penguins live on the rocky coasts of North Africa.

B．Scientists are curious about the African penguins.

C．African penguins have white feathers covering their backs.

D．Scientists studied 12 African penguins only at a zoo near Rome.

2. What plays a key role in African penguins’ identifying their partners?

A．Their partners’ voice.	B．Their partners’ heads.
C．Their partners’ back feathers.	D．Their partners’ speckled bodies.

3. What does the underlined phrase “zeroing in on” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Losing sight of.	B．Taking delight in.
C．Paying attention to.	D．Speaking highly of.

4. Where might you find the passage?

A．In a science report.	B．In a travel brochure.
C．In a biology textbook.	D．In a fashion magazine.