What’s small, buzzes here and there and visits flowers? If you said bees or hummingbirds, you got it. You wouldn’t be the first if you mixed the two up. Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.
Scientists first compared the two back in the 1970s when studying how animals search for food. The idea is that animals use a kind of math to make choices in order to minimize the work it takes to earn maximum rewards. Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located relative to others. It was “almost like an algorithm(算法)” for efficient searching, said David Pritchard, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Hummingbirds and bees had similar solutions.
As the field of animal cognition(认知) appeared, hummingbird and bee research parted. Neuroscientists and behavioral ecologists developed ways to study bee behavior in naturalistic settings. Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab. To be fair, hummingbirds and bees differ. For example, hummingbirds have more advanced eyes and brains than bees. Honeybees and bumblebees are social; hummingbirds typically aren’t.
But however they perceive(感知) or process information, they both experience similar information, Dr. Pritchard said. In day-to-day searching for food, for example, hummingbirds may rely on more of a bee’s-eye view than a bird’s-eye view. Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don’t use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower’s original location. Dr. Pritchard is investigating if, like bees, hummingbirds engage in view matching — hovering, scanning snapshots of a place to its memory and using those as references later.
1.What is the center of research on hummingbirds and bees in the 1970s?
A. Memory.
B. Movement rules.
C. Reward calculating.
D. Information processing.
2.Which subject’s research methods were adopted to study the learning ability of Hummingbirds?
A. Math.
B. Biology.
C. Ecology.
D. Psychology.
3.How do researchers find out that hummingbirds are not like birds?
A. By setting them free.
B. By moving flowers.
C. By matching view.
D. By making maps.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. Hummingbirds and Bees
B. Hummingbirds in the Lab
C. New Trends in Studying Bees
D. Thinking of Hummingbirds as Bees
A few weeks ago, I called an Uber to take me to the Boston airport for a flight home for the holidays. As I slid into the back seat of the car, the warm intonations(语调) of the driver’s accent washed over me in a familiar way.
I learned that he was a recent West African immigrant with a few young children, working hard to provide for his family. I could relate: I am the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants who made their share of sacrifices to ensure my success. I told him I was on a college break and headed home to visit my parents. That’s how he found out I go to Harvard. An approving eye glinted at me in the rearview window, and quickly, we crossed the boundaries of rider and driver. I became his daughter, all grown up — the product of his sacrifice.
And then came the fateful question: “What do you study?” I answered “history and literature” and the pride in his voice faded, as I knew it might. I didn’t even get to add “and African-American studies” before he cut in, his voice thick with disappointment, “All that work to get into Harvard, and you study history?”
Here I was, his daughter, squandering the biggest opportunity of her life. He went on to deliver the age-old lecture that all immigrant kids know. We are to become doctors (or lawyers, if our parents are being generous) — to make money and send money back home. The unspoken demand, made across generations, which my Uber driver laid out plainly, is simple: Fulfill your role in the narrative(故事) of upward mobility so your children can do the same.
I used to feel anxious and backed into a corner by the questioning, but now as a junior in college, I’m grateful for their support more than anything. This holiday season, I’ve promised myself I won’t huff and get annoyed at their inquiries. I won’t defensively respond with “but I plan to go to law school!” when I get unrequested advice. I’ll just smile and nod, and enjoy the warmth of the occasion.
1.What disappointed the driver?
A. The author’s attitude towards him.
B. The school that the author is attending.
C. The author’s majors in history and literature.
D. The author’s interests in African American studies.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “squandering” in Paragraph 4?
A. wasting
B. creating
C. valuing
D. seizing
3.Why are immigrant kids expected to be doctors or lawyers?
A. Their parents want them to move upward in society.
B. Their parents are high achieving as well.
C. They have more opportunities.
D. They are very smart in general.
4.How did the author react to the driver’s questioning?
A. Getting upset.
B. Feeling satisfied.
C. Defending herself.
D. Appreciating his concern.
Everyone should be so lucky as to have a friend like Francia Raisa. On Thursday, singer and actress Selena Gomez, 25, used Instagram to explain why she was “laying low” this summer. She posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed with her friend Francia Raisa holding hands. She said she recently received a kidney transplant from her best friend because of complications(并发症) from lupus(狼疮), an autoimmune disease, which means it is the result of the immune system attacking normal tissue, including the kidneys, brain, heart and lungs.
People with lupus may first experience tiredness, joint pain or a little bit of rash(皮疹) on their bodies and can go for a long time before their doctors realize it is more serious. Many people see two or four doctors before the real problem is picked up. According to Dr. Kyriakos Kirou, roughly a third to one-half of people with lupus develop kidney disease, and up to one in five of them will eventually need a transplant, sometimes because they weren’t treated with effective drugs to prevent the immune system from attacking the kidneys. Though Gomez said that she was “very well now,” she warned about the dangers of not taking medical diagnoses seriously, like she initially did.
Her Instagram post also called attention to two major health topics: the need for living organ donators and the fact that Gomez represents three groups more likely to be diagnosed with lupus and lupus-related kidney disease. Nine out of 10 people diagnosed with lupus are women, and most develop the disease between the ages of 15 to 44. And lupus is two to three times more common among women of color, including Hispanic women, according to the Lupus Foundation.
Raisa is Latina, and Gomez’s father is of Mexican origin. While it’s not essential that the organ donator and receiver be of the same ethnicity, people who share a similar background sometimes are better matched, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing.
1.What can we learn about Francia Raisa?
A. She is lucky.
B. She is selfless.
C. She is optimistic.
D. She is encouraging.
2.What is lupus like at its early stage?
A. It is deadly.
B. It is hard to recognize.
C. Its symptoms are psychological.
D. It reminds you of a kidney disease.
3.What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. People with lupus.
B. Colored women lupus patients.
C. Lupus patients with kidney disease.
D. Women between the ages of 15 to 44.
4.What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?
A. Raisa and Gomez have a similar background.
B. Gomez has fully recovered thanks to the kidney from Raisa.
C. It is vital for the donator and receiver to be of the same race.
D. The organ from the donator of the same race matches the receiver better.
Choosing where to live may be one of the biggest decisions you’ll make when you move to Sydney, but you’ll have plenty of help.
Temporary arrival accommodation
Before you move to Sydney, we recommend that you book a temporary place to stay. Once you get here, you can look for longer-term accommodation.
--sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term
On-campus-residential colleges (fully catered饮食全包的)
The University has eight residential colleges on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus, including International House, a residential community of global scholars. Colleges provide comfortable, fully furnished single rooms and daily meals, along with sporting, cultural, leadership and social programs. They also include on-site tutorials(辅导课) in addition to campus-based classes.
--sydney.edu.au/colleges
On-campus residences (self-catered饮食自理的)
The University has two self-run residences—Queen Mary Building (QMB) and Abercrombie Student Accommodation—on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus. Both just under a year old, they house up to 1000 students. These residences provide modern single-study rooms with large common living, learning and study spaces, shared kitchens, a theatre, gyms, soundproofed music rooms, art studios, sky lounges and rooftop gardens.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html
Off-campus living
More than 90 percent of our students live off campus. The University is close to many dynamic and multicultural suburbs such as Annandale, Newtown, Chippendale and Glebe. A great place to search is our large online database of properties.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html
1.Where can you find a place to live temporarily?
A. On “sydney.edu.au/colleges”.
B. On “sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term”.
C. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html”.
D. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html”.
2.What do students living in QMB have access to?
A. Their own kitchens.
B. On-site tutorials.
C. Daily meals.
D. Gyms.
3.What is the most popular choice among students?
A. Living off campus.
B. Living in host families.
C. Living in self-catered flats on campus.
D. Living in fully catered houses on campus.
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Film and television adaptations of classic literature works have held a long-standing appeal for audiences, reshaping our cultural landscape.
In 2017, a nine-episode TV adaptation of Chinese literature classic, The Dream of the Red Mansion, featured young cast aged 6-12 portraying the characters vividly and won applause among faithful readers of this classic work. To them, these young performers have brought the characters alive again. “I was impressed by their perfect acting in the TV series. I never expected they could play so well. It is as good as the 1987 TV adaptation,” a Douban user commented. Before the shooting of the 1987 TV version, all the actors and actresses received systematic acting training and guided studyt of the original work. This time, Ouyang Fenqiang, who played the leading role, Jia Baoyu, in the 1987 version, was invited to instruct the young performers.
However, this is only one of the very few cases of being faithful to the original literature. Recent years have witnessed a large number of poor-quality film and TV adaptations of literature classics, spoiling the understanding of the original work. Whether classic literature works should be adapted into film or TV series is worthy of discussion.
[写作内容]
1．用约30个单词概括上述文字材料的主要内容。
2． 用120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
（1） 支持或反对把经典文学作品改编为影视作品；
（2） 用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
[写作要求]
1． 表明个人观点，同时提供理由或论据；
2． 阐述观点或提供论据时，不得直接引用原文中的句子；
3． 文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4． 不必写标题。
[评分标准]、
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
Anyone who’s ever made room for a big milestone of adult life----a job, a marriage, a move----has likely shoved a friendship to the side. After all, there is no contract locking us to the other person, as in marriage, and there are no blood bonds, as in family. We choose our friends, and our friends choose us. That’s a really distinctive attribute of friendships.
But modern life can become so busy that people forget to keep choosing each other. That’s when friendships fade, and there’s reason to believe it’s happening more than ever. Loneliness is on the rise, and feeling lonely has been found to increase a person’s risk of dying early by 26%----and to be even worse for the body than obesity and air pollution. Loneliness damages health in many ways, particularly because it removes the safety net of social support. “When we perceive our world as threatening, that can be associated with an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.”
The solution is simple: friendship. It helps protect the brain and body from stress, anxiety and depression. “Being around trusted others, in essence, signals safety and security,” says Holt-Lunstad. A study last year found that friendships are especially beneficial later in life. Having supportive friends in old age is a stronger predictor of well-being than family ties ----suggesting that the friends you pick may be at least as important as the family you’re born into.
Easy as the fix may sound, it can be difficult to keep and make friends as an adult. But research suggests that you only need between four and five close pals. If you’ve ever had a good one, you know hat you’re looking for. “The expectations of friends, once you have a mature understanding of friendship, don’t really change across the life course,” Rawlins says. “People want their close friends to be someone they can talk to and someone they can depend upon.”
If you’re trying to fill a dried-up friendship pool, start by looking inward. Think back to how you met some of your very favorite friends. Volunteering on a political campaign or in a favorite spin class? Playing in a band? “Friendships are always about something,” says Rawlins. Common passions help people bond at a personal level, and they bridge people of different ages and life experiences.
Whatever you’re into, someone else is too. Let your passion guide you toward people. Volunteer, for example, take a new course or join a committee at your community centers. If you like yoga, start going to classes regularly. Fellow dog lovers tend to gather at dog runs. Using apps and social media----like Facebook to find a local book club----is also a good way to find easy-going folks.
Once you meet a potential future friend, then comes the scary part: inviting them to do something. “You do have to put yourself out there,” says Janice McCabe, associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College and a friendship researcher. “There’s a chance that the person will say no. But there’s also the chance they’ll say yes, and something really great could happen.”
The process takes time, and you may experience false starts. Not everyone will want to put in the effort necessary to be a good friend.
It’s never too late to start being a better pal. The work you put into friendships----both new and old --- will be well worth it for your health and happiness.
Outline | Supporting details |
Problems | ●Making friends 1. people of negative feelings, especially benefiting the old. However, quick-paced life robs people of the time to maintain friendship and leads to more occurrences of2.. ●3. from society makes people mentally and physically unhealthy. |
Solutions | ●Be 4. with what you expect of your friends: they should be good listeners and5.. ●6. on how you built up good friendship. ●Follow your heart and make friends with those people with 7. interests ●8. yourself to win a friend by inviting him to do something, not fearing to be 9.. |
Conclusion | The more10. you are to making friends, the healthier and happier you will be. |
