How long does a year last? 1. But your parents might say that a whole year can pass “in the blink of an eye”. Why does time seem to pass faster as we get older?
2. This physical change causes the rate at which we take in and process new information to decline. Babies, for example, move their eyes much more often than adults because they’re processing images at a faster rate. They take in a lot of information and do many things in a single day. 3. However, as people’s brains degrade over time, fewer images are processed in the same amount of time. Therefore, older people receive less information during a day than younger people. This causes things to seem as though they’re happening more quickly.
4. People may measure time by the number of memorable events that can be recalled within a certain period. Have you ever noticed that when you recall your firsts (first day of school, first family vacation, first birthday party, etc.), they seem to be in slow motion? That’s because when something is a “first”, there are many exciting things to remember. Recalling these memories makes you feel like they took forever.
For many adults, life is routine. When they look back, they might feel like there are not many novel (新奇的) things to remember. 5.
A.Children might say that a year lasts forever.
B.Therefore, time seems to be moving faster to them.
C.Different people have different feelings toward time.
D.This makes them feel like a single day lasts for a long time.
E.As we grow older, we become less interested in new things.
F.According to scientists, our brains degrade and change over time.
G.In addition, people may also “feel” time differently due to psychological reasons.
Have you ever had a burger without meat? You might think that a vegetable burger will take away the real meaning of a burger as it will not have the juicy taste of meat. Despite these concerns, the company, Beyond Meat, has managed to successfully make plant-based meat.
On May 2, the company became the first vegan company to become public. Beyond Meat’s initial share price was expected to range from $19 to $21. Impressively, just hours later, Beyond Meat’s stocks rose to $73!
Instead of killing animals, Beyond Meat obtains these components from different plants and combines them to make vegan meat. It contains pea protein that gives the chewy, meaty texture along with canola oil, coconut fat and other binding agents. In addition, the company uses beet juice to simulate the bloody look of beef! The plant proteins are subjected to intense heating, cooling and pressure so that their structure becomes fibrous and copies that of animal meat.
For people who have changed their diet but miss the taste of meat, Beyond Meat satisfies their taste buds. It also has all the nutrients and elements that meat has, but does not come from an animal.
Plant-based meat is also beneficial as fewer animals are killed. As our world’s population continues to grow beyond 7 billion, so does the demand for meat. Livestock farming is not sustainable as it requires more land, consumes more energy and is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases. Beyond Meat uses 99 percent less water and 93 percent less land. It also has 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and it uses 46 percent less energy.
However, there are some people who do not like the smell of a Beyond Meat patty. Others question that processed foods are unhealthy and it is safer to choose whole vegetables instead. Regardless, with another company, Impossible Burger, looking to go public soon, as well as companies such as Tyson Foods and Nestle looking to enter the market, plant-based meat is here to stay. These companies hope to convince many people to switch from meat to plant-based alternatives.
1.Why did Beyond Meat’s stocks rise sharply?
A.People found it convenient to buy plant-based meat.
B.People believed the bright future of the company.
C.People preferred to spend more money buying meat.
D.People are becoming vegans in life.
2.What is the third paragraph mainly about?
A.What is made up of meat.
B.Why plants can be made into meat.
C.How plant-based meat is made.
D.Whether plant-based meat is allergenic.
3.What is one of the features of plant-based meat?
A.It makes farming sustainable.
B.It contains all the nutrients people need.
C.It doesn’t have the taste of meat.
D.It is environmentally friendly.
4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A.Plant-based meat will become a new trend.
B.All people prefer plant-based meat.
C.Vegan companies produce unhealthy food.
D.The smell of plant-based meat is disgusting.
Joshua Plotnik and his colleagues carried out the tests on six 12-45-year-old Asian elephants living in the grounds of a hotel in northern Thailand. The buckets containing the seeds were not clear enough to see through and had a lid with small holes to let the smell out. In experiments, the elephants chose the greater quantity of seeds in each pair, regardless of the quantity of seeds presented. The accuracy of the prediction was better when the difference between each pair increased.
This is thought to be the first time that an animal is able to use its sense of smell to make a simple calculation of whether one of two quantities is more or less than another-the most basic form of math.
Many animal species have shown an ability to tell apart between more and less when presented with different amounts of food. But they have used vision to discriminate. Dogs have been unable to show they can perform the same trick in tests of their abilities to smell.
For an elephant this ability could be very important. Elephants often travel long distances to find better-quality food and water, which can differ according to seasonal availability, changes to their environment, and a risk they could be attacked by humans. The best performers were able to get it right more than 80 per cent of the time.
The scientists suggest that male elephants are better at the task because they need to eat more food, making it more important that their sense of smell is keener. Males also have to sniff out females in heat over long distances in order to reproduce.
They say that while elephants do use vision, particularly in close contexts where they react to each other’s body language, they use it mainly to match their more powerful senses-hearing, smell and touch.
That elephants have a powerful sense of smell is perhaps unsurprising. They have more genes related to smell than any other animal: 2,000 compared to around 800 for a dog.
1.What special ability do elephants have?
A.Use their trunks to find different smells.
B.Distinguish between more and less food.
C.Smell the differences of food quality.
D.Per form the basic math calculation.
2.What does the underlined word “discriminate” mean?
A.Choose. B.Indicate.
C.Measure. D.Distinguish.
3.Why do elephants often travel long distances?
A.To find where the better food is.
B.To find where humans wait to attack them.
C.To find where the environment has changed.
D.To find where they can adapt to the climate.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Elephants can do simple math puzzles
B.Elephants can “count” with their trunks
C.Elephants can smell the quality of food
D.Elephants can use vision to communicate
Global warming does more than just kill plant species-it also changes the way plants grow. Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) joined forces with the Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry (IPB) to discover the molecular processes of plant growth. In Current Biology, a scientific journal, they presented their findings on high-temperature plant growth. This could lead to developing plants that can survive global warming.
Plants react to even small temperature changes, but they are unable to move to new locations. “When temperatures rise, plants grow taller... to cool themselves off. Their stalks become taller, and their leaves become narrower and grow farther apart. Yet, this makes the plant more unstable overall,” explains Professor Marcel Quint, an agricultural scientist at MLU. Unstable plants bend faster in the rain and produce less food that’s also less nutritious.
There’s still lots to learn about plant reactions to temperatures. “We are just starting to understand how plants detect the changes in temperature...,” Quint says. Earlier studies have shown that the protein PIF4 directly controls plant growth and is also dependent on temperature. When it’s cold, PIF4 is less active, meaning the plant doesn’t grow. At higher temperatures, PIF4 activates growth-promoting genes, and the plant grows taller. This is new information, says Quint.
To understand it, they investigated the growth of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana,) seedlings. Normally, its seedlings form short stems at 20℃. These stems become considerably longer at 28℃. They discovered a hormone that activates the PIF4 at high temperatures, thus producing the protein. The findings of the Halle group may help to breed plants that remain stable even at high temperatures and produce many crops.
1.Why did the researchers at MLU and IPB conduct their research?
A.To study the negative effects of global warming.
B.To find out how plants help reduce global warming.
C.To observe how global warming affects plant growth.
D.To understand the ways that plants cause global warming.
2.What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
A.Low temperatures have little impact on plants.
B.Plants prefer dry weather to rainy weather.
C.Plants are very sensitive to changes in soil.
D.High temperatures decrease crop production.
3.What do we know about PIF4?
A.It mainly exists in the cress seedlings.
B.It works differently at different temperatures.
C.It is a kind of gene that controls plant growth.
D.It is a plant hormone that works at high temperatures.
4.Who will probably benefit most from the findings?
A.Farmers. B.Botanists.
C.Researchers. D.Environmentalists.
Teen & Adult Activities
Yoga-Fundamentals
Teen, Adult & Senior
Min/Max: 4/20
June 4-June 25 Mon 11:00-12:00 pm $30
Instructor: Laurie McElroy
If you are curious about yoga and would like to learn the basics in a non-threatening, nurturing environment, this class is for you. Gain confidence in the basic poses and salutations. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a sticky yoga mat.
Laugh Yourself Happy!
Adult & Senior
Min/Max: 1/30
June 4-June 11 Mon 9:30-10:30 am $20
July 23-August 6 Mon 10:30-11:30 am $30
Instructor: Chele Howell
Come experience the healing benefits of laughing together! Join us for an hour of laughter & deep breathing, music & movement, affirmations, meditation and more! Interactive classes filled with fun, creativity and living in the moment offer a way to reconnect, center and upgrade your mindset. Take home a new tool to help you relax and unwind, deal with everyday stresses, negative thinking, aches and pains and experience greater clarity, well-being and joyfulness! Please bring a yoga mat, blanket, or towel to lie on for meditation.
Line Dancing-Intermediate
Ages 18 & Up
Min/Max: 8/30
June 3-June 24 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $20
July1-July 29 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $25
Aug5-Aug 26 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $20
Instructor: Randy Lattimer
If you know the basic patterns and steps to line dancing, if you have mastered syncopation and are ready to move into phrasing and longer patterns with restarts and tags, then you are ready to join us in our intermediate level line dance class. So bring your talent and join in. We will see you in our next class. Students under 18 will be accepted with parental consent.
Teen Acrylic Painting
Ages 11-16
Min/Max: 4/8
July 30-July 31 Mon/Tue 12:30-3:00 pm $50
Instructor: Taylor Gosney
Anyone can learn to paint! This class encourages students to explore the medium of acrylic painting through a variety of techniques emphasizing concepts of shape, volume and color. This class is designed to encourage confidence and creative expression through paint.
1.Which activity will be held even if there is only one member?
A.Teen Acrylic Painting. B.Line Dancing-Intermediate.
C.Yoga-Fundamentals. D.Laugh Yourself Happy!
2.If a pair of twins learns line dancing in July, they should pay ________.
A.$40 B.$50
C.$60 D.$100
3.What do we know about Teen Acrylic Painting?
A.It is designed for senior people.
B.It encourages students to relax and unwind.
C.It lasts 2.5 hours for each lesson.
D.It has space for at least 8 members.
假如你是李华，暑假期间准备和父母一起去云南旅游，你想选择自助游，而你父母想随团出行。得知你的英国笔友Michael去年到过云南，请你根据以下内容给他写一封邮件：
1. 描述分歧和各自的理由；
2. 询问他的建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：自助游：independent travel 随团游 package tour
Dear Michael,
How is everything going?
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Yours,
Li Hua
