A breathtaking trick potentially left over from our ancestors might be found in us — the ability to sense oxygen through our skin.
Amphibians, animals such as frogs that can live both on land and in water, have long been known to be capable of breathing through their skin. In fact, the first known lungless frog that breathes only through its skin was discovered recently in the rivers of Borneo.
Now the same oxygen sensors found in frog skins and in the lungs of mammals (哺乳动物) have unexpectedly been discovered in the skin of mice.
“No one had ever looked,” explained Randall Johnson, a biologist researcher.
Mice and frogs are quite distant relatives, so the fact they have these molecules (分子) in common in their skin suggests they might well be found in the skin of other mammals, such as humans.
“We have no reason to think that they are not in the skin of people too,” Johnson said.
These molecules not only detect oxygen, but help increase levels of vital red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body. Normal mice breathing in air that is 10 percent oxygen—a dangerously low level similar to conditions at the top of Mount Everest, and about half that of air at sea level. However, mice that had the oxygen sensor HIF-1a genetically removed from their skin failed to produce this hormone (荷尔蒙) even after hours of such low oxygen.
These findings, if they hold true in humans, suggest one could raise the level of oxygen circulating inside the body. This could help treat lung diseases and disorders such as anemia (贫血症) without injecting drugs, which make up a multibillion-dollar market, Johnson said.
Athletes also often try to get more oxygen delivered to their muscles in order to improve their performance. They often do this by training at high altitudes or in low-oxygen tents. The new study suggests they might want to expose their skin as well as breathing in low-oxygen air to improve their performance. “It’s hard to say what exactly might be done, however—there’s a lot we don’t know yet,” Johnson explained.
The scientists detailed their findings in the April 18 issue of the journal Cell.
1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Johnson believes that Oxygen sensors also exist in human skin.
B.People have to surf the Internet to read detailed findings.
C.It has been proved that these findings help treat lung diseases.
D.It has long been expected oxygen sensors exist in mice’s skin.
2.One of the functions of the molecules mentioned above is _______.
A.carrying oxygen around the body B.improving athletes’ performance
C.detecting oxygen D.increasing level of oxygen
3.What is Johnson’s attitude to the application of the findings to the athletes’ training?
A.Negative B.Doubting
C.Positive D.Hesitating
4.The best title of the passage may be _______.
A.Great Findings Benefits Athletes A Lot
B.Frogs And Mice Are Distant Relatives
C.First Known Animal Breathes Through Skin
D.Humans Might Sense Oxygen Through Skin
Exploring Caves — Suit up with a helmet and light, and take Cave Crawl（爬行）. Bring your own knee pads. Learn about equipment used by cavers and rules for safe cave exploration. Spend the morning viewing stalactites（钟乳石）— rock formations that hang from the ceiling — and their opposites, stalagmites（石笋）.
Cave Alive — Take a look and learn about bats, salamanders, and other interesting creatures that grow up in caves. See crickets, crayfish, and even beetles. Learn why bears like to live in caves.
Fossils（化石）— Learn how remains of ancient plant and animal life became set in rocks, and discover how they provide clues about Earth’s history. Examine fossils in the cave.
Caves — Learn how changes in underground rock formation cause openings and caverns to develop. Find out how acidic water dissolves（溶解）limestone to create caves.
Manners — Learn how to preserve and protect beautiful, interesting, and educational caves. Learn why bats should not be disturbed when they are hibernating. Never go caving alone. Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints.
JOIN TODAY. RECEIVE THESE EARLY BIRD BENEFITS:
● A membership card.
● A membership certificate.
● A Caves and Caverns activity book.
● A newsletter with games, activities, and special offers.
THAT’S NOT ALL. MEMBERS ALSO RECEIVE:
● Free unlimited admission to Echo Cove Cave.
● One-week Echo Cove Youth Camp enrollment（注册）at half price.
● Ten tickets for you and your friends to a private “off the beaten track” tour of the cave.
● Two free admission tickets to Echo Cove Cave for friends or family members.
● Admission to “Caves Around the World” lectures given by world famous cavers every month.
1.If you are interested in rock formations, which activities are the best choices?
A. Caves and Fossils. B. Fossils and Manners.
C. Caves and Exploring Caves. D. Exploring Caves and Manners.
2.If you are members’ friends, what benefits can you receive?
A. Two free lectures every month. B. A membership card and certificate.
C. Favorable price for Youth Camp. D. Two free tickets to Echo Cove Cave.
3.The purpose of this poster is to invite more people to ________.
A. join the Cave Club B. enjoy the underground world
C. work as volunteers D. protect the educational caves
I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.
Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.
“Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?”
“I try to.”
“Well, don't.” he exclaimed. “When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life.”
When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano-playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.
There is an important trick in this time-using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste four chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge in without delay.
1.What is the best title of this passage?
A.Concentrate on Your Work B.Good Advice
C.How I Became a Writer D.A Little at a Time
2.Which of the following statements is true?
A.The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.
B.The writer didn't take the teacher's words to heart at first.
C.Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer’s life since he became a student.
D.Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.
3.The underlined part “counted on” can be replaced by __________.
A.expected B.concentrated
C.valued D.enriched
4.We can infer that the writer ____________.
A.can find sufficient time for mental preparations beforehand, so he’s devoted to work instantly
B.is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy
C.has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels
D.has new books published each year however busy his teaching is
Directions: Translate the following sentences into English, using the words given in the brackets.
1.不可否认的是他用这个靠谱的方法扭转了局势。(apply) 3’
2.大家都想当然认为英雄都是流血不流泪的，其实不然。(granted) 4’
3.他的父母达成共识，要提醒他适度使用电子产品，不要沉迷于网络游戏。(obsess) 4’
4.我们不仅在被他人质疑时要坚持自己的原则，在遭受他人歧视时也不要觉得低人一等。(Not only) 4’
5.虽然专家建议保持社交距离，美国政府却始终把重点放在复苏经济和刺激就业上，因此未能有效防止病毒的传播。(despite, failure) 5’
Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main points of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification.
Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert. It generally arises from two related causes. The first is over-use of water in the area. There is not enough water in any case, and if it is not carefully used, disaster can follow. As time goes on, water shortages make farming more and more difficult. In some places, locals can remember local lakes and marshes which were once the homes for all kinds of fish and birds. They have been completely buried by the sand now. Farmers leave the land, and fields are replaced by deserts.
The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land. This means that the wrong crops are planted and need more water than is available. Ploughing large fields and removing bushes and trees means that the wind will blow away the soil. Once the soil is lost, it is hard to replace, and if there is rain, it has nowhere to go, and brings no benefit.
It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer. Every spring, the skies over some of eastern cities, thousands of kilometers away from the deserts, can be darkened by sandstorms. Dust from deserts can have a great effect on weather systems. While desertification is perhaps being partly caused by global warming, these sandstorms can make global warming worse by adding to what is known as the greenhouse effect.
What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously first steps are to find new water sources. Tree planting can help, by providing barriers between desert and rich field. Some types of grass also hold the soil together, and stop the wind taking it. Without these efforts, it will be harder and harder to stop the world’s deserts in their tracks, and more and more farmers will give up and head for cities. The lesson to be learnt lies beneath the sand.
Directions: Read the following passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Almost 90% of people are biased against women, according to a new index that highlights the ‘shocking’ extent of the global backlash towards gender equality.
Despite progress in closing the equality gap, 91% of men and 86% of women hold at least one bias against women in relation to politics, economics, education, violence or reproductive rights.
The first gender social norm index analyzed data from 75 countries that, collectively, are home to more than 80% of the global population. It found that almost half of the people surveyed felt men were superior political leaders and that more than 40% believed men made better business executives. 1..
The U.N. Development Program (U.N.D.P.), which published its findings on March 5, is calling on governments to introduce laws and policies that address deep-rooted prejudice.
‘We all know we live in a male-dominated world, but with this report, we are able to put some numbers behind these biases,’ said Pedro Conceição, director of the U.N.D.P.’s human development report office. ‘And I consider these numbers shocking. What our report shows is a pattern that repeats itself again and again. 2., but when we go deeper, we seem to be hitting a wall.’
3.. While in many countries, these biases were shrinking, in many others, the biases were actually increasing, he pointed out.
The figures are based on two sets of data collected from almost 100 countries through the World Values Survey, which examines changing attitudes in almost 100 countries and how they impact on social and political life. The figures cover periods from 2005-09 and 2010-14, the latest year for which data is available.
4.. But while more than 50% of people in Andorra, Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden were free from gender prejudice, even in those places the pattern was not one of complete progress.
Sweden, for example, was one of several countries in which the percentage of people who held at least one bias increased over the nine years the data covered. More than half of the people in the U.K. and the U.S. held at least one bias.
A.Of the 75 countries studied, there were only six in which the majority of the people surveyed held no bias towards women.
B.Conceição said the data shows that opinions and expectations in society about the role of women were prejudiced against them.
C.Conceição pointed out that gender discrimination is increasingly destroy the social welfare in many aspects.
D.Perhaps more alarmingly, almost a third of men and women think it’s acceptable for a man to beat his wife.
E.The figures serve as a warning towards the social mechanism of developed countries.
F.Big progress has been made in more basic areas of participation and empowerment.
