Some people are like homing pigeons: Drop them off anywhere, and they’ll find their way around. Other people, though, can’t tell when they’re holding a map upside down. Are the directionally challenged just bad learners?
Not all of your navigational (导航的)skills are learned. Research shows that your sense of direction is innate. An innate ability is something you are born with. Your brain has special navigational neurons—head-direction cells, place cells, and grid cells (网格细胞)—and they help program your inside compass when you’re just a baby.
In 2010, scientists carried out an experiment to study baby rats’ neural activity in their brains. Although the rats were newborns, the researchers discovered that their head-direction cells (which help them recognize the direction they’re facing) were fully grown and developed. The rats, it seemed, were born with a sense of direction. And they hadn’t even opened their eyes yet!
Humans, of course, are not rats. But the hippocampus—the brain area we use for navigation—is similar in most mammals. If the rat’s compass develops this way, then it’s likely that a human’s compass does, too.
If we’re born with a sense of direction, then why are some people so good at getting lost? The scientists found that the two other cells—place and grid cells—developed within the first month. Place cells are thought to help us form a map in our mind, while grid cells help us navigate new and unfamiliar places. The two cells work together, and that’s where the trouble might be.
People who took part in a 2013 study played a video game that required them to travel quickly between different places. Monitoring their brains, the scientists found that grid cells helped the gamers recognize where they were—even without landmarks. According to researcher Michael Kahana, differences in how grid cells work may help explain why some people have a better sense of direction than others.
1.What did the 2010 research find?
A. Rats have a natural ability to recognize directions.
B. Rats’ hippocampus is different from that of humans.
C. Rats usually find their way without opening their eyes.
D. Baby rats have as many head-direction cells as grown-ups.
2.What do we know about our navigational neurons?
A. Place cells let us know how to read a map.
B. Grid cells help us reach the place we are going to.
C. They help us use a compass when we lose our way.
D. Place and grid cells grow later than head-direction cells.
3.Why are some people so good at getting lost?
A. They can’t remember landmarks.
B. Their grid cells can’t work very well.
C. They are unfamiliar with new places.
D. Their ability to follow directions is poor.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. Human navigational skills.
B. The compass in rats’ body.
C. Why grid cells are useful.
D. How homing pigeons work.
Eco-friendly Car Racer
Can you image a car racer is so eco-friendly that its tyres are made from potatoes, its body is created from hemp (大麻) and rapeseed oil and it runs on fuel made from wheat and sugar beet? The one-seater racing car called Eco One is built by experts from Warwick University, who hope that Eco One will be adopted by the automotive industry. It is sold at $ 51,000.
Pollution-sensitive Dress
Don’t be caught outside unaware of pollution levels in the air. The pollution-sensitive EPA Dress by Stephanie Sandstrom notices pollution in the air accordingly. This dress – which is actually quite pretty – looks like you pull it from the bottom of the dirty laundry pile when the air is dirty. It might protect your health by advising you to stay indoors for the day, but it won’t do you any favor if you’re meeting with clients.
Eco-friendly Umbrella
Traditional umbrellas come with a fixed surface. Although it is changeable, you cannot replace it easily. This eco-friendly design is more flexible. It is actually only an umbrella skeleton without any surface, which can be folded, so you can put anything such as newspapers, plastic bags or whatever you want to serve as the protecting surface.
Eco-friendly Moss (苔藓) Carpet
It is said that walking on fresh grass increases your blood circulation. The Moss Carpet, created by Nguyen La Chanh, looks at getting the grass to your feet. The mat includes ball moss, island moss and forest moss. The humidity (湿度) of the bathroom ensures that it grows well. And that’s why you need to place it there and not anywhere else.
1.According to Paragraph 1, we can find Eco One _____．
A. can seat one passenger and one driver
B. can’t be afforded by the public at present
C. is mainly made from some kinds of plants
D. will take the place of the traditional car industry
2.Why is EPA Dress designed?
A. To advise people to stay at home as often as possible
B. To keep users informed of the polluted levels in the air.
C. To make women look pretty even in the polluted air.
D. To stop people from meeting their clients if necessary.
3.Compared with traditional umbrellas, the Eco-friendly Umbrella _____．
A. is changeable B. hasn’t any surface
C. can be folded D. is made of newspapers
4.Where does the text probably come from?
A. A science report B. A personal blog
C. A health report D. An official document
Anna Schiferl hadn’t even got out of bed when she reached for her cell phone and typed a text to her mom, one recent Saturday. Mon was right downstairs in the kitchen. The text? Anna wanted an egg for breakfast. Soon after, Joanna Schiferl called, “If you want to talk to me, Anna, come downstairs and see me!” Anna laughs about it now. “I was kind of being lazy,” she admits.
These days, many people with cell phones prefer texting to a phone call. And that’s creating a communication divide, of sorts—the talkers vs. the texters. Some would argue that it’s no big deal. But many experts say the most successful communicators will, of course, have the competence to do both. And they fear that more of us are unable to have—or at least are avoiding—the traditional face–to–face conversations.
Many professors say it is not common to see students outside of class. “I sit in my office hours lonely now because if my students have a question, they email me, often late at night,” says Renee Houston, a professor at the University of Puget Sound in Washington state. “And they never call.”
As Anna sees it: “There are people you’ll text, but won’t call. It’s just a way to stay in touch with each other.” Some believe that scores of texts each day keep people more connected. “The problem is that the conversation isn’t very deep,” says Joseph Grenny, co-author of the book Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.
“The problem has been there since we’ve had telephones—probably since the time of a telegraph,” Grenny says. Texting is just the latest way to do that. Though they may not always be so good at deep conversations themselves, Grenny suggests that parents model the behavior for their children and put down their own cell phones. He says that they also should set limits, as Anna’s mom did when she made the “no texting to people in the same house” rule.
1.According to Paragraph 1, Joanna .
A. was very strict with her daughter
B. did not know how to use a cell phone
C. was angry that her daughter got up late
D. did not have any breakfast that morning
2.The underlined word “competence” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ”.
A. chance B. ability C. courage D. patience
3.In Joseph Grenny’s opinion, .
A. cell phones make people lonelier
B. telephones help people communicate clearly
C. texting helps people have deeper conversations
D. talking should be encouraged instead of texting
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A. Why is communication important?
B. How does texting affect kids at school?
C. Is texting ruining the art of conversation?
D. How can we avoid one-sided conversations?
Many little girls like flowers, watching butterflies and riding small horses. A lot of them also like cars, robots and spaceships. But most girls’ clothing only has pictures of flowers, butterflies or horses.
Two mothers decided to make clothes that include all the things that little girls do and love.
Six-year-old Bella loves to play with cars. So her dress has pictures of cars on it.
“We haven’t found this type of dress in the store,” Cathy, Bella’s mother, says.
The car dress is from a new girl’s clothing line called Princess Awesome. Rebecca Melsky set up the business. She says its products for girls have some designs normally found on boys’ clothes.
It all started two years ago when Rebecca was hoping to buy clothing for her two-year-old, who liked robots, trucks and spaceships.
“One day when I walked through a girls’ store, I thought to myself I wish they’d make one of those beautiful dresses that also have a robot on it because she will love that. And I thought someone should do that. Maybe I should do that,” Rebecca, said.
Her friend Eva St. Clair believed she should, and their business was born. The women sold the first 70 dresses they made at a market. So they decided to expand their business online. Their products sold very well there, too.
“They sold out so fast that I could not make them fast enough. We decided it was time to think about a factory,” Rebecca said.
So they started to raise money from people over the Internet. The women raised more than ＄215,000 within days, far more than the ＄35,000 they expected.
“Our biggest challenge is going to be how we expand as rapidly as people seem to want us to,” Rebecca said.
The women hope Princess Awesome will expand into products for girls of all ages and all interests.
1.Princess Awesome was started .
A. by Cathy and Rebecca
B. because of six-year-old Bella
C. with the help of a girls’ store
D. to make unusual clothing for girls
2.The dresses made by Rebecca and her friend .
A. sold better online than at the market
B. helped them get a job in a factory
C. were popular among girls
D. were sold expensively
3.What is the most difficult thing Rebecca and her friend will face?
A. Meeting the needs of all girls.
B. How to make interesting products.
C. Raising enough money for their business.
D. How to expand their business as people expected.
书面表达
阅读下面的短文，然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。
China began relaxing the one-child policy in January 2014, allowing couples to have a second baby if the mother or father was an only child.
The state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday that a move that would thoroughly relax the country's one-child policy that had been eased in recent years would come out sooner or later.
China, now a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, practiced a policy of one child per couple to control population growth in the 1970s. The move was viewed as a major liberalization of the three-decades-old restriction. Nationwide, nearly 1 million couples eligible(合格的）under the new rules had applied to have a second child, state media reported at the time. Health officials had said that the policy would lead to as many as 2 million new births when the policy change was first announced.
【写作内容】
1.用约30个单词概述上述图文信息的主要内容；
2.用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
（1）陈述你对文章提及政策的立场；
（2）用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的立场
【写作要求】
1. 发表观点时必须提供理由或论据；
2. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
3. 作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。
单词拼写
1.My calculations were based on the a__________ that house prices would remain steady.
2.Teachers have to constantly update their knowledge in order to maintain their professional c__________.
3.O__________, we can’t find ample evidence that there is life in space.
4.I am extremely s__________ about what I read in the newspaper.
5.He r___________ to as many as two or three different newspapers since he knew the importance of information.
6.Our government tried hard to improve our living conditions by __________ (加快)the rate of economic growth.
7.__________ (入迷)herself to love stories, the girl almost forgot everything，which made her parents very disappointed.
8.Does the name on the envelope __________ (相一致) with the name on the letter inside?
9.Under no __________ (状况) will our country give in to any country that wants to occupy Diaoyu Island.
10.The old man who was in __________ (拥有) of little money owned good health and a happy life.
